Ohhh were have you gone my precious, talking like and ex-fear factory fan, since Demanufacture, there is a void, sure Demanufacture wasn’t a perfect album, but it sure was an exciting and original album, so my only conclusion for this hiatus could only be that Fear Factory suffer from a grave illness, i’m going to call it the “tool syndrome”, and it’s symptoms are a complete lack of originality and illusions of grandeur, the problem with me and Fear Factory is that i know they can do better, they just never did, and when they say this album is more of an experiment or whatever, well since Demanufacture, they basically say all their albums are experimental and shit, like it’s an excuse for lack of commitment or worse, competence.

So lets just hear this, the first track is “540,000° Fahrenheit”, uhh nice production, it almost seems where just right there on your garage, listening to this demo, what a confusion of a song, the timing is just so off, it’s just random stuff thrown into the mix, one of those talking barbies has more rhythm than this, this is brilliant, if you’re 12 years old and playing with a plastic toy guitar, lets just forget it and just go to the title track “Transgression”, what the fuck, this is just horse playing, what is this, what the fuck is this, this is not music, this is a loop on a drum machine with a constipated old man talking nonsense on the toilet, shit, shit, shit.

“Spinal Compression” … ok is this the same music as before, is the old guy still on the toilet? Of course he is, does any part of this song make any sense, of course not, they say this is a experimental album, for sure, its experimental as hell, giving good people bad music, did i say music i wanted to say ass, “Contagion”…. ohhh there is a bass player, almost forgot there was someone there, ohhh i guess he was just late to the party, yeah nice one, just in time to add nothing to another soulless performance, is Burton (the guy in the cd credits after the word vocalist) trying out for a record of some sorts?, the most “badly out of tune distorted out of tempo chorus in the history of the know universe” record, for sure i’m starting to question my sanity and my health.

“Empty Vision” it is, finally an appropriate song title, that clearly defines it’s content, it sure is empty and it sure lacks vision, i would have to fucking stick pencil in my ears to appreciate this nonsense, “Echo Of My Scream” the titles do seem to picture well my fall into what i can only describe as a complete chaotic mindfuck breakdown, i have lack of words, i’ll need therapy after this shit, thank god i’ve got two pencils in my ears as my only life line to sanity, so with blood gushing from my head, i do realize the pointless en devour that it is, to continue with this, so i’ll just sum it up, “Supernova” do you like the band Orgy, this is a bad copy of the same pretencions shit, “New Promise” do you like the band blink 182, same shit, but at least the blink folk know what a song is, “I Will Follow”, the most idiotic music intro i’ve ever heard, “Millenium“, this one should be used to torture muslims, since they don’t know what good metal is they won’t find it too offensive, “Moment Of Impact” ohh shit can a band repeat a song on a album, how bizarre, why make two songs when you can put two copies of just one, i won’t even talk about “New Promise”

So what more can i say, the evidence here is that anyone can make sounds, i’m making a sound right now (it resembles blood dripping from my head), but making music is another matter, and Fear Factory doesn’t know how to make music, for a sound to be called music, be it good or bad, it has to have a little thing called structure, Fear Factory bad riffs, bad drumming, bad lyrics, bad vocals, it’s all bad, but above all else there is a complete lack of structure, therefore it’s just random sound, know what, change the vocalist to a constipated old man on a toilet, put a 12 year old on the guitars, forget about bass, and just put a random sample on a drum machine, and i’ll bet that they will ROCK THE FUCK out of Fear Factory.

There is no mp3, no links and gets to be tagged as Crap, anything else i would call cruel punishment.

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Yes, Dark Ages indeed, why Max, why so many years until you gave us something worth while, Sepultura was the rocks, Soulfly was it’s ugly sibling, with only one chromosome, even thought as it seems the best one, so days were indeed dark, many many days, years and albums passed, the music just got worse and worse, there were some occasional glimmers of hope, but all the same the demise seemed inevitable, that’s when Mr Max “set up us the bomb“.

So how are those Dark Days, after a short intro on “The Dark Ages”, we get the party rolling with “Babylon” very nice…it almost seems like Sepultura, with it’s groove and Max’s voice, very straight forward, then we go into “I and I” that follows the same path, now we’re rocking, uhhh guitar solo and all, lets have a look at “Carved Inside” uhhh nice and groovy, this is some good thrash, ohhh and with another kick ass guitar solo, we jump right into “Arise Again” ohhh so appropriate on this album, the album goes on and on with some really well made thrash, mixing and meshing, with the russian inspired “Molotov”, or just straight with “Frontlines” or “Fuel The Hate” and the almost Biohazard like “Corrosion Creeps”, great stuff, then you mix in some other more “alternative” stuff Soulfly do tend to produce with the likes of “Riotstarter” with a more electronic meets tribal feel, or the boring interlude (The) March or the already trademark long instrumental on the end of albums with “Soulfly V”.

