Fear Factory - The Industrialist review

Year : 2012
Genre : Industrial Metal
Label : Candlelight Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 7.0 / 10

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Introductory info is quoted from this Wikipedia page. :

The Industrialist will be a concept album, Burton C. Bell said. "The protagonist (The Industrialist) is the incarnation of all industries in the form of an automaton. The mechanical, technological, and scientific advances through the industrial age led to the creation of The Industrialist. In the story, the automaton becomes sentient as it collects memories with each passing day. Through observation and learning, it gains the will to exist. What was meant to help man, will eventually be man’s demise." ...

This album shows tremendous initial promise at being the audio interpretation of a recent popular image of science (fiction?) depicting dehumanized humanity at the verge-, or, maybe, at the middle of a war that it is waging against its own creations. The concept is not new, yet its current interpretation, by Fear Factory, at least attempts to imbue novelty into the mix, as now the narrative attraction revolves around the automaton who becomes sentient. Pinocchio 2.0. You know the Quake games, and you know the movie Avatar. Sure, they are separate mythologies, still, the technology revealed in these sagas are super-similar to each other in "feel". Technology, if sufficiently sophisticated, can not be differentiated from magic, still, it is fun to see weapons so big that you'd need a set of cranes to lift and fire. I have a hunch that Fear Factory wanted to take you on a thorough sonic sightseeing in an alternate reality in which humanity wages war with the aid of rocket powered projectiles and plazma AGAINST sentient technology that decided that

your flesh is an insult to the perfection of the digital. - Shodan style. Alas!, this invitation is so frequent indeed, - here is a relatively recent one, orchestrated to progressive metal - that the sentient automaton direction promises some structural narrative which wasn't thoroughly explored yet by music. You wished.

Once again, this type-, this ethos of sci-fi is not unknown, nor novelty - but superb fun! - since 1979's Alien, as, let's face it, to this day, modern sci-fi rips off the industrial look depicted in the Alien movies. Doom rips off this environmental lingo, Quake rips it off, Avatar, the movie is a rip-off of that look, too, only more meticulously realized and organic elements were added as the counterbalancing of the industrial visual lingo. So, Fear Factory's new album, I feel, is a KUDOS! attempt to the look and feel of the Alien movies and the "feel" of a war you wage against sentient evil machines. Beware of the toaster. EVIL! Oh really. Tell me about it. I'm listening. Quite -ha. ha. - literally.

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Lord Mantis - Pervertor review

Year : 2012
Genre : Blackened Sludge
Label : Candlelight Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.0 / 10

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Lord Mantis' Pervertor LP sounds like a huge, bubbling cauldron resident in hell, and you are the very next entity on a collision course with it. This brave release breaths in sulfur and exhales larger than life comic book hatred and dramatic disillusionment, coating you-, enveloping you into an atmosphere that is super-reminiscent to the cover art of Justin Bartlett. The release is the embracement of all antitheses of positivistic assumptions, immediate private comfort and feelgood belief systems, it denies and executes these sentiments in an attempt to make you feel grateful when you are freed from its clutches, given a chance to reinvent yourself with the soul hack implemented in you. Because this disc wants to hack your soul, have no doubt about that. (Music that does not seek to hack the soul is not worth to take a shit on, by the way.)

This LP, called Pervertor, fortunately is not "stock" disillusioned music that seeks to circulate everyday average existentialist misery. The delivery instead shows the superb quality of seeking to entertain, primarily. The disc is very disciplined throughout, exhibiting very mature production work. The genre of the game is a blend of sludge and black metal, and the premiere flow of things is that of the cauldron-character I have been telling you about. The down-tuned - seriously? - guitars from abyss most often show and deliver a constant wall of sound structure that emanates a vile kind of lethal sonic heat to lock the psyche in from 360 directions around it, and they show readiness to interrupt this black metallic behavior with the splashy/lazy/arrogant patterns of sludge music, too. This record, as surprising the following might sound, is deeply melodic in its festered anti-heart, and it never trades entertainment in for harmful, self-centered misery-arrogance. Guys, let's talk about the music.


