DATABASE INDEX

Fear Factory-Hatefiles

I love Fear Factory. So the shocking news that the band had decided to split up last year startled me somewhat. I own all of their albums, and so when I discovered Hatefiles in the shops, I decided to complete my collection.

Hatefiles is one of those ghastly "remix" albums. Okay, it's not a true remix album, it only has a few of them, and this is it's most redeeming aspect. A large portion of the songs on Hatefiles, unlike so many other remix albums (such as Limp Bizkit's appalling "New Old Songs") are original unreleased ones. And they are great, encapsulating the spirit of each album. One of the reasons I love Fear Factory is that on each album their sound evolves, and you can pick out even on "Hatefiles" which album the songs come from. Some are poundingly heavy (Machine Debaser) from their mid Obsolete era, and new song "Terminate" sounds awesome, a sign of where the band could have gone.

There are also some good remixes, including the suture mix of "Invisible Wounds" which, misses out the heavy bit to give the song a more continuous sound. It's so good I'm thinking of covering it sometime, if I ever get a band together.

Bad songs? The final 4, from the "Gabber Mixes" They are awful, and should have stayed in the vaults. Still, four bad songs on an 18-song album aint' bad.

Overall, Hatefiles is an essential purchase only for those who love Fear Factory dearly, or those who like "Obsolete" and "Digimortal". Here's to the sixth album, chaps.

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