Fear Factory-Genexus (2015)
Fear Factory-Genexus (2015)
“It is sometimes an
appropriate response to reality to go insane.”
Philip K. Dick
By: Ghost Writer
It’s a
strange but immediate feeling the one I get from listening to Fear Factory new
Genexus record, it is the feeling that FF is recycling some of their old songs,
riffs, bridges, choruses, all; Has this extreme metal machine finally ran out
of ideas? Could it be possible? For the first time after listening to
Autonomous Combat System I get the feeling that I have already listened to that
song on a previous FF record, I ended up worried about this once promising
band, the loss of Raymond Herrera has truly hurt the band, it took time for
them to get over it, it has make them more generic, less unique, although they
are still capable of creating great tunes, it’s a situation similar to Canadian
great metallers Voivod, something is missing on the equation, and I don't know
what? They still sound great, but not undisputed GREAT like in the past.
Things start getting better on Anodized, the next song, with Dino Cazares well known merciless attack on guitars, while Burton growl/ clear singing dynamic is put fully on display, Burton C. Bell was without a doubt great years ago, his style was something very different to other extreme metal singers, but it has somehow lost its charm, as the band sound as mechanic as ever with Bell humanity defeated completely by the machine, whereas before, the band sounded like a bloody battle between man and machine, Dielectric has an electrifying intro, and although is more of the same, the band shows more conviction here, Bell shows a more diverse handling of the vocals, and when he uses here his clean voice, he is really better than ever, with programmed keyboards getting more space than ever on a FF record, giving us a more extreme and intense balance between Cazares brutish riffs and Bell mimetic communication with keys going really crazy, but is on Soul Hacker where the band really goes for the throat, letting Bell take a major role between really fragmented beats and an all-powerful bass playing, handled by Cazares too.
In what seems like a very strange move, the band seems to agglutinate some of their best tunes here, right in the middle of the record, delivering a really strong Protomech right next to the equally intense title track, displaying the particular industrial edge of the band which is hidden a little during this recording, and although in the later part of the record, the band goes for a more experimental direction featuring weird guitar sounds and more prominent keyboard textures, as in Regenerate, and Battle for Utopia, which shows that the band is moving fast and headfirst towards the successful direction of its most well-known song, Gary Numan's Cars, and getting really accessible on the eerie Expiration Date.
Genexus is undoubtedly a great modern metal, it still has many key elements of the band past as an extreme metal band, the riffing, the industrial overtones, the hyper fast beats, but is also shows that the band is branching out, becoming something else and searching for new younger audiences, it is not sure yet if the band will achieve this, we can tell that bands from Celtic Frost to Slayer or from Sepultura to Carcass although successful, suffered a lot in these type of process, changing in the heavy metal world doesn't guarantee a long lasting ride, ask Iron Maiden, who keep a healthy musical static and whose records, although very similar one to another, have secure them a wide audience of followers.
Things start getting better on Anodized, the next song, with Dino Cazares well known merciless attack on guitars, while Burton growl/ clear singing dynamic is put fully on display, Burton C. Bell was without a doubt great years ago, his style was something very different to other extreme metal singers, but it has somehow lost its charm, as the band sound as mechanic as ever with Bell humanity defeated completely by the machine, whereas before, the band sounded like a bloody battle between man and machine, Dielectric has an electrifying intro, and although is more of the same, the band shows more conviction here, Bell shows a more diverse handling of the vocals, and when he uses here his clean voice, he is really better than ever, with programmed keyboards getting more space than ever on a FF record, giving us a more extreme and intense balance between Cazares brutish riffs and Bell mimetic communication with keys going really crazy, but is on Soul Hacker where the band really goes for the throat, letting Bell take a major role between really fragmented beats and an all-powerful bass playing, handled by Cazares too.
In what seems like a very strange move, the band seems to agglutinate some of their best tunes here, right in the middle of the record, delivering a really strong Protomech right next to the equally intense title track, displaying the particular industrial edge of the band which is hidden a little during this recording, and although in the later part of the record, the band goes for a more experimental direction featuring weird guitar sounds and more prominent keyboard textures, as in Regenerate, and Battle for Utopia, which shows that the band is moving fast and headfirst towards the successful direction of its most well-known song, Gary Numan's Cars, and getting really accessible on the eerie Expiration Date.
Genexus is undoubtedly a great modern metal, it still has many key elements of the band past as an extreme metal band, the riffing, the industrial overtones, the hyper fast beats, but is also shows that the band is branching out, becoming something else and searching for new younger audiences, it is not sure yet if the band will achieve this, we can tell that bands from Celtic Frost to Slayer or from Sepultura to Carcass although successful, suffered a lot in these type of process, changing in the heavy metal world doesn't guarantee a long lasting ride, ask Iron Maiden, who keep a healthy musical static and whose records, although very similar one to another, have secure them a wide audience of followers.
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