The tracks show great consistency with their faithfulness and nice sense of balance maintained towards black and sludge, leading you into this temper of music so efficiently and relentlessly that the treatment leaves no other choice for you than to admit that you found it pervertedly refreshing, no matter that it just cooked you as a side effect.

The flow of the sonic stuff is well varied, I dare say puristically "pure riffistic" on occasion, like in the opening track : the rhythmic complexity and the riffcraft in the song borders on extremely vile banshee-groove metal, and the sludge splashes bring a profound sense of relentless/restless and unavoidable turmoil. This track and the next do a good job representing the favorite mechanics of the disk, as the strict rhythmic emphasis between drums and guitars that starts out from around 3:30 in the fabric of the first track, is one method the album is fond relying on. The consecutive track utilizes it with great success, as well. In this second track, called "Septhichrist", the organic unison connection between the vocals and the pulsation of drums/guitars is quite efficient and frightening. A set of support-guitars create an impenetrable wall of sound structure that imprisons you with the lethal heat it conveys, - an insect-swarm analogy comes to mind, too - and the vocalist and the solo guitar both ride on an evil central melody that promises no good whatsoever. The song in question is able to offer relevant twists and narratives in its fabric even at the peak and at the climax, I just wanted to give you a brief summary of how intricately stacked and planned the compositions are, and I feel that the elements I have been telling you about are of essential ingredients on this contribution.

The very next track, "Vile Divinity" is pretty much groove metal in character in its start section, later on relying on the great insect swarm wall of sound methodology, spiced up once again by the organic, unison rhythmic emphasis expressed through the simultaneous declaration of guitars, drums, and vocals. This track ends with a pretty unfriendly and well sculpted white noise that comes to violate existence to the core. Good luck with that.

The next track, "Levia", is more black metal in character at the start session, the black metal in which decay is tinkering and feels jolly good about that, too. The middle section is more sludgy with a riff idea that even Meshuggah could have come up with, in my opinion. Later on, the black metal idea comes back to claim the leftovers, in order to feed them to the Meshuggah sludge idea. No worries : such a sludge idea eats everything you give to it.

"Ritual Killer" is very reminiscent in its temper-, in its anatomy to the second track on this disk. In the verse structure, Lord Mantis rips off Lord Mantis. GG! This one is the longest delivery on the album, and I like how the wall of sound entities show varied dynamics in it throughout the "quasi-chorus". Though a second take on an idea that the release already has offered in its beginning, I find this variant enjoyable, too, as result of two additional segments that show up later on, channeling almost a progressive vibe. Then, the central idea comes back. "I. Deny. My. Life." Progressive blackened sludge. Bitch, please.

The vocal delivery is worth mentioning separately. It is a mildly effected deranged rasp, and it has legit punch. It reminds me greatly of the vocal rhetorics of Indian, an aggressive sludge band. The drummer of Indian, Bill Bumbgardner, is the drummer on THIS disk, too. There are some pretty sick vocals on display herein, as I will now demonstrate.

Quote from the comment section of this particular "At the Mouth" YouTube video :
"At a minute twenty seven the vocals start spewing putrid howls infected with deathly perversions like I've never heard before."

SledgeGrayMatter9611

Indeed.

To conclude this Pervertor review, I will say this : the stimuli definitely maintains the black metal vibe, yet the pacing of the happenings-, the mere sonic domain the tracks occupy, belong to mammoth sludge. This is a sibling that makes perfect sense in my opinion, and it compliments both directions very efficiently. Courtesy of routes being open and free to take all the time both towards black and sludge, let alone the sessions the disc spends most time on, which is a middle ground between the two, this Lord Mantis LP weighs in AND emerges as a perverted monument created of assembled corpses and it is scanning the scenery for you to add your hide to its anatomy. Now is the time to learn to fly or to look for a jetpack. Or both. Just to be safe.

Rating : 9.0 / 10

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