Fear Factory – Mechanize (2010)

The all mighty Fear Factory as back with Dino Cazares on guitars and replacing longtime founding member Raymond Herrera we have none other than Gene Hoglan. “Mechanize” is the bands first full-length album in 5 years and while not one of their best, is a complete improvement over the lackluster “Transgression”.

For a band that has been so long in the scene, you can always rely on Fear Factory to release a straight forward in-your-face type of release. “Mechanize” is not an exception to this rule, but however like the band’s sound is pretty formulaic by now and it’s just another release with not much inspiration.

While the release is miles away from being as good as “Obsolete” or “Demanufacture” it’s still good enough to stand out from the piles of crappy releases of these days. Burton’s style of vocals, his signature combination of screams/shouts and clean vocals, are as good as always. This particular style has been ripped off by plenty of bands these days, but I still agree that only he can pull them off without breaking a sweat.

The drumming is bestial courtesy of Gene Hogland and it sounds very good with the riffing of Dino Cazares, however some of the songs sound very familiar to Divine Heresy’s music. While the return of Dino to the band gives Fear Factory a little of their older sound back, is still not enough to create another great release.

All songs in the album are very one dimensional and the keyboard/synth arrangements here and there allow you to differentiate between them, because otherwise you would think you are listening to one whole song for 45 minutes.

The band is far away from its best days, but they still manage to put together a decent release that fans of the band would prefer over their last two albums. Let’s just hope that FF goes back to the basics and come back next time with a better release.

Release: February 9th, 2010

Country: USA