Sweet new FF album ill check it out, sounds pretty good.

The album's ok, but one major problem I had with it, outside of it's over-reliance on a few certain phrases (not verbal phrases, musical ones), is that Burton's vocals were produced like shit. I actually gave a listen to this album right before I gave Demanufacture a listen and there is definitely a start contrast in the quality of the vocal production. This seems to be a growing problem throughout the small/medium-label-Metal section of the industry.

Wow. I blink and a FF album comes out.

Thanks for the heards-up. Heading to Music World now.

Yeah, I agree. Burt's vox could have been MUCH better. But you do know that nothing they make in the future will ever be as good as Demanufacture. That album is flawless.

Still in the process of listening to the whole thing, but so far it's not that bad. I'll admit, they've done much better, but they've also done worse (Digimortal). This is quite possibly the most aggressive they've been in a while but the aggession doesn't carry as much substance as let's say Soul of a New Machine. I'll give a better review when I'm done listening to the whole thing.

Well this is the second best thing for me this year yet with KoRn's Souve-nirs of Sadness (if the songs on the 7th album turn out to be on the level of Hypocrite and Twisted Transistor, then I/we have a new whomper - even though KoRn's Budapest concert was...well, remotely a concert in lenght and coherency)

Say, the quality is pretty good, but I disagree with the U2 song. I actually enjoyed it, being a fan, seems like we get very good metal coverages up this year. Oh jolly, this is truly a wondrouis year, now I can replace my SlipKno t- Subliminal Verses vol. 1 and Daargard with this.

BTW, good rewiew.

Yes, Digimortal was quite bad. Saying they're aggresssive is true. Can't wait for your review.
EDIT: Don't forget to go to the bonus site that is on the CD. It has the song My Grave. Great song, it should have been on the album.

Ok I've listened to Trasgession about 8 times since I picked it up Thursday afternoon, and I think I'm ready to give a more in depth review.

Before I get to the track by track I have a few things I'd like to mention. First, I was kinda peeved at the choice of making the disc a dual sided disc. Archetype had the two disc set and that was fine, but I hate this dual dics bullshit. I already have scuffs and scratches on the DVD side and I havn't even had the cd for more than two days! The DVD is ok, but nothing special. The videos are cool and all but there is nothing really to the "making of" part. I was waiting for stuff like "How has the band been without Dino now that they have moved to their second album without him" or "why they decided to cover U2's 'I Will Follow'". But nothing of the sort. It's more or less FF talking about how they're trying new stuff like solo's (something that's totally new to FF) and how they brought on the bassist from Faith No More to do some bass work for Contagion. I was even hoping for a sit down with Byron Stroud on how the past year has been for him filling in the empty spot and managing his time between Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad. Lastly, and this is just a random note, but I'm digging the logo for the album. If there is one thing that has always improved from album to album is the band's logo. It's basically the logo from Archetype fused together to make a skull. but anyway, on to the reason why I picked up Transgession, the music.

I stated before that so far the album seemed to be a more agressive Fear Factory, but this was prior to listening past "Contagion". I'd like to rephrase that now. Transgression seems to be Fear Factory at their hardest since "0-0 (Where Evil Dwells)" but also is the happiest I've ever heard Fear Factory. I'll get to that later, now on to the track by track review.

540,000 degrees Fahrenheit - I've gotten to expect this type of song from Fear Factory. Clear vocals for the the most part with the typical Bell growls mixing it up. Something that is different though is that Herrera's double bass work is no where to be found. Instead it's more cymbol crashes, the rest of his drum work is drowned out by Christians guitar, which may not be a bad thing, but it's kinda weird not hearing Herrera as much anymore.

Transgression - Ok the title track. I was spoiled for this one seeing as how I first heard it on Wednesday live when Fear Factory played at Gigantour (awesome fucking show, only wish the venue was better suited for the line-up). Fear Factory is one of those bands that sounds just as good if not better live. Live, "Transgression" blew me away. On the album though it snuck right by me. Seriously by the time I got to Contagion I was like "wait, I'm on track four already?!?". Which leads me to...

