As far as extreme/industrial metal goes, this album is classed as royalty in that genre. Their second album in, and it’s an absolute classic of the genre. It’s tough to follow that, and they have had a very turbulent time with line ups to emphasize that point. Fear Factory are all about the groove and riff, no guitar solos or any of that nonsense here. The recipe is machine gun double bass mixed with fat chugga riffs. At times brutal in its execution, but very effective, as the head most definitely wants to bang.
Self Bias Resistor is what this band are all about, supremely heavy and unrelenting, yet very groovy at the same time. This is a great reissue and sounds killer with the extra bonus disc live at Ozzfest in ’96. Side 2 of this set is my favourite side. The awesome chugga of Replica kicks things off with a rather melodic but heavy chord pattern, and Burton C Bell sings his best Tommy Victor impression. Quickly followed by the joint best track on the album with New Breed. This is just freaking awesome with the unreal pounding grooves and the most fattest and evil of guitar tones. Dog Day Sunrise on the other hand is the most melodic that this band gets, mixing indie tones with metal grooves and Burt singing clean vocals. Quite possibly the bands finest hour.
If you are into this genre then you should already own this beast, but if not, get on down to your local music emporium and acquire a copy.
10/10 from The Grooveman.
