29/8/05

FEAR FACTORY / TRANSGRESSION

This album comes hot on the heals of last year’s "Archetype" and like that album "Transgression" is a simpler, more open sounding one than when Dino was in the band. Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards and less is more and for Fear Factory this has proved to be true.

The track "540.000 Fahrenheit" kicks the CD off to a thundering start with its Staccato, machine gun rhythm that give way to Burton’s simplistic, and haunting but melodic vocals on the chorus. "Spinal Compression" continues with the stop start feel and is just as compelling, "Contagion" sees Burton trying some new / old gruff vocals that he hasn’t used since the first 2 albums and starts with a riff that could have bee borrowed from a Sepultura track and you can feel the despair and frustration in his voice and when the beautiful orchestral bit kicks in it sends shivers down your spine. The slow lumbering giant that is "Echo Of My Scream" has a similar but haunting quality and even boasts acoustic guitar on it. The straight forward but potentially massive "Supernova" has hit written all through it and the two cover versions of U2, "I Will Follow" and Killing Joke’s, "Millennium" work really well and they finish off with an absolute strummer of a track called "Moment Of Impact" that gallops along like a thunderous mechanical beast.

As you can tell from the above I am well impressed with this CD, it has a raw, almost under produced sound to it that gives it a refreshing honest feel to it. Initial copies come with (you guessed it) a free DVD, which isn’t half bad with videos, making of and more.

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 53 mins + 11