Get rid of the drum program!

I’ve been a Fear Factory fan since Demanufacture came out in 1995 and I distinctly remember not liking them because the music didn’t contain guitar solos. What did I know, I was 14!? But I stuck with them. The one thing that stuck out for me on that album, was the drumming. This was the first time I had heard that kick drum sound, coupled with that brutally-iconic-guitar sound that defined Fear Factory as a giant in the world of metal. The syncopation of that record and other subsequent records became the “Fear Factory sound,” that so many other bands went on to copy for the last 17 years. Demanufacture wasn’t just known for the unique syncopated guitar and kick drums but it was also known for Burton C Bell’s singing, it was also the first of its kind to go from a death-metal growl to hyper-melodic within a seconds notice (true, he did do that in, “Soul of a New Machine,” but that album wasn’t nearly as popular or ground breaking) and also became copied by hundreds of wannabe metal bands hoping to cash in on Fear Factory’s sound. Fear Factory is also known to have made records revolving around the same theme of man vs. machine. Although, Archetype and Transgression were not of this theme, it also didn’t have Dino playing guitar. When Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares reunited, they went back to their original formula.

"Drum software and drum programming has moved so far, beyond just a simple drum machine. It really made the process of writing easier, a lot more efficient, expedited the writing process so quickly. We were able to write with a drum program and not have to kill our drummer. And once it was done, we were like, 'Oh, man! We should have done this a long time ago!'

"On the past records, we've always had a drummer to record, but when does a drummer stop being a drummer? Because everything that person records goes into Pro Tools and it's fixed perfectly and the sound that was recorded isn't even used. All the sound is sampled. It basically becomes the program. So we basically eliminated the drummer. And we thought, if we're gonna do that anyway, let's just use a drum program. So we did it."

Fear Factory, for the longest time, had been a four-piece. I will not go into the history of the band, but up until this record, in all of Fear Factory’s incarnations, Fear Factory was a four-piece band with a separate drummer and bass player (okay, if we’re going to be nit-picky, Dino did play bass on Demanufacture despite the linear notes.) but on the Industrialist, it’s just Dino and Burton. This didn’t sit well with me, I can understand the bass player part, but the drummer? It really rubs me the wrong way, Burton C. Bell is quoted in Australia’s “Loudmag” website, (http://www.loudmag.com.au/content/fear-factory-fully-mechanised )

After reading this, I thought, “Man is obsolete, erased, extinct! Man is obsolete!” (Taken from the Fear Factory song and album, “Obsolete”) Irony anyone? I realize The Industrialist is another concept album, but from the point of view of the machines, saying that man is flawed amongst other things, but I just can’t help but to wonder why. In this writer’s opinion, it boiled down to money. Why pay a drummer to record a record then pay him/her the possible royalties when we can have a program that can simulate a drummer? That way, they just pay for a touring drummer proceeds from each show. “We were able to write with a drum program and not have to kill our drummer.” Really? Kill our drummer? If I were a drummer, I would be offended by that. I just think this whole thing is hypocritical to what they sing about. Granted, it’s all fiction, but the concepts of workers being threatened by automation has been going on for over a hundred years.

Yes, this is an album review, so here it is. The Industrialist is better than Mechanize. It’s not nearly as abrasive as that record and does have better sounding tracks that could be comparable to a lot of Fear Factory’s earlier work. Will it bring them new fans? I doubt it. I would like to know what the average age of Fear Factory fans are though, to see how Fear Factory could be marketed. “New Messiah,” “God Eater,” and “Depraved Mind Murder” are darker songs that one could see on the Obsolete album, that’s how good they are. “Difference Engine” sounds like a darker version of “Flashpoint.” “Disassemble” paints a lot of colours within the song giving it a lot of depth. It’s dark, it’s heavy, and it contains the signature Fear Factory sound described above.

There you have it, I’m fucking torn. “The Industrialist” is a good album. About the only complaints I have are what I ranted about above. I will say that the concept of “man vs. machine” is getting old. Burton C Bell wrote more about religion than normal on this album. Listening to music that goes against religion is just like watching Mahmoud Ahmadinejad go on and on how Israel doesn’t have the right to exist and that America is Satan. It gets old. One of the song titles is, “Religion is Flawed Because Man is Flawed” I would love to write something about that, but this is an album review, not a debate paper!

Should you or should you not get this cd? If you do not mind listening to a slightly different version of Fear Factory’s normal concept album and also don’t care about listening to religious stuff, then yes, go buy it. It is better than “Mechanize” much better in fact. The songs sound great. If the band were to ask me for advice, I would say, cut out the religion, insert the real issues the world is facing right now, poverty, strife, corruption, war criminals, etc and for God sakes, two album covers with “black” does not work. One of the other reasons I would like to bring up as to why Demanufacture and Obsolete worked is that the colors displayed with the album I believe added to the overall imagery of the record. Having two albums now with a black background with the “double f” logo is boring and adds nothing. Technically, three albums counting Transgression and we all know what happened with that album. And, get rid of the drum program!

7/10
24.06.2012

written by  Matthew Haumschild    www.facebook.com/matthaumschild