Fear Factory - Mechanize (2010)

Candlelight Records, February 5, 2010

Tracklist

1. Mechanize

2. Industrial Discipline

3. Fear Campaign

4. Powershifter

5. Christploitation

6. Oxidizer

7. Controlled Demolition

8. Designing the Enemy

9. Metallic Division

10. Final Exit

This entry is one in a series of ten-year retrospectives on my favorite albums from the year 2010. On Mechanize, Fear Factory takes a more aggressive edge while not sacrificing the melody that is key to their unique sound. Tracks like “Fear Campaign” and “Powershifter” are relentless and heavy with machine-like precision and rhythm courtesy of guitarist Dino Cazares and drummer Gene Holgan. While technical and calculated this is a band that is not afraid to be catchy as well and throughout the album vocalist Burton C. Bell delivers memorable choruses. He has an almost mechanical but melodic vocal delivery that fits perfectly with the atmosphere and mood the band is going for. Fear Factory adheres to this formula for most of the album and it works very well. The final two songs “Designing the Enemy” and “Final Exit” diverge from this path and are far more melodic and experimental.

Mechanize is the lone album I have reviewed that is not currently available for streaming on Spotify. This is likely due to issues over an ongoing legal dispute which band lineup has the rights to the name, but you can still buy it through sellers on Amazon. The whole legal dispute which is preventing a new album is unfortunate, but it doesn’t overshadow the tremendous influence Fear Factory brought to the metal scene. In the early 1990s, the albums Soul of a New Machine and Demanufacture broke new ground with their hybrid of death metal and industrial music. In fact Burton C. Bell is widely considered to be the first vocalist to mix death metal growls with clean choruses, a style which is now ubiquitous in metal.  

I give this album an overall score of 8/10, with "Designing the Enemy", "Fear Campaign" and "Powershifter" standing out as the highlights.   Seen by many fans as a return to form and one of Fear Factory’s best albums to date, Mechanize is calculated, heavy, and cold, much like the machine itself.

Death Angel - Humanicide (2019)

Nuclear Blast, May 30, 2019

Tracklist

1. Humanicide

2. Divine Defector

3. Aggressor

4. I Came For Blood

5. Immortal Behated

6. Alive and Screaming
7. The Pack

8. Ghost of Me

9. Revelation Song

10. Of Rats and Men

11. The Day I Walked Away

Death Angel can be considered as one of the all-time best Bay Area thrash metal bands. While considered one of the "Big Eight" of thrash metal, they have been more of an underground act compared to many of their peers, and also broke up for ten years before reuniting in 2001. Death Angel has experienced some lineup changes, with guitarist/vocalist Rob Cavestany and vocalist Mark Osegueda being the only consistent members on every album, but their sound has changed little from their initial material. In May 2019, we get the band's ninth studio album, and their sixth since that reunion. The album artwork features a different incarnation of the rampaging wolves that appeared on the cover for Death Angel's 2013 release The Dream Calls for Blood. This time, the wolves are running through what looks like an abandoned town in a potential scene from a post-apocalyptic film. The title refers to the lack of compassion and self-destructive behavior we display towards others, ourselves, and our environment.

Delving further into the inspiration for the album, guitarist Rob Cavestany has said, "Our band has experienced this [hostility] since we first started in the '80s, being that for one thing, we were all young and these Filipino cousins that didn't fit the normal look of the heavy metal band. We experienced harsh people all over the place for no apparent reason but because they weren't able to accept other people, or something other than what they think is how it's supposed to be, and that seems to be the problem persisting today. People are just thinking that whatever the way they do things or the way their particular scene is, that's how it's supposed to be everywhere else. They're not accepting of others, and it's getting really blown up in a bad way these days." Contrasting with this outlook is the '80s thrash throwback style track "The Pack", which celebrates the unity and cooperation of a wolf pack. Besides the clear reference to the album cover, it's a possible tie-in to the the overall concept, showing how the union of the wolf wins out, and urging listeners to be more accepting and less selfish before we destroy ourselves. 

