How does one improve on greatness?<\/p>\n
One would normally (and rightfully) say that you shouldn’t
\ntinker with something that works… and normally, I’d agree with
\nyou. But in the case of Fear Factory, adding songs onto a strong
\nalbum only makes it that much better… and the end result is the
\nrecently upgraded
\nObsolete<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The band – vocalist Burton C. Bell, guitarist Dino Cazares,
\nbassist Christian Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera – has been
\nrecently touted by other media outlets as being one of the best
\nhard rock acts out there these days, and
\nObsolete<\/i> in its original 10-song form was being called one
\nof the best of the year. After listening to just the first 10
\nsongs, this is something I wouldn’t dispute.<\/p>\n
Fear Factory are unique in that they know how to pulverize your
\nspine with crunching chords, but they’re also just as interested in
\ncreating a melody to their songs. That’s a concept that not many
\nhard rock\/heavy metal\/industrial bands dare to examine, but it
\nworks well with Fear Factory. Bell gets a chance on many occasions
\nto show he can do more with his pipes than try to blow them out on
\neach verse – and he does sing remarkably well. Cazares, on his
\nsoul-shaking seven-string guitar, is a master of the riff, and
\nutilizes his guitar skills well throughout the album.<\/p>\n
From the opening chords of “Shock”,
\nObsolete<\/i> sets itself out as an album you’re going to
\nremember for some time to come. Tracks like “Edgecrusher,”
\n“Descent,” “Freedom Or Fire” and “Smasher\/Devourer” all display a
\nlevel of musicianship and intensity that burn themselves into your
\nbrain. Even the use of strings on the “closing” songs,
\n“Resurrection” and “Timelessness,” seems right for Fear Factory,
\nand were the perfect way to wrap up the original album.<\/p>\n
One note:
\nObsolete<\/i> is a concept album (which you can follow in the CD
\nbooklet), but I found it hard to follow the storyline without
\nhaving it in front of me. In a sense, that’s not necessarily bad; I
\nwas able to develop an appreciation for the songs themselves
\nwithout wondering how they fit into some plot. Of course, Bell and
\ncrew might think I missed the point by not tackling the album as a
\nstory in progress. To each their own, I guess.<\/p>\n
\nObsolete<\/i> has recently been enhanced with five additional
\nsongs, including a surprisingly excellent cover of Gary Numan’s
\n’80s hit “Cars”. Numan himself joins with Bell on the lead vocals,
\nand both are able to turn a song I absolutely hated in the ’80s
\ninto something I enjoy listening to. The other tracks, including
\n“Soulwound,” “Messiah” and “0-0 (Where Evil Dwells)” are just as
\nenjoyable… but don’t try to work them into the concepts of
\nObsolete<\/i>.<\/p>\n
It takes guts to pick up an album that is excellent on its own
\nand try to make it better. Fortunately for Fear Factory, they
\nsucceeded with
\nObsolete<\/i>… in both its versions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7083],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39021","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fear-factory","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39021"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}