Funeral Rain Press Corps

Band Continues Work On Forthcoming Album

Fear Factory today confirm Matt DeVries as the band’s new bass player. DeVries, previously of Chimaira and most recently Six Feet Under, joins the band replacing Byron Stroud. The announcement comes as the band continues work on their upcoming new album, planned for release early Summer. The album is currently being mixed in Canada by Greg Reely while artwork for the album’s packaging is nearly complete.

DeVries comments: “I have been asked by Dino and Burton to join one of my favorite bands. I have been a fan of
Fear Factory since 1992 and I could not be more excited to be part of this incredible band. We have shared the stage many times together and now I’m beyond stoked to be on the same stage playing together. Thank you to all my fans worldwide for sticking by me and I will be seeing you all on the road very soon.”

Guitarist Dino Cazares and vocalist Burton C. Bell note: “We are very excited to have Matt playing bass for Fear Factory. We feel he is a great addition to our touring lineup. He has been a friend for a very long time and he’s a great musician who will be a perfect instrument in the FF machine.”

Fear Factory’s new album will follow 2010’s highly regarded Mechanize. Said Blabbermouth of the record, “this is the album fans have been waiting for…a fiery and evolved rebirth of the band that changed metal in the ‘90s.” Revolver Magazine called Mechanize, “one of the best albums of the band’s career. Its combination of new-wave melody, rapid-fire aggression, and electronic ambiance sounds as fresh today as Fear Factory did nearly 20 years ago. Call it the soul of their new machine,” while Decibel Magazine added, “Fear Factory are back and beyond intact.”

Specific details with regards to Fear Factory’s new album are expected to be released in the coming week.

Genre: Industrial Metal
Label: AFM/13th Planet Records
Format: Digital Stream (Earsplit PR)

I’ve gone through this digital promo a couple times now, and one thing is really sticking out for me: it kicks ass! Grinding industrial slammed into grinding metal with lyrics that range from Al’s troubles in the industry (“Ghouldiggers”), voter apathy (“Get Up, Get Out and Vote”), the Occupy Movement (“99 Percenters”) the end of the world (“Relapse”), and more. The album is a veritable gold mine for topical discussion, and many of it will not be dated for years from now.
Riff-wise, it’s pretty much standard Ministry style, somewhat simplistic and repetitive, but not to the point of boring. Perfect stuff to bang the noggin to. If you’ve never experienced the Ministry sound, you’re missing out. There’s nothing like them. Old fans will love this album, and in some instances they may even think it’s the best so far. Al has never sounded so good vocally, and with Tony Campos running the bass this time around, there’s a definite more industrial touch to it, but with an organic feel behind the scenes.
When this hits the streets, you need to grab a copy of it.
8.5 out of 10.

Relapse Tracklisting:
1. Ghouldiggers
2. Double Tap
3. Freefall
4. Kleptocracy
5. United Forces
6. 99 Percenters
7. Relapse
8. Weekend Warrior
9. Get Up Get Out n Vote
10. Bloodlust
11. Relapse Defibrillator Mix

Relapse Personnel:
Al Jourgensen
Mike Scaccia
Tommy Victor
John Bechdel
Tony Campos
Aaron Rossi

Genre: Nu-Metal, Industrial, Rock
Label: Independent

I’ll admit it… that’s one creepy looking album cover.

Other than that, what can I really say about this album? Well, it’s definitely an album. There’s music on it. When you put it in a device that plays CDs, sounds come out of the attached speakers. That’s good, right?

Man, I really don’t want to be mean or to rag on these guys because I can tell that they poured their hearts and souls into this album, but I just can’t get into it. Everything about Another Failure In The Making just seems like it missed the boat by about ten years. I have a feeling that if this came out around 2000-ish, I might of been in to it and/or knew some guys that would of been into it.

There are moments of fun and whatnot hidden between the banal song writing and repetitiveness. The vocalist really seems to enjoy his style of screaming. You can really hear the boiling anger just seething behind every word. And I can’t really complain too much about a band that writes a catchy jump riff like the same three or four recycled through this album… argh. I guess I can. Sorry.