Musically, Humanicide doesn't deviate too far from the confines of thrash metal, but it's evident that band wasn't looking to make a by-the-numbers album either. While "Divine Defector", "I Came For Blood", "The Pack", "Alive and Screaming" and "Aggressor" are all fairly fast-paced thrash metal, most of these tracks have an identity of their own. Other songs vary the pacing and keep the album from getting one-sided and repetitive. "Revelation Song" is a mid-tempo track in the style of classic heavy metal bands with memorable guitar leads. "Immortal Behated" is the strongest example of variation on the album. The song begins with a melodic guitar section that reappears throughout, building to some heavier moments but always in a controlled state. On the outro this guitar motif fades into a 95-second piano-dominated section. This song is a great example of how to properly use quiet melodic sections in thrash metal that enhance the song rather sounding like it was tacked on. "The Day I Walked Away", a bonus track on some versions of the album, uses a spoken word delivery from Mark Osegueda in the verses and has a similarly patient, ominous atmosphere. It's another well-done foreboding track, although not as strong as "Immortal Behated".

In summary, Death's Angel's latest will be enjoyed most by the band's fans and the thrash metal fanbase, rather than those outside the genre. The sound is a clear homage to classic metal music, but the band maintains their own sound and identity. Overall, it's a very solid effort and one of Death Angel's stronger albums in recent years. I give this album a rating of 8/10.

Fever 333 - Strength in Numb333rs (2019)

Roadrunner Records, January 18, 2019

 Tracklist

1. ...

2. Burn It

3. Animal

4. Prey for Me/3/

5. One of Us

6. Inglewood/3
7. The Innocent

8. Out of Control/3

9. Am I Here?

10. Coup D'Etalk

Jason Aalon Butler has made his mark in the influential, now-defunct post-hardcore band letlive., becoming known for his high-energy live performances as much as his frentic vocals. Rapcore act Fever 333, formerly The Fever when formed in July 2017 - about a year after the release of letlive.'s last album If I'm the Devil - introduces him to a new audience. Fever 333 is technically a supergroup since guitarist Stephen Harrison was part of the final lineup of Georgia-based hardcore band The Chariot, and drummer Aric Improta is from the Night Verses. Butler has become known in letlive. for his skill in switching from soul inspired cleans to piercing high screams very quickly. The band's sound is predominantly hardcore punk with hip-hop influences, and some surprises along the way.

After a short intro, the album begins with early single "Burn It", released late in 2018. The next two tracks "Animal" and "Prey For Me/3" are two of the album's stronger songs with a bit of an electronic edge, rapped verses, and great beats. Right in the middle, "Inglewood/3" is a bit of an oddity in the tracklist, sounding like a Yelawolf ballad before a jarring transition to a Scarlxrd screamo rap style near the 4:45 mark. "Am I Here?" is another song that starts off sounding like a radio-friendly ballad. Despite the inclusion of some background harsh vocals, this track offers a rare moment of calm on the album, albeit temporarily. 

Strength in Numb333rs is a political album at its core. In a way it maintains some of the DNA of Butler's former band, as letlive.'s earlier albums were known for their intensity and also delved into socio-political and personal lyrical themes, but in a nuanced and metaphorical fashion. The message and music of Fever 333 is delivered in a far more straightforward manner. For example, letlive.'s "The Fear Fever" had the lines "There's a comfort in being scared/when you're the only one who dared/to make the gunsmoke black in a whitewashed town" discussing racial inequality and biases, but Fever 333 does so far more overtly. And given the bold and unabashed nature of Strength in Numb333rs' sound, the new approach fits the album better than subtlety would have. 

One aspect that strengthens this message of Fever 333 and differentiates it from several political albums is the autobiographical tone it takes. Butler establishes himself as a well-educated eyewitness, which is critical for lyrical content of this nature. He has firsthand experiences growing up biracial in Inglewood, California, a city in the Los Angeles region known for a history of racial segregation. Police brutality, the disproportionate nature of prison system, and discrimination are common themes that are addressed. On a broader scale, themes of unity and empathy - in particular, a call to understand different points of view - are also present. The flow of the album does get disjointed at times, but that's part of what keeps it fun and unpredictable. Take another look before dismissing Strength in Numb333rs as just another political album or new supergroup project. While not perfect, this is a bold, ambitious debut that offers something more than a cookie-cutter take on the rap-rock genre and earns a score of 7.5/10.

Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything (2020)

SharpTone Records, February 7, 2020

Tracklist

1. Theme

2. Aggressive Evolution

3. Broken Vision Rhythm

4. Two-Way Mirror

5. 451 Days

6. New Faces In The Dark

7. Red Room

8. Screaming

9. Is It Really You?

10. Gored

11. Heavy Is The Head That Falls With The Weight Of A Thousand Thoughts

12. A Sad Cartoon

13. A Sad Cartoon Reprise

14. I Let It In and It Took Everything...

Based in Liverpool, England, Loathe is making their mark as one of the most multidimensional and interesting up-and-coming bands in the metal scene. Inspired by groups such as Slipknot and Deftones, as well as soundtracks like Silent Hill, the band hybridizes those influences into a punishingly heavy hardcore/djent sound that is not short of melody or experimental elements. I Let It In and It Took Everything is the follow-up to their 2017 album, The Cold Sun. In between, they released two tracks "White Hot" and "Servant and Master" for a split 2018 EP with Holding Absence. Both of those tracks displayed Loathe's songwriting growth and abilities within a short time, and their new full-length album progresses the band even further.

Kadeem France, the band's frontman and vocalist, has plenty of raw power to his voice. His voice complements the dual guitar attack of Erik Bickerstaffe and Connor Sweeney. "Broken Vision Rhythm", "Gored" and "Heavy Is the Head That Falls With the Weight of a Thousand Thoughts" are all-out onslaughts that show just how heavy Loathe can get. The latter track even ventures into black metal territory with its use of blast beats and Kadeem France incorporating a snarling vocal style. Other songs like "Aggressive Evolution" and "New Faces in the Dark" display that signature aggression and cover similar territory to "White Hot" with punishingly heavy sections that give way to ethereal choruses. While Loathe has plenty of ferocity to their sound they also maintain a dark, ethereal undercurrent throughout. Like a well-written horror movie, I Let It In and It Took Everything is full of peaks and valleys, and the moments of calm give the album a chance to breathe and only further accentuate the brutal sections. The four shortest tracks, "Theme", "451 Days", "Red Room", and "A Sad Cartoon (Reprise)" all act as interludes and add cohesion to the album, strengthening it as a whole. "Screaming", "Two-Way Mirror", "Is It Really You?", "A Sad Cartoon", and the closing title track are heavily atmospheric tracks with varying amounts of melody and experimentation. The haunting closer "I Let It In and It Took Everything" brings all of these elements in full circle and is comparable to Slipknot's "Iowa" in its ability to convey a horror film-like soundscape. 

But before we reach that point, it's by the fourth track "Two-Way Mirror" where it becomes clear Loathe is covering new ground. It is the album's softest song and is driven by ethereal, shoegazy vocals in its entirety. Instrumentally, the guitars are restrained in the verses before coming in with a heavy riff in the chorus. The song has been noted for its Deftones influence, and in fact Chino Moreno, Deftones' lead singer, is a fan of the song. Moreno gave the band some additional promotion prior to the album's release, sharing the music video for "Two-Way Mirror" on his personal social media account, as he frequently does to share a wide variety of music he enjoys. "Is It Really You?" is another Deftones-inspired track that feels like Loathe's homage to Koi No Yokan. The song has a truly beautiful chorus and a song structure that ventures out into atmospheric post-metal territory. While many bands in the rock and metal scene claim Sacramento-based band Deftones as an influence, Loathe is doing something special by making that influence part of their own unique entity rather than attempting to clone or recreate an existing sound. 

The song "Two-Way Mirror" asks the question "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" Loathe is a band who is clearly unafraid to experiment and explore the possibilities of heavy music. I Let It In and It Took Everything is an easy early contender for album of the year and earns a score of 9.5/10. As strong as this album is, it may merely be the beginning of Loathe's potential as they show willingness to continue to take their sound even further.

Dayseeker - Sleeptalk (2019)

Sumerian Records, April 19, 2019

Tracklist

1. Drunk

2. Crooked Soul

3. Burial Plot

4. Sleeptalk

5. The Embers Glow

6. The Color Black
7. Already Numb

8. Gates of Ivory

9. Starving to Be Empty

10. Crash and Burn

Forming in 2012, Dayseeker is a relative newcomer to the post-hardcore scene, but has built up a solid reputation, predominantly off the strength of vocalist Rory Rodriguez. It has been a little over two years since their last project, July 2017's Dreaming Is Sinking//Waking is Rising, which was a conceptual post-hardcore project influenced by Trainwreck by Boys Night Out. Sleeptalk, the band's fourth effort, strikes in a decidedly different direction. The lyrics here primarily focus on girls, dysfunctional relationships, and human nature. The post-hardcore style has been dialed back to a more melodic modern rock sound. While not a total reinvention, Sleeptalk is a boldly divergent outing and is easily Dayseeker's softest album to date.

