Search - Fear Factory :: Demanufacture 25th

"Describe A F*cking Masterpiece In 500 Words Or Less"

LeftManOut | TheCityThatNeverSleeps, FL | 12/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Oh Hell Yeah...

Andrew Estes | Maine | 08/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To commemorate their 25th Anniversary, Roadrunner Records will be re-issuing a series of landmark releases with plenty of extra and previously unheard material. To honor one of the most unique and ground-breaking metal albums of the 90's, Roadrunner pulled out all the stops and spared no expense. "Demanufacture," Fear Factory's epic masterpiece from 1995, as presented here, in a deluxe two disc set, with a grand total of 33 tracks, is everything and anything a hardcore Fear Factory fan could ever want.



Aside from the classic "Demanufacture" album being remasted with all it's b-sides and scattered remixes intact, within this package, you also get "Remanufacture," the previously released and appropriately titled remix album. So, if you're not up on your Fear Factory discography, this is a good way to kill two birds with one stone. If you already own the originals (and even the "Demanufacture" digipak), there are still a few treats to make this worth your purchase. And let's not forget how crisp the newly remastered "Demanufacture" sounds in 2005! The original had a rather crushing, spacious sound, but somehow they managed to take things up a notch with a few minor alterations.



As for the actual album itself, "Demanufacture" is arguably Fear Factory at their best. While fans tend to bump heads as to which album is their best, I don't think anyone can deny that this is the one album that perfectly captures ALL of Fear Factory's dynamics. The signature rhythm section of Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde Wolbers, the buzz-saw riffs of Dino Cazares and the brutal growl and beautiful melody of frontman Burton C. Bell -- it's all perfected to a science here. The electronic influence the band aquired after the "Fear Is The Mindkiller" EP (which contained remixes from the unusually thrashy "Soul Of A New Machine") becomes a huge element of the band's sound here, and really helps set them apart from their peers -- at the time at least, as many bands have popped up over the years, whose influence can obviously be traced back to Fear Factory. Also, as noted in the liner notes, it helps to push along the theatrical element of the band, their interest in sci-fi that got them dubbed as "Terminator Rock," with "H-K (Hunter-Killer)" being the prime example. Fear Factory truly carved out a name for themselves with this album. They really did something that no one had done before, and if someone were looking for a place to start on Fear Factory, I would point them in this direction.



I recommend this re-release to any Fear Factory fan. There is just so much material to absorb, and you get it all at a rather fair price. Although the remixes that are tacked onto the end of "Remanufacture" (and also appeared on the "Hatefiles" release) are rather redundant, most of the remixes, which were experiments in themselves, are pulled off rather well, and add new elements to songs that already had so much potency to begin with. And I really can't say enough good things about "Demanufacture." As far as I am concerned, it's an essential metal record. It is by far one of the most interesting and original things to come out of the 90's, and really broke down a lot of walls. If you don't own it already, what better time than now?"