Digimortal

Fear Factory's fourth "proper" studio album, released in April 2001. Fear Factory are back on form! I liked 1998's Obsolete, I really did, but I always had this nagging feeling that it wasn't the best they could do. But Digimortal is a fantastic CD. Opening track What Will Become? starts quietly with a subtle industrial scraping in an odd rhythm, which is then brought into straight four with the bass drum before everything explodes into pure thundering, riffing, screaming Fear Factory mayhem.

And it just gets better- Linchpin soars majestically while Acres of Skin beats you down and grinds your face into the tarmac. Back the Fuck Up is an excelent foray into the hip-hop crossover area, and it actually works, thanks in no small way to guest vocals from Cypress Hill's B-Real. The closing track, (Memory Imprints) Never End is simply magnificent, with powerchords-a-plenty and Burtons mile-high vocals working perfectly.

Its not really a revolutionary album. Its not going to change the face of music. What it is, though, is a great album from a great band who just want to make great music and know exactly how to do it.

Bandmember descriptions in the booklet:

• Dino Cazares: Energised Riff Traumatizer (Guitar)
• Burton C. Bell: Resonating Biodroid (Vocals)
• Raymond Herrera: Automated Rhythmic Attacker (Drums)
• Christian Olde Wolbers: Subsonic Assasin and Auxiluary Resonator (Bass and backing Vocals)

Tracklist:

1. What Will Become?
2. Damaged
3. Digimortal
4. No One
5. Linchpin
6. Invisible Wounds (Dark Bodies)
7. Acres of Skin
8. Back the Fuck Up
9. Byte Block
10. Hurt Conveyor
11. (Memory Imprints) Never End

Produced by Rhys Fulber and Fear Factory
Mixed by Mike Polotnikoff and Fear Factory

The idea or theme of this album, and namely the song Digimortal is the idea of immortality through technology. During an interview on Loud on Muchmusic (the canadian alternative to emptyV) Burton explained that the idea was that one can become digimortal through a series of steps. (In my head earlier I was pondering something to the effect of these and as if Burton took the words out of my mouth).

1. When future technology allows, replicate your brain and memories and back them up on a computer. Keep the backup as up to date as possible.
2. Keep a sample of your tissue in storage. This comes in later.
3. Get killed.
4. Have yourself cloned from the earlier saved tissue, and have your memory restored from the back up (assuming technology allows).

And there you have it: The key to digital immortality. The song of replica on the album deals with this theme as well. The fear of man becoming obsolete is already upon us. Not to say that humans are or will be replaced by something more efficient. Its merely a likely and horrifying predition. Essentially, in this system man will have conquered his mortality and life will cease to have meaning anymore.