Fear Factory: Aggression Continuum

I recently read Dune for the first time, and I thoroughly it. One of the best lines in the book (and the one everybody knows) is “Fear is the mind-killer.� Now that I know the line (and where it comes from) I notice it everywhere. It shows up in Leviathan Awakes, another fun novel. It also shows up six minutes into this album’s closing track. Is there some nerdy Dune stuff going on here? Yes, definitely. But then, fans will know that Fear Factory have regularly shared their love for all things Dune, The Terminator, and other stories like them. Those influences come through in this album’s thematic interest in dystopia, resistance, and artificial intelligence.

Many readers will know that this album came out amid more complications with the band. I haven’t followed them closely, but I do that some of the band’s feuding has been reported on and that the tensions have not all been resolved. I also know that vocalist Burton C. Bell left the band in 2020. He did record the vocals for this album (and he sounds great), but he won’t be taking these songs on the road.

Putting all that aside, I should acknowledge that this album has been several years in the making and that many fans are excited for it. For thirty-two years, this band has been making heavy and intense music and have garnered a large body of fans. The overall reaction to this album has been positive, but not overwhelmingly so. Since I was never that excited about the band, I did not expect all that much. I do admire Fear Factory’s intensity (and their love of science fiction) but I found this album mostly exhausting. It also suffers from too much sameness. Many of the tracks follow a similar pattern and sometimes they even sound too much like older Fear Factory songs. The general formula works well; after all, Fear Factory has made plenty of good music over the years, but things really start dragging about halfway through this album. I liked “Recode� and “Purity� and a few others but tracks like “Fuel Injected Suicide Machine� and “Monolith� were mostly disappointing.

Track Listing:
1. Recode
2. Disruptor
3. Aggression Continuum
4. Purity
5. Fuel Injected Suicide Machine
6. Collapse
7. Manufactured Hope
8. Cognitive Dissonance
9. Monolith
10. End of Line

Added: September 30th 2021
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 750
Language: english

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