Fear Factory

Transgression

Written by: PP on 07/10/2005 04:42:16

In its essence, metal is divided into two parts: Dense and Heavy. It's easy to confuse them together, but they're used to describe two entirely different styles. For instance, Tool's, The Dillinger Escape Plan's or even Metallica's styles are dense; their compositions are full of substance and need to be digested before they can be truly understood. Heavy, on the other hand, needs no digestion - it's just striking, powerful guitar riffs pounded down one after another without other significance than creating as much noise as possible. Nevertheless, no one wants to be listening to dense music all the time.

Fear Factory's eighth studio album "Transgression" belongs to the latter category. Regardless of its references to nu-metal, it is heavier than 90% of metal albums out there (while keeping in mind what I said about density & heaviness). The opening track, "540,000 Degrees Fahrenheit", is one of those that would force you to commit suicide during a hangover. Ear-bruising guitars provide the perfect contrast to their trademark high, faded out vocals, that sound ever so delicate on top of the hammering guitars. The second song, "Transgression", will most certainly be the live favorite with it's dozen "I hate..." lines, guaranteed to bring thousands of fists into the air. Likewise, crushing, thrashy "Spinal Compression" provides the perfect background music to a tank squad in the midst of war.

But "Transgression" just doesn't do it for me. Every song seems to follow the same formula: Pounding guitar intro, screamed out verses, high, faded out vocals during choruses, and...and that's about it. Though the first couple of songs are pretty good, the rest of the album starts repeating itself after a few consequent listens. As I said before, not enough substance.

6

Download: Transgression, 540,000 Degrees Fahrenheit
For the fans of: Soilwork, Machine Head

Release date 23.08.2005
Calvin Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.