Acid Bath - When the Kite String Pops (1994)

When the Kite String Pops was released in 1994 to very little fanfare. Like most, I discovered this record (and the follow up, Paegan Terrorism Tactics) well after the band had disbanded in 1997 following the death of Audie Pitre, the bass player and founding member. And, I'm glad I found this album, because it belongs in the collection of any doom, sludge, or groove aficionado. The compositions often seem schizophrenic, swinging wildly between a slow doom riff to a staccato machine gun blast, and it often seems as if a thick layer of madness is somehow keeping it all together. Unlike the more self-aware and carnivalesque metal that purports to be evil while offering a nod and a wink, this record is just downright filthy and has me pulling police reports from Louisiana, convinced that there must have been a string of murders that somehow went unreported. At times, this record seems more like a confession letter than fiction.

That's also what makes it so remarkable. From the first track, the blend of sludge, doom, southern rock, and thrash is evident. The record starts off with feedback and syncopated drumming that builds tension until, suddenly, it stops, resolving itself with a low bass line. The kite string has officially popped, and we are all well and truly fucked. A few measures later, the guitar provides some higher pitched contrast and “The Blue” is in full effect. The instruments are layered on until Dax Riggs screams “Across your face I see what you are,” and the song takes a turn towards something groovier but no less heavy. Like many Acid Bath songs, “The Blue” transitions between slow and fast with incredible precision. The transitions never feel forced, and Riggs' vocals go from a hardcore scream to croon without seeming forced or awkward.

'Everybody whispers where birds fall dead
I smell the yellow sickness churning inside your head
Wiping flecks of foam, twisting with rabies
Bloody, we run through these fields of dead daisies'

While “The Blue” sets the tone for the album, and many other songs incorporate the style shifting seen here, none of the tracks feel like a rehash of previous ones. This record builds throughout the first five songs, culminating in “Jezebel,” one of the fastest tracks on the album and probably the most straight forward example of what happens when the full force of Acid Bath is unleashed. The tremelo picked guitar sections hearken back to Heartwork era Carcass without feeling derivative. It is here that we see the first big shift in style on the record as the relentless guitars give way to a lone bass line at the beginning of “Scream of the Butterfly,” perhaps the creepiest ballad ever written. The song builds from the lone bass line and along the way picks up clean vocals and the occasional guitar flourish until the last minute when the drums become more audible and driving, leading us to the grisly conclusion and some of my favorite lyrics from the album.

'With sunlight in her hair she smiles like she don't care
Her dreams of liquid blue
I cut my self again and again to remind myself of you'

While I would be perfectly content if the album ended here, it doesn't. The album reverts back to the beginning and “Dr. Seuss Is Dead” begins much as “The Blue” does: feedback gives way to a sludgy bass line, and we are in for eight more tracks of madness and even another ballad. The rest of the album is as unhinged and brilliant as the first half, and during “Dope Fiend” it seems the band asks its listeners why we are punishing ourselves by experiencing this album at all:

'Why do you love to lick my wounds?
Why do you love to feel my pain?
Why do you love to suck my life?
Why do you love to lick my wounds?'

Somehow, all of these disparate elements combine to form something coherent, and the conclusion of the album makes me feel a bit more like I just escaped a serial killer's lair than listened to an album. The wild style shifts conjures images of an unhinged person who may be tranquil and sedate one moment until something snaps and they have a knife in your face asking if you ever wanted your last moment to be one in which you glimpse your still beating heart.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10]

http://www.myspace.com/realacidbath

Fear Factory - Mechanize (2010)

Activating with swirling synthetics and clunking samples, the opening title track to Fear Factory's Mechanize comes out swinging like drunken motherfucker who was awakened by a slap in the face (An apt analogy for Fear Factory's career as a whole, I'd like to think). Coming off the drab Digimortal and Transgression albums, as well as the just-sorta-decent Archetype, a re-energized Burton Bell bellows out “We've become mechanized”... and damn son, it shows.

