FEAR FACTORY — Genexus (review)

FEAR FACTORY — Genexus album cover Album · 2015 · Industrial Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Genexus" is the 9th full-length studio album by US metal act Fear Factory. The album was released through Nuclear Blast America in August 2015. It´s the successor to "The Industrialist" from 2012, which was an album that received a lot of flak because of the use of drum programming istead of a human drummer. On "Genexus" the two main men behind the band Burton C. Bell (vocals) and Dino Cazares (guitar, bass) have brought in Mike Heller (Malignancy, System Divide, Azure Emote) to play the drums. Except on "Soul Hacker", which features Deen Castronovo (Journey) on drums.

Stylistically the music on the album is a combination of elements from a select cast of their previous releases. At various points during the playing time of the 10 track, 47:54 minutes long album (the digipack features 2 bonus tracks) I hear elements or parts that remind me of "Demanufacture (1995)", "Obsolete (1998)", or "Digimortal (2001)". It´s always hard to describe and define Fear Factory´s sound, but I´d call it a combination of death, thrash, groove, and industrial metal with a cold futuristic sci-fi atmosphere (also evident from the cover artwork and the lyrics). The vocals by Burton C. Bell are both aggressive semi-growling and clean. His cleans aren´t really that skillfully delivered (his range is very limited, and his melodies are therefore often similiar sounding and a bit monotone), but what he lacks in skills, he compensates for by having a unique singing style. You decide if that´s a positive or a negative. The riffs and rhythms are razor sharp and delivered with militant precision, while atmosphere is often provided by keyboards/samples placed in the back of the soundscape.

The material is well written, and quite catchy. "Soul Hacker" is probably the track which stands out the most (along with the closing atmospheric "Expiration Date"), because it relies more on heavy groove laden riffs and rhythms rather than on faster start/stop precision ditto.

"Genexus" is a self-produced effort, and Bell and Cazares have along with co-producer Rhys Fulber created the right cold, sharp, and futuristic sound for the music. So "Genexus" is yet another quality release by Fear Factory, but that´s really no surprise given the release history of the band. It may have been a bit up and down over the years, but their releases have always featured a basic high quality level and a distinct sound, which have carried them through, even when they weren´t at their most inspired. I´d place "Genexus" among their better releases, but not among their best. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Personally I´m really not that fond of it, but objectively it´s a quality release, which is what I´m trying to convey with the review.
voila_la_scorie wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I used to have Demanufacture but only liked two tracks. Perhaps I should give this one a listen. Your review makes it sound good.

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