Demanufacture by Fear Factory

Demanufacture

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Demanufacture

Features

Audio CD (June 7, 2005)

Label: Roadrunner Records

Reader Reviews
With all the Roadrunner Record's 25th Anniversary Re-issues coming out right now, my head is almost spinning trying to pick them all up. To no surprise though, Fear Factory's 1995 masterpiece "Demanufacture" is one of those influential re-releases along with Killswitch Engage's "Alive Or Just Breathing", Sepultura's "Roots", and many others. "Demanufacture" is no question Fear Factory's finest hour. The epic structure of the songs, the brutal sound of the music, Burton's trademark cut throat vocals, they all come into perfection with this release. When this album debuted almost 10 years ago, it changed the face of modern metal. That influence still continues to live on today, and can easily be seen in the new wave of american heavy metal, which has taken a lot of Fear Factory-esque elements and put them to use. The 2cd re-issue is definitely a must for fans, even if you own the original digipak. You won't even believe how relevant this record still remains today. "Demanufacture" is one of the best pieces of metal music to come out of the 1990's. Period. Upon its release nearly ten years ago, it was landmark, and coming out in the midst of the grunge heavy airwaves, it really showed that heavy music was still alive and intact. A huge step up from the band's debut "Soul Of A New Machine" (which was an overwhelmingly death metal heavy album), "Demanufacture" brought a lot of new things to the table to add to FF's sound, which they had picked up from their "Fear Is The Mind Killer EP", particularly the spacy keyboards, and the haunting samples. This added to the already amazingly brutal sound that Fear Factory had established does wonders. Opening up with the timeless classic title track "Demanufacture", the album will drop your jaw, and leave it there for the rest of the album. Immediately you'll notice Dino's powerful, crunching riffs which can batter you during the verse, only slip into a calming rhythm during the chorus. The keyboards and spacy atmosphere really help to elevate Dino's guitar playing. Raymond's drumming is exactly what Fear Factory was going for on this release; have a drum sound that sounds like it is being played by a drum machine, but have it actually be a drummer. And that's exactly what this is. His powerful driving rhythms and plentiful use of the double bass petal elevate the new dynamic sound of the band to further heights. Add in Christian's flawless, but heavy bass playing, and you can see why tracks like "Zero Signal" and "New Breed" are such classics. Along with the magnificent playing of the band, vocalist Burton C. Bell really comes into his own on this release, showing that he can scream his lungs out with one of the most brutal growls around, only to slip into a melodic croon that is reminiscent of today's metal scene. Check tracks like "Replica" and "Flashpoint" to see how well his vocal capabilities have grown since their debut album. The lyrics are especially fitting for the album. While "Soul Of A New Machine" was death heavy (then again is was most definitely a death metal album), and the following album "Obsolete" would be a sci-fi epic, "Demanfacture" contains passages about exactly what the band was going through at the time. The opening track "Demanufacture" illustrates this perfectly when Burton screams "I've got no more G*ddamn regrets, I've got no more G*ddamn respect". Tracks like "Self Bias Resistor" and "New Breed" look at the state of society, while "Replica" and "A Therapy For Pain" show Burton dealing with personal struggles. The band does manage to sneek in a sci-fi tuned theme for the record, with their marvellous "H-K (Hunter Killer)" which shows the direction they would explore on their next record. In the end "Demanfacture" was a classic back in 1995, and it can still match up with any top metal album today, making it carry that much more weight. Not many albums have been influential in shaping the sound of their respected genre, but Fear Factory achieved all that and more with this release. The remastering has done wonders for the sound of the record, so even if you own the original, you might want to pick this one up anyway just to see how amazing it still sounds with the new production elements. The re-issue is a 2cd collector's edition, so you know there's going to be some great extras coming with this one. The first disc is the epic "Demanufacture", the digipak bonus tracks, and a few remixed songs. The second disc is the entire "Remanufacture" remix album and 4 other other remixes that were found on the "Hateflies" release. I still consider "Remanufacture" to be an essential piece of the band's discography, and this is an easy way to get ahold of it, if you never owned it to begin with. You really haven't heard the total beauty of Fear Factory's sound until you've heard it remixed. The re-issue is an obvious attempt to bring back fans who may have drifted away from the band in its later years, or who somehow have never heard this beautiful masterpiece. There is not one thing about this cd set which I can honestly complain about (except as with all the other re-issues, Roadrunner has decided that glueing the cd book down inside the set is a good idea). "Demanufacture" is a timeless album, and this release 10 years after the original shows how much power this album can still pack. Fans of Fear Factory need not be without this album, even if you own the originals. The crisp remastering, and the bonuses are more than enough to warrant this a necessary purchase. If you like modern metal or any form of heavy music, and you've somehow never come across Fear Factory's masterpiece "Demanufacture", then do yourself a giant favor, and pick this cd immediately. It will probably be some of the best money you've ever spent on music. To say the least, this is a classic piece of metal music, and to say the most, this an absolute masterpiece that no fan of heavy music should not own. Get this as soon as possible.

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