The band's greatest asset is clearly vocalist Rory Rodriguez, and he is the reason why Sleeptalk's step away from the band's 'core' roots works. The album's increased focus on R&B and pop spotlights his clean vocals further. A good example of this is the third track, "Burial Plot". Opening on a soft, ambient tone, the well-calculated atmosphere emphasizes Rodriguez's clean singing and holds back the guitar distortion until the chorus. Both heavy and light elements have always been present in the band's sound - they've included softer "reimagined" versions of their own tracks on the special editions of their first two albums and on an EP released after their third. This time around, Dayseeker takes that softer, electronic-driven direction and puts it front and center. However, this is pop-influenced, not a pop album, as the guitars, drums and rock structures still play an important role.

"The Color Black" is a track that combines the heavy and soft, mixing some screaming and heavy guitars in with a piano line. The first single, "Crooked Soul", provides an accurate sampling of the album and showcases Rodriquez's emotive vocal performance. The piano rock of "Already Numb" and the power ballad "Starving to Be Empty" are two songs fully emphasizing the softer end of the spectrum. Sleeptalk concludes on a strong and unexpected note with "Crash and Burn". This closer fully builds up to a climax and ends on the heaviest moment on the whole album, actually including a metalcore styled breakdown at the end.

Dayseeker has proven with this album that they are one of the more underrated bands in the scene and are worthy of attention. However, at 36 minutes in length, Sleeptalk could have benefited from including more tracks or structural variety. There are only nine actual songs, as one of the ten tracks, "The Embers Glow" is simply a one-minute interlude. With the radio success of artists like Bring Me the Horizon, Sleeptalk is an album I could see getting substantial airplay at a station like SiriusXM's Octane, or rock radio in general. Sleeptalk is a successful blending of pop with post-hardcore and earns a score of 8/10.

Wolves at the Gate - Eclipse (2019)

Solid State Records, July 26, 2019

Tracklist

1. The Cure

2. Face to Face

3. A Voice in the Violence

4. Drifter

5. Enemy

6. Evil Are the Kings
7. Eclipse

8. Response

9. History

10. The Sea in Between

11. Alone

12. Counterfeit

13. Blessings and Curses

A step above the majority of Christian rock/metal, Cedarville, Ohio's Wolves at the Gate has gained a positive reputation in the metalcore scene along with several longer-running Solid State label mates. Eclipse is seven years removed from the band's full-length July 2012 debut Captors. The band is notable for their strong influence of 2000s post-hardcore bands such as Thursday, Blindside, The Receiving End of Sirens, and especially Thrice. Since Captors, Wolves at the Gate has experienced minor lineup changes and explored different territory with each album.

The eclipse theme is clear and consistent throughout in the lyrical content of the album. Imagery of light and darkness, faith and doubt, and truth and lies is prevalent throughout. While Eclipse goes in a more hard rock direction compared to a metalcore sound, the back and forth interplay between clean and harsh vocals remains prominent. Drummer Abishai Collingsworth makes his presence felt with a strong rhythm section behind each track. "Face to Face" and "The Sea in Between" introduce spoken word into the band's sound. Opener "The Cure" is a melodic metalcore single comparable to "Flickering Flame" from their last album in tone and structure. The next two released singles "A Voice in the Violence" and "Drifter" also appear early in the tracklist. Discussing doubt and faith, "A Voice in the Violence" is contextually similar to "The Cure", and "Drifter" follows more of a heavy alternative rock structure. The final single "Counterfeit" shows up near the end of the album as the second to last track and is one of the weaker tracks. Elsewhere, "Face to Face" is a clear highlight, bolstered by an anthemic hook and symphonic overtones. "Enemy" is likely the most straight-up hard rock track and is comparable to Thrice's "Hold Up a Light". The lone ballad and title track "Eclipse" thematically explores doubt and questioning one's faith. It is the album's strongest moment, offering a nice contrast between the calm atmosphere of the verses and the progression to a heavier rock sound.

About the only element Eclipse lacks lacks a standout, emotionally moving track that covers the entire soft-to-heavy spectrum of Wolves at the Gate's sound. The penultimate Types and Shadows track "Hindsight" exemplified this and helped that album make a lasting impression. Previous closers like "Man of Sorrows" showcased a buildup and a clear contrast, so I would have liked to see a dynamic track like this one on Eclipse, since "Blessings and Curses" is rather anticlimactic as a closer. Wolves at the Gate has done better with past releases Captors and Types and Shadows, but overall Eclipse is another strong release from a skilled band. The musicianship is solid and the album concept is well executed, strengthening the whole of the project. I give it a score of 7.5/10.