There ya go Max, did you need this many years to do another decent album? and you still say this are dark ages? these are the best days you could have, finally your making decent music, now this an album that every boy and girl can enjoy, don’t get me wrong it could always be better, but for sure now i can enjoy some Soulfly and say that name with more confidence, even the more “alternative Soulfly stuff” can be enjoyed if not in excess, this is what you do best, this is for sure your best album since you and Sepultura parted ways. Brother, just keep them coming.

Soulfly - Carved Inside

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I must confess… I’m a big Decapitated fan since “Winds of Creation”. Though this album presented great technique and skills, the Vader influences were clear. They did an excellent job anyway. Great strong songs.

With “Nihility” they sharpened their sound, and lifted the bar even more - technique wise. And this was one of the motives for me to get into Decapitated. Their tech riffs were great!

“The Negation” was next in line. I started to notice, a more simpler, direct “sound”, but, overall, the album was also great.

They now present “Organic Hallucinosis”.
I have been reading a lot of reviews saying that this album is great, it’s another step for death metal, the Meshuggah influences are great, whatever…

Well… let me give you my 2 cents.
The new vocalist is ok, I guess, but seems not to fit in the band. Sauron vocals were way more brutal. This guy sings like if he’s in a metalcore band.
The guitar job is up to Decapitated standards in most of the tracks, though some of that tech riffs, are kind of lost. They also recorded some tracks using a 7-string guitar but, for some strange reason, those tracks are not that heavy like they “should” be. I mean… What’s the point of using a 7-stringer if your other 6-string guitar riffs sound way more heavy? I personally expected more of Vogg in that 7-stringer exploring.
The drum job his greater then ever and I think that’s the best we can take from this album.
As for the external influences – Meshuggah and whatever – I never understood why bands struggle to create an original sound, achieved it, and then start copying other bands instead of exploring their achievements.

Decapitated are different and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Its better to change than record 4 times the same album. They are just going into a different path, with some elements I don’t enjoy much. If Decapitated fans will follow that path or not, we will see. I’m not sure if I will.

Decapitated - A Poem About An Old Prison Man

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Hell, since i’m in this aquatic mood (yeah with wales and seas and leviathans), so why not talk about The Ocean newest release “Aeolian”, The Ocean, plays a metal/hardcore hybrid, mixing different stuff, sometimes sounding closer to The Dillinger Escape Plan punk aggression, other times the more rock/metal of the likes of Mastodon, any way let’s see what the album has in store.

It all starts off with “The City in the Sea”, slow grinding start, that converts into a …. almost “stop go”, bouncy, metal sequence that goes through the music, to a more simple rock finish, uhhh that’s a nice mixture and a fine tune indeed, lets head out to “Dead Serious and Highly Professional”, punk driven song, ok and “Austerity” uhhh a almost mastodon stoner rock , although nothing especial, how about “Killing the Flies”, nice breakbeat, very similar in style with the first track, bouncy “stop go” like music, with a good clean chorus, and interesting guitar work, now we get into the more simplistic part of the album, with the narrow minded “Une Saison En Enfer” and the very cheaply made punk “Necrobabes.Com”, then we get on track with “One With the Ocean”, again with the same bouncy groove, next we have “Swoon”, very straight to your face metalcore, again “Queen of the Food-Chain” gives the best “metalcore” song on the album, combining the bouncy groove they tend to use on this album, with their more aggressive metalcore vein, and they finish the album with “Inertia” a metal/punk fusion.

So how as Aeolian survived my scrutiny, well a bit on the downside, as you can see on this review, i tend to talk more about their adventures on the realms of metal/rock than talk about the musics themselves, since they are proficient in combining different genres, complexity and diversity is not a question, the problem here is how everything fits together, and it doesn’t fit that well, even though it’s diverse they tend to use the same song structures and always or go for short punk like inspired tunes or just create 5 to 10 minute songs with long song breaks to try and build up songs, it just kills the pace, they are good with the groove oriented metal and the metalcore, but they are a little narrow minded with the punk rock thing, so overall its a good try but it’s only an average album, and as such, it’s better to buy the good ones on itunes than to buy it all on cd.

The Ocean - Swoon

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