A Short Review Of The Fear Factory Discography

1992 Soul Of A New Machine: Industrial tinged death metal. I would go as far as to say that Soul Of A New Machine is a groundbreaking metal effort. Much heavier in the traditional sense than their future releases and does not contain a lot of the bands soon to be signature sound and electronics. 7/10

1993 Fear Is The Mindkiller: Remixes of some tracks from Soul Of A New Machine...I'll pass... 4/10

1995 Demanufacture: Easily their most popular and well known album. Demanufacture brought the Fear Factory sound full circle and brought in a whole new fan base. Everything Fear Factory did from here on out would be directly influenced by Demanufacture. Heavy, progressive, well produced and catchy, Demanufacture remains in a tie for my favorite Fear Factory album. 8.5/10

1997 Remanufacture: Remixes of tracks off the Demanufacture album. Again, I'll pass...4/10

1998 Obsolete: Take the basic sound from Demanufacture, fatten up the mix, add more electronics, a bit more melody and a concept story and viola!, Obsolete is born! I can't decide whether I like this or Demanufacture better because they both kick your ass so hard. I would say that Obsolete is the bands all around most balanced release if not their best. 8.5/10

2001 Digimortal: Definite Nu Metal influence on this album divided a lot of fans. The album is instantly recognizable as Fear Factory but it seems that the band traded some brutality and technicality for a more simple and radio friendly approach. There are some scorchers on here such as Acres Of Skin but, tracks like Back The Fuck Up and Invisible Wounds are a definite stray from the sound. I applaud any band for breaking the norm and pushing musical boundaries but it just doesn't work here. Despite all the negatives, Digimortal is an album that I will stand behind and I consider it a merit to the bands career. 6.5/10

2002 Concrete: Recorded back in 1990 but ultimately shelved and then released by roadrunner in 2002. From what I understand, Fear Factory did not want this album released but the record company did it anyway and why not, it sold 34,000 copies! N/A

2003 Hatefiles: Same scenario as above. Only for die hards or completists. N/A

2004 Archetype: All hail Fear Factory for they have returned! Archetype is easily their heaviest album since Demanufacture. Bassist Christian took over guitar duties and Byron from SYL stepped in for bass duties. What Archetype lacks in innovation it makes up for with downright bludgeoning power. I was literally cheering the first time I heard Archetype as it showed great things to come for the reborn Fear Factory.
Drummer Ray Herrera is a stand out on Archetype as he lays the backdrop for arguably the most ferocious Fear Factory album to date. 7/10

2005 Transgression: Hot on the heels of Archetype, Fear Factory release Transgression. In a nutshell, The first half of the album is pretty kick ass and the second not so much. The production lacks as compared to prior FF releases and it seems rushed (admittedly, by the band, it was rushed). All the ground the band may have won back with Archetype they seemed to have lost with Transgression. By no means a bad album, it was just a disappointment after releasing an album as heavy and listenable as Archetype. 6/10

The Good: Innovation, excellent production (FF sounds awesome on a high end stereo), experimentation, top notch musicians, signature sound.

The Bad: Filler tracks, too many remixes/cover songs, losing Dino. Christian is an absolutely respectable replacement for Dino but he just doesn't quite nail it in the same way.

Buy Fear Factory Releases:

Webmaster Recommendation: Demanufacture, Obsolete, Archetype