Digimortal

Fear Factory's 10 years of evolution has brought their art to a whole new level, making their newest creation one of 2001's most anticipated albums. Limited edition digipak with 4 bonus tracks 'Dead Man Walking', 'Strain vs. Resistance', 'Repentance' and 'Full Metal Contact'. 15 tracks. 2001 release

Fear Factory's fourth album, Digimortal, finds the hirsute Los Angeles industrial-metal band happening on a theme that they've been alluding to throughout their existence. Digimortal is a concept album about the synthesis of man and machine, its 11 tracks serving up a mish-mash of screaming electronics and punishing low-end death-metal dynamics. Guitarist Dino Cazares and drummer Raymond Herrera served tenure in the none-more-metal terrorist troupe Brujeria shortly before the release of Digimortal, but straight-ahead metal antics have not dulled Fear Factory's silicon edge; the scattershot riffage of "Damaged" is undercut by furious, distorted synth-lines, and the hyper-tense "No One" offers up sirens straight from the Chemical Brothers' box of old-school rave machinery. While there's nothing quite as startling as the title track from 1999's Obsolete (which featured vocals from synth pioneer Gary Numan), the beatbox-based "Back the F**k Up," featuring Cypress Hill's B-Real, stands head and shoulders above the ham-fisted rap-rock fusion peddled by many of Fear Factory's peers. --Louis Pattison