Review of the Album "Demanufacture" by American Thrash Metal Band Fear Factory

Fear Factory is a really heavy American metal band from Los Angeles that I happened to see LIVE in concert back in 1995 as they played a few songs from their second studio album called Demanufacture. There are various classifications for this band including industrial metal and death metal. These guys sound like a mixture of hardcore, thrash metal, and death metal to a certain extent. There is another studio album that begins with a D that was released by Fear Factory and that one is Digimortal which would come out in 2001. We revisit this iconic industrial metal album in 2024. The sounds of metal start with the title track of this album and this sets into motion of the heaviest industrial thrash metal albums we have ever witnessed. The melodic vocals in this album help to lessen some of the musical intensity on this album, something that I am just noticing now in spite of being familiar with this album for almost 30 years.

Vocalist Burton C. Bell sounds somewhat like Max Cavalera but you can clearly hear that his accent is nowhere near as heavy as Max’s is. In the drumming, there is a distinct Napalm Death influence in the 2 minute mark of the song Demanufacture. The riff for this song sometimes chugs along as there is a very heavy atmosphere created. The shouts grow more harsh and intense. Phil Anselmo would be proud of the effort put together by Burton C. Bell. As Burton C. Bell so emphatically states in the song: “I’ve got no more regrets.”

"Self Bias Resistor"

The next song called Self Bias Resistor has a definite Pantera influence. I would call it like a faster version of the song A New Level. The song’s message is that it encourages people to wake up and realize that they have been brainwashed to believe things about the world that are not true.

"Zero Signal"

The song called Zero Signal starts out with some heavy riffing that reminds me of the Swedish death metal band called Hypocrisy. The song is about someone that feels that he has lost all hope. His life is in disarray according to him and he is sitting down on his knees and praying frequently for a turnaround. I even hear an early Metallica influence in the guitar playing as well.

"Replica," "New Breed," and "Body Hammer"

Replica is a song that is talking about a kind of reality in which no love exists. The song New Breed shows the Sepultura and Pantera influence as the harsh shouts are held for a longer period of time. The song Body Hammer has an Annihilator influence in it (think of that band’s later albums especially Carnival Diablos).

The song Flashpoint is a little different in style using the bass lines in addition to the heaviness to create a song similar to the band Scalping Screen. The song describes what a pathological liar is like. Too much lying can lead to self-destructive behavior and alienation from other people. We must make sure to teach our children that honesty is the best policy. The next song called H-K (Hunter Killer) is about someone that admits that he is a criminal. Some people feel that they have to steal things in order to survive as well. The last song called A Therapy for Pain has an atmospheric feel to it like some death metal bands in the 1990’s would have used in their music. The song starts with clean vocals. The vocals get louder and sound like Mikael Stanne in the album called Projector. Overall, Demanufacture is not a perfect album but it is pretty solid for American heavy metal at that time.

There is also a performance of the song called Dog Day Sunrise and this is a song that was originally written and performed by the artist called Head of David. The song is about someone that’s doing work that is grueling and exhausting for many hours in a day. This is a good song to sing along to. Not all cover songs that are done by bands are good but this one is still pretty good. As the man works hard underground from the morning until night, the person that he loves has beautiful eyes.

Final score as of this writing in 2024: 90 out of 100 points