Industrial metal pioneers Fear Factory have unleashed their ninth studio album ‘Genexus’ through Nuclear Blast Records. This is the band’s strongest release since 1998’s ‘Obsolete’ and one of the year’s most impressive heavy metal albums so far. Welcome back you crazy metal cyborgs.
Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares (the core of Fear Factory) have really found their groove with ‘Genexus’ by striking the perfect blend between the electric and the heavy. When they stray too far into the straight up metal elements of their music, Fear Factory wind up losing what makes them stand apart from the rest of the herd. ‘Genexus’ sounds like the Terminator sequel we’ve always wanted but never received since Judgement Day. ‘Soul Hacker’, ‘Dielectric’ and ‘Regenerate’ are equally brutal and beautiful — my favourite of the bunch so far. Bell’s vocals are strong as ever and Cazares’ guitar sounds like the machine gun from the movie Aliens. Aka – fucking awesome.
You can headbang to ‘Genexus’ or you can ponder life in a technologically advanced society where humanity has lost it’s final grips to their cybernetic overlords. Fear Factory are the science fiction forefathers of metal – an industrial powerhouse that have ceased to die no matter which current trend is impacting the landscape. They’ve survived nu-metal and they’ve powered through the death of CD’s and age of singles in order to come out alive and well on the other side.
Props to drummer Mike Heller for being able to produce some live sounds on ‘Genexus’. Fear Factory are known for utilizing a drum machine in the studio but felt they needed to inject some life into the effort. Heller’s contributions are fantastic. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Fear Factory’s latest – it’s likely because I underestimated them. I won’t be making that mistake again.
Rating [star rating=”4″]