Metal On My Mind Monday

Yeah its a few days late...whatever. I haven't had any specific cravings for any particular band since Anthrax, but I've been listening to a band that's been a big favorite of mine for almost 10 years now. Today I get to talk about the one and only, Fear Factory.

Fear Factory is an industrial metal genre band. Their songs have a theme around machinery and they incorporate it into their lyrics and music. I'm still not sure what it is about this band that draws me to them so much. I know I really like the drumming at least. It seems to have such a crisp sound on every song. The first album I heard by them was Demanufacture, their second full release. I enjoyed quite a few songs on it--Demanufacture, Replica, New Breed, Dog Day Sunrise, Pisschrist....they all just had a sound to them that pumped me up.

I later expanded on the band's albums and discovered Obsolete. Once again I was totally absorbed into it. The first two songs had crazy energy. It was another solid album, but I wasn't done there.

Not long after, the band released Archetype in 2004. This was just after I first discovered the band and I knew I had to get this album as soon as possible. It was their most mainstream release to date, but that didn't stop it from being probably my favorite album at the time. It was also this time that I managed to see Fear Factory in concert along with Throwdown, Children of Bodom, and Lamb of God in Cleveland, Ohio. It was my first "true" metal concert and it was a blast. Unfortunately it was also the only time I've been able to see Fear Factory in concert, although I'm hoping to be able to see them in May when they tour for their new album.

Fear Factory has released two more full albums since then: Transgression and Mechanize. I don't mind Transgression but it never really excited me near as much as previous albums so it doesn't get much play time these days. Mechanize, however, appeared to have brought back the sound I love and the songs crush you with their intensity. I can only hope their next album (The Industrialist set for May!!!) continues on this trend and smashes me in the face.

Fear is the mind killer.

What I find somewhat humorous about my experience with Fear Factory is which album I would consider my favorite. I never really listened to their Digimortal album for awhile because reviews I read and people I spoke to always slammed on it saying it was by far their worst album. Maybe my taste in music just sucks, but I absolutely LOVE Digimortal. Sure, the songs don't really break any new ground from before, but they are all catchy as hell. It also has another crossover between rap and metal in a song titled "Back the Fuck Up" and I love it. It's hard to pick a favorite song from it since its a solid listen from beginning to end, but it would probably be "Hurt Conveyor" by just a bit. I almost always listen to the the entire album though, it's that good.

So if metal about actual metal and machines that has some groovy beats is your cup of tea I highly recommend you pop one of Fear Factory's albums in your CD/MP3 player and give it a whirl.