Fear Factory - Transgression

[Liu]

Fear Factory - Transgression
Calvin Records

If you look up the word Transgression in a dictionary, this will be one of the definitions you'll find:

"The exceeding of due bounds or limits."

This, in many ways, captures the essence of Fear Factory's career. Back in 1992 when they released the Soul Of A New Machine album, they had no idea the impact it would have in years to come. Combining crushing death metal with Burton C. Bell's double faceted vocals, they paved the way for so many bands that are around today. Burton alone is responsible for the dual clean and death vocal style that so many bands use. The 1994 follow up, Demanufacture, exceeded all expectations of the debut and added another layer to the brickwork with the use of electronic effects to augment the already impressive arsenal. Fast forward a few years (past some disappointing albums in the form of Obsolete and Digimortal); internal battles would lead to the departure of guitarist Dino Cazares and for a while, the disbanding of Fear Factory.

Thankfully, the remaining members of Fear Factory: vocalist Burton C. Bell, former bassist-turned-guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera would give it another go. With the addition of ex-Strapping Young Lad bassist Bryan Stroud, the band would rebound in a big way with 2004's Archetype. The album saw the band return in excellent form and reignited interest from fans and critics. The band wasted no time in producing a follow up to Archetype, titled Trangression.

Perhaps the band should had waited a bit longer.

Upon first listen of Trangression, the first thing you notice is the raw, dry production. It doesn't have that grand sound Fear Factory is normally known for. There are several words I can use to describe this, though I think "compressed" is the most suitable. The guitars aren't affected much, but the drum sound suffer greatly. They simply don't command the attention that they should, being an intolerable mark against Raymond's skills. But this wouldn't matter much as long as the songs are good, right? I wish that were the case. There's hardly a memorable moment to be found on Transgression. Most of these songs sound incomplete and just go nowhere. Spinal Compression is probably the best song here, but it sounds more like a xeroxed copy of a good Fear Factory song. Its one of the few songs where Raymond isn't sleeping behind the drum kit. Whats more, the band has taken a step into lighter direction, at times almost trying to be a metal version of U2. Songs like Supernova and New Promise are pretty light by their standards, but the lack of any solid hooks really render these songs obsolete. I won't even go into how monotomous Echo Of My Scream is. One of the problems here is the increased focus on Burton's clean vocals. In the past they were kept under control, his death vocals provided a proper counterbalance to the harmonics, but when left unchecked they can quickly turn annoying (listen to Demanufacture's A Therapy For Pain for proof).

To provide more evidence that the creative well for this album was dried up, the band has chosen to include not one, but two covers for the album. First they give the treatment to a U2 song and second to a Killing Joke song. U2's I Will Follow fits in perfectly with the lighter material that preceeded it (in other words, its forgettable) and Killing Joke's Millennium is a slight step back into the heavier material, being one of the better songs. I'm not familiar with the original versions of either so I don't know how faithful Fear Factory's renditions were. Moment Of Impact attempts to close out the album with a crushing high note, but by that point its just too little, too late.

Am I disappointed with Trangression? Yes, very much so. This may be their single worst album, though that kind of depends on how I feel about Digimortal on a given day. But at the moment of this writing, yes, this is Fear Factory at their most generic and lifeless. Avoid.


01. 540,000º Fahrenheit
02. Transgression
03. Spinal Compression
04. Contagion
05. Empty Vision
06. Echo Of My Scream
07. Supernova
08. New Promise
09. I Will Follow
10. Millennium
11. Moment Of Impact

Score: 3/10