The 'comeback' album has become all the rage in recent years for the old warhorses of metal. Metallica, Megadeth, and Machine Head, just to list a few, have made attempts to bring it back. Add Fear Factory to that list. Mechanize eschews the jumpdafuckup aesthetics of the last decade of material and instead focuses squarely on the elements of the music that made this industrial/death band the trailblazers that they were: The industrial and, especially, the death metal. Mechanize reeks of tremolo, ethereal webs of samples, blast beats, and tasty down tuned grooves. This is more than likely the result of three factors: Dino Cazares returning after some time with the techy Divine Heresy, the return of Rhys Fulber on synths, and the entrance of Gene Fuckin' Holgan. The result is, by far, their heaviest album.

While “Mechanize” serves as a decent opening, it's also the weakest track. The song just never seems to completely blossom despite it stupidly attempting to be heavy. Its an over-extended intro that could've probably been cut at the first pre-chorus and been more effective. Don't believe me? Try it. Wait until about 1:44 and then skip to “Industrial Discipline”. I'll wait.

Kickass, eh?

Speaking of “Industrial Discipline”...

The second track is where the album truly gets its shit together. Soaring choruses, motorized double bass, chugging, piston-pumping riffage, and an unabashed use of big, full chords really make this track a standout. Sadly, “Fear Campaign” can't sustain the power and there's a definite decline despite the blastbeat opening. “Fear Campaign” seems to fall prey to the same faults as “Mechanize” trying to adhere to the new Fear Factory feel and as a result it feels forced. There's also a huge what-the-fuck moment when a guitar solo rips out. Thankfully, like someone who yells out something embarrassing right when everyone around them stops talking, the “solo” is never heard from again for the duration.

From track four, “Powershifter”, and on, this album slays. The amazing close of the brooding slow-burner “Oxidizer”. The pinpoint accurate start-stop of “Christploitation”. The atmospheric and deliberately paced evil of “Designing the Enemy”. The hard-driving, full throttle bluntness of “Controlled Demolition”. All up to the endcap of the album, the wrenching “Final Exit”, all of the cold, angled digital chaos we've been wanting from Fear Factory since Obsolete is present, accounted for, and exceptional. The B-movie sci-fi post-apocalyptic themes of sentient technology, paranoia, and distrust of the powers-that-be are here in full force, for better or worse.

So, what's the verdict on Mechanize?

With the obligatory “If you're a fan” statement already known to be a “yes”, then we'll get straight to the meat of the issue: It's good. It's damn good. If Obsolete was your FF album of choice, then it's the strongest since Obsolete. If Demanufacture is your favorite, then it's the best since Demanufacture. If Soul of a New Machine is your favorite, then... well, you need to wake up and smell the mechanical rose-bots, as that album has not aged well at all. An argument could be made in favor of Mechanize being their best album to date. For the record, I'm completely behind that argument. Mechanize is their most engaging, best written, and heaviest offering. It's a shame that it was written two decades into this bands career, and as such will never be as influential or as relevant as their first three releases. Too many other bands have taken cues from Demanufacture over the years and run with them. Even so, it deserves a spot at the top for this influential band who simply took a turn for the worst... for ten years.

Despite not having fifty percent of the founding members (And judging from drummer Raymond Herrera and string slinger Christian Olde Wolbers current work in Arkaea, this is a good thing), Fear Factory have been rekindled and revived, dead weight cut away, the dust and cobwebs brushed off, and diesel-engine madness RPM's in the red. It's been stated by Burton C. Bell that the purpose of Fear Factory was to be a thing of steel: Perfunctory, driven by a single purpose, mechanical, not human. And while some may state that a follow-up to Demanufacture (or Obsolete) was never accomplished with their previous outings, I can easily and unequivocally state that, despite two missteps early on, it has been accomplished here.

(Note: “Christploitation” is a stupid fucking song name. It sounds like a Dethklok song title. Think “Bloodrocution” and “Hatredcopter”.)

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]

www.myspace.com/fearfactory