Not too many folks really took note at the time, but
Fear Factory were really onto something with their 1992 debut album,
Soul of a New Machine. Though it wasn't a beginning-to-end classic, it was an exceptional album and arguably ushered in the
alternative metal era with its fusion of
metal styles. When
Fear Factory returned three years later with their follow-up,
Demanufacture, the band's groundbreaking style of
industrial- and
death-informed
metal came to fruition, and this time a great many folks did take note, resulting in one of the most successful
metal releases of the '90s, commercially as well as artistically. On the surface, it almost seems like
Demanufacture is a rewrite of
Soul of a New Machine. Following a couple extreme side projects (i.e.,
Nailbomb,
Brujeria),
Fear Factory again flew in
Earache Records production legend
Colin Richardson, and again they fused together a number of elements characteristic of various
metal subgenres. For instance, vocalist
Burton C. Bell unleashes a ferocious
death metal growl, yet he can also switch over to a
Rob Halford-like vocal style when he wants to grace a given song with soaring melodic vocals for contrast. Moreover, guitarist
Dino Cazares straddles the fence between
industrial and
death metal, as he plays machine-like riffs that chug away in lock step with likewise machine-like drummer
Raymond Herrera yet breaks away at any given moment and takes off in a frenzied, very human direction. This "man-machine" sound -- real people playing real instruments live, though in an
industrial, machine-like fashion -- is the essence of
Fear Factory, and while
Soul of a New Machine may have been the blueprint for this approach to
metal (one that would be duplicated by a generation of bands within a few years),
Demanufacture takes the approach a step further: same band, same idea, same production, same sound; better songs, better performances, better album, better reception. Perhaps the biggest improvement made here is the choice to write longer, more progressive songs (rather than the three- and four-minute song sketches of
Soul) and shorten the song list (11 tracks opposed to 17). This makes for a much more engrossing listen, and one that better resonates in the end.
Demanufacture may sound somewhat generic today in the wake of the myriad
alternative metal bands that took cues from it, but make no mistake: it was one of the most exciting
metal releases of its day and remains a landmark, even if
Fear Factory continued to release similarly exceptional albums in the years to come. ~ Jason Birchmeier
