2006-02-03
Fear Factory's seventh album is a continuation of their last release, Archetype, and their second since reforming minus original guitarist Dino Cazares, who was replaced by former bassist Christian Olde Wolbers, whose place was taken by
SYL bassist Byron Stroud. Unlike Archetype, Transgression is by far the band's rawest album to date, with a much more organic sound and playing that make this feel a bit like the band's version of Metallica's St. Anger.
The album has a few winning qualities, the riffs by Wolbers are pretty strong, the one on the title track is a truly brilliant one, and his guitar playing as a whole does not sound any lesser than Cazares's, Raymond Herrera proves once more he his a drum god, certainly one of metal's best skin bashers, only here you can actually hear that his ability is not the product of a drum machine, like some people claimed when Demanufacture came out.
All of that aside, the album still fails where it really matters, the songs, it may have some brilliant moments, and the band sure knows how to use their instruments, but the songs are not that interesting, there are no discernable hooks, and though technically proficient, the album is just…well, boring.
I still think that Demanufacture was their best album, it may have been over produced by Colin Richardson, and Obsolete sounded just right, but the quality of the songs was unparalleled in the band's history, the songs just stuck, and that is were Transgression fails, it isn’t as memorable as that album.
The band, and some fans, may like this new, raw sounding sound, and I can see why the band decided to go into such a different direction instead of doing another well-polished over produced album, but I'm afraid the band needs the clear sound, the cleanliness and sharpness just sits better with the band's music, while the combination of the band's current material and raw sounds just comes off as sloppy.
I still hope the band has another Demanufacture in them, because the way things are looking with the album, I'm losing interest.
Alon Miasnikov
