New Fear Factory CD gets release date

Candlelight Records today confirms February 9 as the American release date for Mechanize, the seventh studio album from Fear Factory. Mechanize features the highly reported reconciliation of vocalist Burton C. Bell with original guitarist Dino Cazares along with bassist Byron Stroud and journeyman drummer Gene Hoglan (Dethklok, Strapping Young Lad). The anticipated album also welcomes back keyboardist/producer Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly).

Mechanize is a full-fisted blast of passion and innovation that sounds like the missing link between 1995's groundbreaking Demanufacture and 1998's more texturally nuanced Obsolete. Songs like "Industrial Discipline" and "Powershifter" are crushing and colossal, melding fast and precise rhythms with vocals that pinwheel from raw and scathing to hauntingly melodic while "Fear Campaign," which features harrowing spoken word passages, quickly segues into a showcase of punishing beats, rapid-fire riffs and ghostly keyboards. For the first time in years, the band's industrial roots glimmer through its street-lethal metal, thanks in part to Fulber, who worked on Fear Factory's popular industrial remix albums Fear is the Mindkiller and Remanufacture.

"I didn't want any of the soundscapes to sound natural," says Bell. "I wanted them to be really mechanical because I wanted that aspect of Fear Factory to really shine again. I feel it kind of got dulled over and that's the aspect that I really enjoyed a lot about Fear Factory. I was a huge fan of industrial music and still am. And you don't hear much of that anymore these days."

While Mechanize is instantly reminiscent of Fear Factory's most potent moments of discovery, it's hardly a stroll down the old assembly line. Through a combination of technological advancements and experience, Fear Factory have evolved like a computer virus, constantly reconfiguring itself to maximize its destructive impact. As work began on the album in early April, Bell, who resides in Pennsylvania, admitted he initially expected the years apart would leave him feeling awkward or uncomfortable. However, when Cazares picked him up at the airport his apprehensions melted like a block of ice on a hot electric motor. "After being with him a couple hours and talking to him everything was cool," Bell says. Three months later the duo had a fresh batch of new songs written and more importantly a renewed confidence in their union.

"Our creative juices were really flowing the whole time," says Cazares about the entire creative process. "All of a sudden we'd look at the clock and go, 'Holy shit, it's already 2:30 or 3:00 am.' We just lost track of time because we were all bouncing ideas off each other really productively. We were adding touches right up until the final second to make the record as fresh as it could be."

In the early '90s, many years before Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall started combining strangled growls with catchy vocal melodies, and Static-X and Rammstein began blending