Fear Factory - Archetype

When California's Fear Factory released their debut full length, Soul of a New Machine, back in 1992, it was truly one of the very few groundbreaking albums in metal. Combining death metal, industrial, and samples with a vocalist who added clean singing with growling, Fear Factory were the forefathers of many nu metal bands. Their second album, 1995's Demanufacture, saw the band tightening their sound with sharp rhythms not dissimilar to what Meshuggah's done in recent years. 1998's Obsolete and 2001's Digimortal were very good albums with a handful of awesome songs but lacked the consistently high standards of their first two records.

A series of events took place after Digimortal was released which make it surprising that Fear Factory was still around to record Archetype. First was the departure of vocalist Burton C. Bell, then long time label Roadrunner dropped them, before you know it Bell resurfaces with long time bassist Christian Olde Whorbers, and original drummer Raymond Herrera- missing was guitarist Dino Cazares- who appears to be the main reasons for the problems in the first place. More than ever, Fear Factory had to deliver a great album and with Archetype they sure did. "Slave Labor" is the best song they've ever written. All the musical elements are in place and Bell shows more aggression and catchiness than ever. "Cyberwaste" is another great song, while "Act of God" is the most brutal and intense Fear Factory song yet. Wolbers makes such a smooth transition you wouldn't even know Cazares was not a part of Archetype. Bell shows great range on "Corporate Cloning," while "Archetype" is the catchiest song yet. "Human Shields" reveals the recent death of Fear Factory's songwriting and Bell's melodic vocals. Only "Undercurrent" falls prey to the mediocrity of Obsolete and Digimortal.