Stop press, Fear Factory have split up! Stop press, Fear Factory are back together! Stop press Fear Factory are touring again. Stop press Fear Factory have cancelled as they cannot call themselves Fear Factory. Stop press, oh you get the idea it’s all a bit silly with people not talking to each other and saying they never actually left the band in the first place etc etc. In the meantime the family tree has shot lots of new leaves and as far as this review update is concerned is blooming wonderfully. Elsewhere you will find write ups of Divine Heresy, which is guitarist Dino Cazares love child and there is also Tenet, which is basically members of Strapping Young Lad without the Devster including current Fear Factories Gene Hoglan and Byron Stroud. By pure chance I ended up with the debut from Arkaea in my review pile and this group comprises of Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera who are those members of Fear Factory that actually aren’t. Confused well yep that’s understandable.
If you are looking for that Fear Factory sound this is probably the purest of the three albums at least as far as instrumentally is concerned. In fact half the songs on it were originally going to be on the new Fear Factory album; well they would have been if Christian and Raymond had actually still been in the group. Joining them are two Threat Signallers; Jon Howard on vocals and Pat Kavanagh on bass and this is a bit of an amalgamation between the two bands identities as expected.
‘Locust’ booms in as though on a spring with a boing laden tumult from the drums and thickset bass. The gruff tones of Jon are not what are expected and neither are the clean sweeping croons either, which makes this sound completely different than if Burton C Bell had stamped authority across it. Although flexing muscles with a solid battery the vocals are possibly a bit too melodious for some. However that is not to say they are bad and in fact on ‘Beneath The Shades Of Grey,’ when the howling hateful snarls give way to them, the uplifting chorus actually reminds me a lot of Perry Farrell and Janes Addiction, which certainly took me by surprise. Hell it’s almost ‘Summertime Rolls’ before the drumming pile-drives back in and kicks you in the head. Some of the songs here are catchy as hell, and the diversity of extremity and accessibility works well in their favour making things neither too wimpy for the bruisers nor too heavy for the wimps. In other words it has quite a good crossover appeal to those who are not going to be put off by the modern metal sheen which, it has been polished with until sparkling.
Has this got the potential to be as big as say Fear Factory, well yes possibly! Take a note of the rousing football stadium croons on ‘Awakening’ they are designed to be hollered by fans across big auditoriums on tour. The musicianship is none too shoddy and the pace and energy behind things is zealous and commendable, designed to have the most cynical getting down and breaking into a sweat. A couple of things not in its favour are the group’s name; it hardly rolls off the tongue really does it? They could have come up with something a bit better, like perhaps Threat Factory, now there’s a thought. Also as far as ‘Years In The Darkness’ is concerned it does outstay its welcome a bit, compared to the short sharp shock of the Tenet album, which does the complete opposite
Obviously there is a large degree of familiarity behind this, it certainly is no shock to the system like the one I got jolted by the first time I heard Fear Factory. On the strength of ‘Years In The Darkness’ though, Arkaea have definitely emerged into the light at the end of the tunnel and I have a feeling they are going to be one of the next big things you read about in the more mainstream glossy press.
http://www.myspace.com/arkaeamusic
