`Mechanize' is the first new album in five years from metal future-thinkers Fear Factory. Featuring a revamped line-up, including the return of original guitarist Dino Cazares and programmer/producer Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly), the album is a full-fisted blast of passion and innovation that sounds like the missing link between's 1995's groundbreaking `Demanufacture' and 1998's more texturally nuanced `Obsolete'. Recorded in Los Angeles it is instantly reminiscent of Fear Factory's most potent moments of discovery yet is hardly a stroll down the old assembly line. Inspired in part by Alvin Toffler's 1984 treatise Third Wave, 'Mechanize' is simply and utterly crushing. From album opener "Industrial Discipline," with its fast rhythms and pinwheeling vocals, to "Fear Campaign," featuring harrowing spoken word passages backed by punishing beats, rapid-fire riffs and ghostly keyboards, 'Mechanize' spectacularly showcases Fear Factory's street-lethal metal. And for the first time in years, the band's industrial and much beloved roots shine through; a first since the band's highly successful remix albums, `Fear is the Mindkiller' and `Remanufacture.'
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