Fear Factory: ‘Bye and ta for all the nuggets!

It was a very sad day when the announcement arrived that Fear Factory were no more due to vocalist Burton C. Bell’s decision to dedicate his time to something else. It was tragic the band passed into metal history and that there would be no more of their kind of insightful and informed themes of sci-fi flavouring over the solid and unique rocking. ‘Digimortal’ was the last studio instalment in a career that commenced at the beginning of 1990s.

Thus, the first posthumous release (and we hope many more are unearthed) is ‘Concrete’, an album the band cut with the fledgling producer Ross Robinson back in 1991. Although the band, as guitarist Dino Cazares aptly put it, didn’t have the means nor technology to truly embrace the digital-technique, the seeds were sawn, the foundation of the future were being laid. Combining the death-metal of the day with embryonic technology and subjects that had more in common with Jane’s Addiction than W.A.S.P. or number of other contemporaries. We mention the Blackie Lawless’ band because ‘Concrete’ was recorded in his studio where Robinson worked as an engineer.

‘Concrete’ offer genesis of Fear Factory’s sound that, according to Cazares, was better captured on this album than on the official maiden release. Still, half of the 16 tracks were re-recorded for the proper debut album, ‘Soul Of a New Machine’ (1992) with four – ‘Sangre De Ninos’, ‘Deception’, ‘Anxiety’, and ‘Ulceration’ – never before released nor even tempered with in the subsequent years. These tracks really show “where the band came from,” drummer Raymond Herrera rightfully claims.

‘Concrete’ is like a flashback movie, ‘D.O.A’ (the 1950’s title is acronym for ‘Dead On Arrival’, although ‘Sunset Boulevard’ used the same ploy) comes to mind, that dispenses with the ending at once to concentrate on the business of analysing – how did we end up here? Discover how the title track mutated into ‘Concerto’, a bonus track to the 1998’s ‘Obsolete’ or ‘Soulwomb’ transformed into ‘Soulwound’ on the same disc, with the instrumental ‘Echoes Of Innocence’ evolved into ‘A Therapy For Pain’ on ‘Demanufacture’ (1995), that also contained ‘Piss Christ’, a totally different version to the one here.

‘Concrete’ is the sound of a band ascertaining its identity, raw, basic (sans samples and keyboards), the beginning that is fuelled with a wide-eyed potential. Small on budget ($5K) but huge on ideas and ambition. It is a testimony to the path they’ve forged, as Herrera comments, “the roots of Fear Factory”, carved in the prime marble. (The drummer was still in high school at the time!?)

Despite this disc being a delightful reminder of the time when industrial was a future, it is also a source of sobbing on your kush.

7.8/10