I was hesitant to pick up Fear Factory’s newest effort Mechanize. My first experience with them was their highly popular album Obsolete, which immediately made me a fan. Then I picked up Demanufacture, which is slightly more raw and brutal, also a fantastic album.

But then things went weird for the band. Creative differences began to show through on Digimortal, the followup to Obsolete. It wasn’t a great album, and the band seemed to be in limbo for a while. Madman guitarist Dino Cazares left the band after a falling-out with vocalist Burton C. Bell. Bassist Christian Olde Wolbers switched to guitar, Byron Stroud (from Strapping Young Lad) took over on bass, and Raymond Herrera remained on drums.

They released Archetype — which I love. A few years later came Transgression, which was lukewarm (although I’d still listen to that over Digimortal any day). I figured they were still growing with the rearranged lineup, although they were pulling away from the element of death metal and getting awful pop-sounding on some tracks (like that U2 cover?!).

Then they kind of wandered away from each other. Christian and Herrera began playing in Arkaea, and Burton decided to reform Fear Factory with Dino back on guitar, Gene Hoglan (from Strapping Young Lad) on drums, and Byron remaining on bass. Controversy abounds, and you can read all the (supposed) details on the Wikipedia page.

While I love Fear Factory, I became disinterested in them. All the bickering and problems kind of turned me off. I’m not fully convinced that I like Burton or Dino. I like the Strapping Young Lad guys, Christian and Raymond.

Which brings me back to my original statement: I was hesitant to pick up their February 2010 release, Mechanize.

And to be honest, this is about what you would expect from a Fear Factory album. Dino has come up with some really cool riffs, and the mega-robot-drummer Hoglan adds larger-than-life heaviness to the mix. Burton adds some welcome growls this time around, but his vocals aren’t anything you haven’t heard before. He maintains his ability to do death metal screams and melodic singing within the same song, which ain’t easy.

While this is an album I’ll probably listen to fairly regularly, it’s really nothing new in the realm of Fear Factory. At times I feel like I’m listening to Demanufacture or Obsolete. I’m fairly certain that the purpose of this album was to re-establish cred with an increasingly disillusioned fan base.

Innovation it isn’t. However, it’s an enjoyable album that FF fans will appreciate. Hopefully, Mechanize is a stepping stone to further growth and creativity in the band.

Rating: 7/10

Well, we all knew that already. Their music and images have “corporate sellout whore” written all over them. But when this article came across my feed reader, all I could do was laugh and think, “I told you so.”

Here’s what happened: there’s a company out there who goes around telling companies that they can get their brand name worked into the lyrics of pop songs (such as Mariah Carey, Ludacris, Pussycat Dolls, and all those other pop whores) “for the right price.” They accidentally solicited to an anti-advertising agency.

Here’s a quote that sums things up:

“It’s this desperation that advertising has come to because you can’t just tell people about your product anymore, because nobody cares. Advertisers have created this situation where they’ve made themselves obsolete. There’s too much advertising out there, so they try to find new ways to cut through the clutter that they’ve created. And this is one of those ways.” – Steve Lambert, as reported by BoingBoing.net

As I looked up news on Les Claypool’s web site, I found out that he has recorded original music for the upcoming Wii game Mushroom Men. As I’m a big Wii fan (and a huge Les Claypool fan, of course), I began to investigate this game by going over to its official web site.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll spring for this game when it comes out in November. But probably only because I can listen to new music from Les while I play.

And I’ll be damned — as I was writing this, an interview with Les and Ler (Primus) just came through my feed reader. It was done by Boing Boing, and the lady interviewing them — “Xeni” — is annoying as hell. At least Les and Ler are cool.

Beware of the retarded commercial they put in the middle of it. That’s downright annoying too — forcing that advertisement crap on me. I know it helps pay the bills and all, but come on. Boing Boing already has fifty million ads on their site as-is . . . do they really have to shove more in wherever they can?

I’ve been going by this notion lately: if there’s an ad somewhere that really bugs me — not necessarily the content of the ad itself, but even the timing/placement of the ad — I’ll make it a point to not patronize whoever the ad is for. And I’ll also badmouth the company.

I knew it as soon as I saw one of the tracks titled “The Unforgiven III.” Let’s just say they should have called this Shit Magnetic.

I haven’t had any hope for these guys in about 15 years. I bought Load when it came out, then promptly sold it at a used CD store to help buy a Butthole Surfers CD instead, which was much more worthwhile. Then I hoped Reload would let the band redeem themselves . . . but was disappointed again, and lost interest in them all together. The only reason I noticed them again during that time is when they released Garage Inc., because hey, the re-released Garage Days stuff kicks ass (but none of the new stuff did, though).

I won’t even mention their retarded symphonic thing. St. Anger was a disc that sounded much better if you vomited on it and played it on a CD player that didn’t work.

So Death Magnetic was supposed to be the triumphant return. All the reviewers talking about this CD have been crapping their pants, saying this is And Justice for All part 2. So what the hell, I’ll give it a chance. I love heavy music.

Well, Metallica pulled the wool over my eyes again. Those bastards. They’re trying really, really hard to sound like they did 20 or so years ago. But they’re old. James is sober. Lars is even more of a tool. Gorilla-man is on bass.

Frankly, the only worthwhile member of the band is Kirk. He really needs to find some new friends to hang out with. Ones that have some sort of realistic musical aspirations. His solos rock.

Hetfield’s voice is worse than Bob Dylan’s nowadays. I think the only way he can get back any of his former magic is with the aid of that magic juice. When he’s drunk, he’s interesting. And the riffs just aren’t that heavy anymore. Yeah, they’re close, but just don’t cut it.

So Metallica has crossed me one too many times, and I’m now officially swearing them off for good. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 2.