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Rating:
You may have heard about it or maybe it slipped past you in the CD store, because such mistakes shouldn't happen anymore.
'Obsolete' is a CD to buy sight unseen, a rarity in the genre or rather a spectacular blend of styles. Opening the artwork, you glimpse something special apart from the lyrics, what you are seeing is a story written by the intricate growl producer Burton C. Bell. He tells us how in 2076 we will be defeated by what was initially our creation: the cyborgs; and the songs follow the plot weaving into the album's context.
Listening to it, I find various cohesive elements with the previous CDs, from the catatonic riffs of the first one to the increasingly complex drum parts of the second. With the bassist taking more charge of the music, the bass sound is more refined, listen to "Edgecrusher". A brutal assault opens the first track "Shock" where for the first 32 seconds there is speed and precision on the drums, essentially the best drumming in Fear Factory's history. It continues with the aforementioned leading to the third track "Smasher/Devourer" where the drum changes between verses and choruses are more pronounced, fused with the rest of the band. The android "Securitron [police state 2000]" is a song that tells how the invader defeats the police state that doesn't know how to oppose it, and in "Descent", the most beautiful, it is man wondering how he will escape this abyss "Life did not offer me more than false destiny".
With "Hi-Tech Hate" it’s the weapons of mass destruction, of the cyborg, that are devastating, anticipating "Freedom or Fire" which are the thrashiest and most powerful songs on the CD. The title track is not very cheerful as it renders obsolete all that we believed in a "Resurrection", we find the dark and melodic "Timelessness" ending with a world in ruins and a damn cyborg that enslaves us.
Compared to "Demanufacture", I find it better mixed with less harsh sound, but comparing "Descent" to "Dog Day Sunrise", I find this CD less dispersive and more concrete. They don't abandon the metal vein for a crossover sound; they simply don't make a "Demanufacture" part two, asserting themselves as the legends of the industrial genre.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Shock (04:58)
Shock
Shock
Shock
Shock
Welcome to my world
Headfirst to the earth
With my sights on the goddamn kill switch
I've become a fuse
Charged with attitude
Fixed and dialated by my anger
I have become a direct
I have become a current
I have become a direct
I have become insurgent
I will be the power surge
Shock to the system
Electrified, amplified
Shock to the system
Shock
Shock
Alternate my wires
Heat my core desire
I will not stand for condemnation
I've become the volts
To lead the revolt
Fuck with me ensues certain danger
I have become a direct
I have become a current
I have become a direct
I have become insurgent
I will be the power surge
Shock to the system
Electrified, amplified
Shock to the system
I am the power surge
I am the insurgent
Electrified, amplified
Electrified, amplified
Shock!
02 Edgecrusher (03:39)
Due to the graphic nature of this program, listener discretion,
is advised.
Conceived in a hell beyond your depth of perception
Chaotic case of conquering domination
Psychopath snaps, fired chains of imprisonment
A bludgeoning force that's undermining the government
Bridge:
Inflict strain upon the structure
Collapsing below my pressure
Inflict strain upon the structure
Collapsing below my pressure
Chorus:
Break of the Edgecrusher
Break of the Edgecrusher
Break of the Edgecrusher
Break of the Edgecrusher
Break of the Edgecrusher
Break of the Edgecrusher
The purist, non-conformist, jaded subhuman terrorist
From flesh to steel & blood to blade, I fight to exist
A rival of justice, extreme rush of hatred
Survival in a twisted world where nothing is sacred
(Bridge and Chorus 2x)
Break of the Edgecrusher
Break of the Edgecrusher
05 Descent (04:36)
Descent...
Descent...
Falling victim from neglect
Designed thoughts and intellect
Forgotten and displaced
The crux of my dismay
I feel nothing
I am nothing
I feel nothing
Nothing
How deep I descend?
Until I reach my end?
How deep I descend?
How deep I descend?
Until I reach my end?
How deep I descend?
Deeper into this abyss
Weighted down and sinking fast
Life did not offer me
More than false destiny
I feel nothing
I am nothing
I feel nothing
Nothing
How deep I descend?
Until I reach my end?
How deep I descend?
How deep I descend?
Until I reach my end?
How deep I descend?
I am nothing
I feel nothing
I am nothing
I feel nothing
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing...
How deep I descend?
Until I reach my end?
How deep I descend?
How deep I descend?
Until I reach my end?
How deep I descend?
How deep I descend?
How deep I descend?
How deep I descend?
How deep I descend?
07 Freedom or Fire (05:11)
How can you accept social suppression
This weak state of mind in our time
I demand release from hypocrisy
I'd rather die than be held down, forced down
Freedom or fire
Freedom or fire
Freedom or fire
Freedom or fire
I'm on the threshold of revolution
I'd rather burn than be held down, forced down
Freedom or fire
Freedom or fire
Freedom or fire
Freedom or fire
Unrestrained determination
Set ablaze for liberation
Huh !
Locked in chains of this sovereignty
Let me be 'cause I long to be
Free!
Free!
Free!
Locked in chains of this sovereignty
Let me be 'cause I long to be
Free!
Free!
Free!
Unrestrained determination
Set ablaze for liberation
Set ablaze
Set ablaze
Set ablaze
Set ablaze
Freedom or fire
Freedom or fire
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom or fire
08 Obsolete (03:51)
Nothing is the way it seems, discerning man from machines
Dominate as to erase, wiping man off earth's face
Fueling engines through deceit, to eradicate humanity
Man is obsolete
Erased, extinct
Nothing is the way it seems
Discerning man from machines now
Dominate as to erase
Wiping man off Earth's face now
Defaced by all inept justice
Shamed by the mental abuses
Branded "inferior weakness"
Ordered to cease and to desist
Man is obsolete
Our world, obsolete
Man is obsolete
Erased, extinct
(Man) Obsolete [x4]
Fueling engines through deceit
To eradicate humanity
Defaced by all inept justice
Shamed by the mental abuses
Branded "inferior weakness"
Ordered to cease and to desist
Man is obsolete
Our world, obsolete
Man is obsolete
Erased, extinct [x2]
(Man) Obsolete [x4]
Man is obsolete [x4]
09 Resurrection (06:35)
Consumed with memories that preceded today
Given a chance to bereave life that's slipping away
Suffered through tragedy of my slow decay
Deceptive tendencies dragged my soul away
All that I know there was no god for me
Force that shatters all, absence of mortality
Revive all my fears
Revive wasted tears
Revive void within
Revive once again...
Forsaken by destiny, forsaken by my own mind
I must remove my skin to see belief in your eyes
All that I know there was no god for me
Force that shatters all, absence of humanity
Revive all my fears
Revive wasted tears
Revive void within
Revive once again...
Revive all my fears
Revive wasted tears
Revive void within
Revive once again...
Reach for the sky
Touch the sky
Revive a hope
For mankind
10 Timelessness (04:08)
I've felt darkness
closing in on me
chilling shadows
surrounding me
I've had the poison
leak into my skin
and it corroded
my heart away
bled away
cut away
dark night of my soul... [4x]
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Other reviews
By cliffburton86
Bell Burton’s performance is, indeed, very inconsistent; his growls are very powerful and wicked, but when he presents his 'clean' voice, it’s painful.
The album features many 'metropolitan' effects, in urban violence style and police radio transmissions.
