Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Fear Factory - Demanufacture (1995)

In terms of industrial metal there’s probably only Ministry and Fear Factory that I have any level of familiarity with albeit a very limited scope of ambition to explore the genre that much as a whole regardless.  For the record I love most of what Dino does with his riffs being the very embodiment of metal I usually find but by contrast I don’t have a lot of time for Burton’s vocals and this imbalance tends to undo much of the enjoyment I do manage to glean from Fear Factory releases.

The fact is that Demanufacture is a tale of two halves (not equal, neat halves either).  For most of the record there’s banging industrial tunes full of powerful and gritty riffs and when he’s not trying to rap his way through his lyric sheet, Burton is more than manageable.  Conversely though there is a lot of filler on this record.  There’s two short tracks that literally sound like demo recordings given a coat of glitter on the mixing desk that still can’t make the turds beneath as glamorous as they try to make them.  Then we have Burton shouting his lyrics, exposing the lack of power in his voice, therefore trying to sound edgy comes off as being meek and ineffective in the end.

Crazy though it may sound for a review of an industrial metal album I just can’t cope with the start-stop rhythm of tracks that kill any sense of flow.  Yes, I get that is sort of the point but still some flow is permissible guys.  I just get the sense that without Dixon’s riffs to elevate the tracks there’s not a lot of anything else to hold my interest here, hence we have a short and rather grumpy review.