540,000 degrees Fahrenheit
Transgression
Spinal Compression
Contagion
Empty Vision
Echo Of My Scream
Supernova
New Promise
I Will Follow (U2 Cover)
Millennium (Killing Joke Cover)
Moment Of Impact

review by Matthew "Newbreed99" Haumschild___

I knew I smelled trouble the moment I saw that the CD was produced by Toby Wright. Anyone who knows anything about the music business knows who he is. The problem is, he is highly regarded in the music industry around Los Angeles. He's worked with just tons of bands from Korn to even a small credit on a Led Zeppelin album. He's also worked with Alice in Chains, Mudvayne, and unfortunately Soulfly. Now, I have listened to most of the CD's he's been on and quite frankly I would say he's no good. Especially on Soulfly's "Primitive" album, to me and to most other people widely consider that album Soulfly's worst CD for production and sound quality. So When I saw that Wright was working with Fear Factory my immediate thought was…"Oh no!" And I was right to do so. Normally I put this in at the last part of my review, but this weighs so heavily on what I think of the album that I have to mention it. This album does not sound like a Fear Factory CD. Fear Factory and other bands, traditionally have their own sound to them that is noticeable on every CD they put out. And whenever a band strays from this "Sound" that means something is terribly wrong. 

The first thing I noticed was the mix. Fear Factory's typical mix consists of heavy guitar and a certain kick drum sound that incorporates a trigger and a mic and the snare has something called a "Gate" on it. A "Gate" is an effect that cuts off the sound at a certain point which prevents ringing on the snare itself. Most people don't even know it exists until something bad happens. On This CD, the kick drum in the mix was turned down and it sounds more natural, the guitar is heavy but it lacks low end bass. You can hear it, but not feel it. And the snare…did we learn anything from "St. Anger"? It's not gated and it rings loudly and it just sounds horrible! And the hi-hats on this CD are turned up way too brightly and overcompass the entire mix! Definately not a typical Fear Factory mix otherwise the album would be halfway tolerable.

 This album also has another bad part, the songs. 540,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Transgression, and Millennium are the only decent songs on the album! The lyrics on all the songs are very unimaginative which is unusual for Fear Factory. 

540,000 and Transgression are both hard as hell and Burton screams out of pure anger which is great, but what's he singing about again? Transgression (the song) is based on religion and the words he's singing are fine but they don't go anywhere and unfortunately doesn't do it for me. Now, Millennium, I've been listening to Killing Joke just a little bit longer than I have been listening to Fear Factory but not by much. So when I heard that one of my heroes was covering a song I grew up listening to in my early teens that I knew of I was very excited to hear it! I figured, with as much electronics that was in the original song, Fear Factory would be able to cover this song no problem right? Ah ha! NO! Surprised? Not really, considering who the producer was. Fear Factory's version was lower in tone which was kinda cool but all the keyboards and back tracks were left out of Fear Factory's version and the drumming was slightly different yet slightly better. And Burton's singing of the song was clearer and more superior to Coleman's (Killing Joke) but the guitar didn't quite sound right and neither did the bass. I was very disappointed. This was a song I knew how to play on bass back when I was playing in bands and to hear Fear Factory cover this track and to perform it under par is very disappointing. The bad part is, it's tolerable compared to the rest of the CD. 

My suggestion is to just wait until Fear Factory comes out with another CD or to see them live. Archetype was much better than this CD and I know what Fear Factory is capable of and it's not this. For Fear Factory, I'd have to say this is their worst CD. With a horrible mix and lyrics that never really said anything.

rating: 5/10 

Matthew Haumschild

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