FEAR FACTORY’s final studio album featuring vocalist Burton C Bell is nothing short of brilliant. While it’s extremely frustrating that one of my all-time favorite bands is no longer the same with Bell now having jumped ship, I can look back at all of the great music that the legendary duo of Dino Cazares and Bell created together. I’m even prouder that I actually saw this band perform live at the height of their musical greatness plus getting to meet Bell face to face before the show, as well as interview both he and Dino. That all being said, the last collection of songs these two have released as the mighty FF is right up there with the group’s best music ever produced.
Kicking off the with the brutally powerful “Recode” and the even more slamming “Disruptor,” it’s clear to see that Dino and Burton aren’t pulling any punches, the two metal icons always kept their musical chemistry intact, no matter what outside drama got in the way. Up next, the title track “Aggression Continuum” keeps the momentum going in the right direction, followed by “Purity” and my favorite cut on the album, the massive sounding “Fuel Injected Suicide Machine.”
The next set of songs to end the album are not filler of any kind. The rocking “Collapse” calls for the evacuation of citizens as if in some sort of future world collapse scenario, “Bow down to your killers!” Bell roars with the intensity of a serial killer who is itching to rip a new victim’s eyes out. Concluding with “Manufactured Hope”, “Cognitive Dissonance,” “Monolith” and “End of the Line,” all I can say is that any fan of really well written industrial groove metal is going to absolutely love this album. Hopefully, Burton won’t be gone long. I am keeping my fingers crossed that his absence will be too much of a blow for the band to take from a business standpoint and eventually, perhaps two albums from now, one of the greatest metal singers ever will be back fronting FEAR FACTORY.
ROCKET REVIEW: FEAR FACTORY – “Aggression Continuum” (CD)
(Napalm Records/2021)
1. Recode
2. Disruptor
3. Aggression Continuum
4. Purity
5. Fuel Injected Suicide Machine
6. Collapse
7. Manufactured Hope
8. Cognitive Dissonance
9. Monolith
10. End of Line
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