I should note that the only reason I gave this album/band the multiple genre distinction, is because I just couldn’t pin down what these guys were aiming for, not because they took three different genres and melded them together coherently. Because they didn’t. Each track sounds pretty much like a carbon copy of the track before it. Well, there is the exception of I Hope You Die In A Car Crash. There’s a bouncy, upbeat tempo and blues guitar portions to it that makes it the standout track of Another Failure In The Making.

Overall: While Another Failure In The Making isn’t exactly that, it isn’t really something I can get behind either. The whole angsty, angry at everything mentality isn’t really my thing anymore. But if it is yours and you enjoy albums that contain the same song played about eleven times over, then Another Failure In The Making is custom made for you!

5/10

Another Failure Official
Another Failure On Facebook 

Genre: Ambient, Industrial, Experimental

Label: Malignant Records

And here we are again with another collection of new, re-released and previously unreleased music. This time, it’s from The Swedish Ironic Commando known as Negru Voda. Oh… and did I mention that there is THREE DISCS WORTH of music in Vald De Luxe? This is going to be an endurance trial that could end in ambient madness, isn’t it?

Three Hours Later…

…I think I jizzed a little.

Negru Voda’s four years in the making, Vald De Luxe is easily the most diverse sounding ambient album I’ve ever laid my ears on! There’s a ton of distorted vocals, lots of mild static, soft feedback in some spots that EXPLOEDES on you if you’re not ready for it, wrenches hitting pipes, mothers slapping babies, a kitchen sink and a partrige in a pare tree! I think it goes without saying at this point but, Vald De Luxe is DENSE! One of the reasons might be due to the fact that this collection is split up into different albums.

Disc 1: Vald De Luxe – This disc houses the newest material that is, in my opinion, the strongest material of the three. Lots of light and airy tracks that are laid in contrast next to some pretty fucking heavy tracks! Most noticeably, Infected By Remix which is a remixed version of the gut-ripping V:28 song, Infected By Life (if you don‘t know who V:28 is, do yourself a favor and check them out!).

Disc 2: Dark Territory – An appropriately named disc if there ever was one! Originally released in 1998 to the tune of five hundred copies, Dark Territory is a down and dirty mixture of industrial and dark ambient. Dark Territory transports you to an Eraserhead-ish land of rubble, mutants and black and white industrial areas. It’s literally the stuff of nightmares.

Disc 3: Whispers From The Silent Shaft – This one is the most diverse in terms of release type. Most of the tracks come from different periods in the artist’s career, so there’s a schizophrenic element to this disc with certain styles clashing. Yes, clashing. But not ever really breaking the flow at all. And what’s this? A live track to take us out with? How thoughtful!

Overall: Vald De Luxe is a monster of a release! Each of these three discs would of done great standing on their individual merit, so you know that a release with all three (if you can, play them back-to-back-to-back) is going to send you through a damn wall!

10/10

Negru Voda On MySpace

Genre: Death Metal, Thrash, Industrial

Label: Independent

Here’s a question for you all: can an album be both politically charged and down right fun? The answer? Why, yes of course. It’s been done in the past (I.e., most thrash/hardcore/crossover albums from the 80’s) and it was done again in 2011 with Fallen Man’s fifth full length album Burn.

Fallen Man have a tweaked vibe that’s pretty much all their own (it was perfected in their last album, Mercenaries) yet their sound resembles facets from other bands: there’s a little bit of newer Samael, older Mushroomhead and a heavy Ministry influence lurking within the eight bloodstained tracks of Burn.

The tag up top classifies this band/album as a Death/Thrash/Industrial deal. I guess I should clarify that there a ton of speedy riffs, a shitload of blast beats (that never seem overused somehow) and chasm scrapping low-low death growls throughout this album. And as I’ve said earlier, there’s a huge Ministry influence here. I shouldn’t have to say much else to slate the interest of all the industrialphiles out there.

And yes, the heavy industrial tones may take a tiny bit away from that fun factor that I mentioned earlier, but not enough to the point where Burn wouldn’t rock your fucking socks off at a spirituous party… it really is a sight to behold  when a whole room full of drunken idiots are screaming at the top of their lungs, “BURN! Dunnunununununun BURN MOTHERFUCKER, BURN!!!”

Overall: I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Fallen Man have FINALLY lived up to their full potential that I saw in these guys all those years ago! A million times, YES!

9/10

Fallen Man On Facebook

Fallen Man On MySpace