FEAR FACTORY — Demanufacture (review)

FEAR FACTORY — Demanufacture album cover

Album · 1995 · Industrial Metal

4/5 · 2022-10-08
UMUR

"Demanufacture" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US death/groove/industrial metal act Fear Factory. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in June 1995. It´s the successor to "Soul of a New Machine" from 1992, although the "Fear is the Mindkiller" EP from 1993 bridges the gap between the two full-length releases. There has been one lineup change since the predecessor as bassist Christian Olde Wolbers has enlisted, making Fear Factory a four-piece on "Demanufacture".

When "Soul of a New Machine" was released in 1992, it was a very different and fresh sounding release. At it´s core it is an industrial tinged deathgrind album, but Burton C. Bell´s use of both clean vocals and growls was one of the first examples of that vocal approach and a bit of a revolution at the time. It´s of course been copied and used by many artists since then, but it can never be underestimated how much "Soul of a New Machine (1992)" meant for the use of clean vocals in extreme metal. The fact that Bell´s voice isn´t particularly strong and his ability to hit clean notes is a bit shaky, are only minor issues, because he understands how to work with what he has got, and seldom takes his mouth too full in terms of leaving his limited range.

On "Demanufacture", Fear Factory have opted to use clean vocals even more than they did on the debut album, and the growling vocals from the debut have also been replaced by a more raw yet still brutal shouting singing style. So this is not really death metal nor grindcore oriented music anymore, but instead the industrial and groove metal influences are in focus, as well as an almost mechanical rhythmic assualt. Razor sharp guitar riffs, inhumanly fast machine like drumming (recorded using click-track and triggers on the drums), and loads of atmosphere enhancing synths and electronics. "Demanufacture" is a sci-fi concept release telling the story of the life and suffering of a protagonist man in a future AI controlled society. A concept story strongly influenced by "The Terminator" movie universe (some tracks feature samples from the movies).

"Demanufacture" features 10 originals and a cover of "Dog Day Sunrise" by UK industrial rock band Head of David. The latter is placed at the center of the album, and with its atmospheric industrial rock sound is a melodic breather oasis in the midst of hard edged riffs, powerful precision drumming, a wall of futuristic synths/electronics and aggressive shouting vocals. The 9:43 minutes long closing track "A Therapy for Pain" is also slower and more atmospheric in nature, but the remaining tracks on the album are heavy, hard edged, and energetic industrial/groove metal tracks. It´s hard not to mention "Replica" as a standout track on the album, as it´s one of the most catchy tracks in the band´s discography, and the video for that track helped spread the band´s music to a wider audience. While it´s certainly a highlight of the album, it´s not necessarily the most interesting track on this release and I´d mention tracks like the opening trio of the title track, "Zero Zignal" and "Self Bias Resistor" before mentioning "Replica".

To my ears "Demanufacture" is frontloaded with the most standout tracks and tracks like "Flashpoint", "H-K (Hunter-Killer)", and "Pisschrist", do not quite reach the brilliance of the tracks featured on the first part of the album. "New Breed" can be added to that catagory of tracks too, but when that is said the quality is still high on those tracks...just not as high as on the best material on the album. The album features a clear, detailed, and powerful sound production, which perfectly suits the futuristic sci-fi theme of the music and upon conclusion "Demanufacture" is a high quality release and arguably a groundbreaking one too. A 4 - 4.5 (85%) star rating is deserved.