Fear Factory: Archetype

Fear Factory’s “Archetype” was released today. As an avid Fear Factory fan, I bought it today… after work. It’s definitely something to crank in the car. It’s definitely in-car-mosh worthy. It’s not a bad album, but “Archetype” is merely more of the same.

If you are a blind hardcore, “Fear Factory can do no wrong” sycophant in the world of hard metal, then you’ll undoubtedly love this CD. If you are a fan of Fear Factory music, without the effectual chest-pounding, then you’ll be disappointed.

There are a couple of good tunes, but not enough to warrant recommendation.

Track-by-track analysis follows. It was all written as I listened to the CD for the fourth time, so there’s some stream-of-consciousness action going on.

Slave Labor: sounds like it comes straight off the end of Digimortal. That’s not a bad thing, but nothing new.

Cyber Waste: double kickdrum action galore. Not much by way of music, more of an onslaught-driven shouting match. It’s more like older “Soul of the Machine” type FF.

Act of God: more very hard drum-driven metal. Everything seems to follow the drums, the guitar and bass are in lock-step following the drums.

Drones: takes a little long to get into the groove, which isn’t much different than the intro… seems disjointed, the Bell Sings breaks are randomly placed, no cohesion. No new rhythms, singing the same notes, in the same order as before. Unoriginal. The biggidda-biggidda-biggidda-biggidda double-bass break is completely unnecessary, except as a technical lesson to aspiring metal drummers.

Archetype: the best song on the album… what you would expect from “new” FF. An actual melody of sorts (or call it a hook or seemingly-original progression if you wish). The guitar, bass, drums all play against and with each other. The Bell Sings parts fit as they’re meant to. “The Soul of this Machine has Improved”? Not much, guys. That awesome “quiet hush hush… SLAM” FF action, if only for a bit. The SLAM could have been harder (leave that cymbal roll and vocal ramp-up out of it).

Corporate Cloning: starts off “Soul”, covered territory. More drum-driven staccato, maybe-kind-of-new electronica sounds. Bell Sings break seems to be included only b/c it’s a staple, or to placate assholes like me who like to hear him sing. The “sometimes I wish I was deaf and blind” break could have gone somewhere, but it seems to be an afterthought in this song. If FF had centered this song around that part… it would have been awesome.

Bite the Hand that Bleeds: All the slow guitar and whispery talking makes you think it’s going to SLAM soon… but it doesn’t. It’s a sludgy walk through some dark place where, apparently, FF mourns the loss of original songwriting (or musicwriting, whatever his contribution) brought by Dino Cazares.

Undercurrent: By now, FF is reminding more and more of Type O Negative with all their dramatic, unnecessary orchestral bullshit. FF has used it before, where it contributed. Now, it’s just for effect. Bell Sings, but there’s nothing behind it to make it mean anything. It’s old formula… mindless bugga-bugga, Bell Sings break, mindless bugga-bugga

Default Judgement: Advancing FF music how? Again formulaic. Kinda’ gets better toward the end before falling back to mundane by FF standards.

Bonescraper: Whatever. The breaks are better than the song.

Human Shield: Slow, but promising. Drums take a much-needed breather from the spotlight. There’s actually some music involved here. You can actually hear the bass guitar at times, and it actually feels like a story… beginning, middle, climax, end. Good work.

Ascension: The only reason it’s not complete bullshit is because the prior song doesn’t suck, and kind of follows up for this denouement… or so they’d have you believe. Really, it’s just seven minutes of elevator-worthy soft-rock crap leading up to…

School: Fucking awesome Nirvana cover. The guitar takes us, the drums break us, the bass makes us… want more. Too bad we won’t find it on this album. It’s a cover, after all, and fuck Gary Neuman.