Fear Factory

Obsolete

Quality album..

Review Score:

(8/10)
Firstly i can't believe the harsh criticism evident on many reviews on this album. Firstly Obsolete is a far superior album to Soul of a new machine. While soul of a new.. was a polished death metal release that helped Fear Factory into the spotlight it was Demanufacture, arguably one of the greatest metal releases of all time, which moulded Fear Factory into the brilliant and unique metal/industrial force that they are today. While Obsolete is not as consistently brilliant as demanufacture it is still a great metal/concept album which is still far heavier, complex and superior to the majority of metal garbage being released of late. Burton C Bell has improved his singing a great deal from the boring death metal growls from the debut and while some fans obviously do not like his melodic singing it is one of the elements in FF's music which seperates them from all the other bulls**t death metal bands. Individually each Fear Factory member has mastered their instrument, from Raymond's incredibly quick drumming, to Christian's rock solid bass, and Dino's quick and crunchy speed riffs, all rounded off by some excellent state of the art production.

The album's opening two tracks "Shock" and "Edgecrusher" (which also includes some great samples and scratches to compliment Fear Factory's watertight and incredibly heavy sound) set the pace for the rest of the album with further standout tracks like "Hi-tech hate", "Smasher/Devourer", "Securitron" and the melodic single "Resurrection" (further showcasing FF's continuing diversity). After the official completion of the album we are treated to the digi pack extras. "Concreto", "0-0 where evil dwells", and the surprising cover of 70's song "Cars" which despite the critics view is a rare and pleasant change to Fear Factory's normal sound and though it is almsot identical to the original it is still a competent and quite enjoyable cover."Soulwound" and "Messiah" are also pretty good songs. Overall a solid release well worth your money.

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