Spinal Compression - Finally Herrera's double bass kicks in, or at least the first time I heard it on the entire album. But the problem with "Spinal Compression" is the same as with the first two tracks, they all seem to meld into one track which leaves them all lacking that unique quality Fear Factory tracks used to have once upon a time. Idiviually all three are great agressive tracks that can get any crowd going nuts, but back to back it left me wanting a change. But that was answered with "Contagion".

Contagion - Ok if you ask me this should have been the opening track. That opening bass is sick! Contagion is the first track I've heard from the last three albums that I feel belongs on Obsolete. This is the Fear Factory I have grown to love. It's hard. It's abrassive, and just like clockwork Burton goes into his melodic vocals for the hook. This is isn't my just my favorite track on Transgression, but it's better than anything on Digimortal, Hatefiles, and Archetype! There really isn't anything more I can say about this track.

Empty Vessel - TakerMk put it best. Nothing special, but not horrible.

Echo of My Scream - Burton's unique gift has always been able to go from death growl to melodic vocals without any problem. And it's that melodic part that really shines here. It is weird for the slow song to be in the middle, but it's still really good. There's really nothing to write about the instumeents on this one because it's all about Burton's vocals.

Supernova - Ok this is when the album got weird for me. Happy Fear Factory. It's very different. I hate this track. It's very reminiscent of current Pop/Punk garbage like Green Day to me (and if you know of my hatred of Green Day you'd know that that's a bad thing). I'll give it that it's catchy, but that isn't always a good thing. I don't want this one stuck in my head for days. I'll forgive them this once.

New Promise - That promise better be that they'll never write another "Supernova". Anyway, I was expecting yet another melodic song, but I was wrong. This one is the one that got me going "when did they start with the solo's" Which is cool. I love solo's, especially when they let someone's talent really shine like Christian's. If he felt he had to continue to prove to fans that he's a good lead guitar than this is where he did it. Next album, let's have a bass solo please!!! (Yes I have a thing for bass solos)

I Will Follow - Ok I'm a U2 fan so this is coming with some bias, but I liked FF's cover of "I Will Follow". So far Fear Factory has covered Gary Newman's "Cars", Nirvana's "School" and now U2's "I Will Follow". Cars is still my favorite cover, but I Will Follow comes in a very close second. Had they brought in Bono to sing on the track with them and I'd probabably put this at the top of the covers list.

Millennium - Two covers back to back, but I don't lump this in with the rest of the covers for some reason. I really am liking this track more and more and I think it's probably my second favorite on the album. I'm going to have to listen to some Killing Joke now.

Moment of Impact - Back to the heavy stuff and thank god. After the last six tracks I was wondering if the album was going to go back to the agression it started, and it did. This sounds like it will be one of those songs they play live that just drives the crowd insane. This is ther kind of track that can get a sick pit going fast.

My Grave - This one isn't on the actual album but can be heard when putting the cd in a PC and going to the webpage that comes up. It would have been a good track to put in just before I Will Follow to keep a good pace going, but ohh well. Not a bad track at all, I'd like to know why they kept this one off but left Supernova on.


In the end the album is ok. It's nowhere near their best work, but it's still better than Digimortal. I'm still kind of unsure where to place it but here's how I'm ranking it right now.

Demanufacture
Soul of a New Machine
Archetype
Obsolete
Transgession
Hatefiles (only because it actually has some original songs on it)
Digimortal

Transgession may have been a little rushed, but it doesn't necessarily suck. The mixing could have been better because eveything seems to mesh together and occasionally the drums and bass dissapear entirely. another thing. Fear Factory really needs to find a home label. They were on Roadrunner for years and left on a very bitter note, jumped to Liquid 8 to put out Archetype and now have jumped to Navarre. Both of the past two really make it seem like FF was desperate to get their albums out and went with the first label they found. On top of that both Liquid 8 and Navarre arn't even suited labels for metal. I wouldn't mind if FF took a year or so to find a lebal that they can feel comforatble to stay with and sit down and write a complete album, because the past two feel like they wanted to put something out to let everyone know they were back.

Very good review SOS. Much better than mine, lol.

well FF the sound is too great , i love this kind of music
only the rap or other thing i don't care
my favorite song is in the first Mk movies the fight of Johnny cage vs scorpion
and one of my favorite game Carmaggedon it's Zero signal
OooO Metal rules my friend