Looking for some bone-crunching aural action? Die-hard heavy, death, and nu metal fans need look no further than Fear Factory. The hard-rocking quartet has churned out another spine-chilling album with their 2001 release, Digimortal. Born of all things electronic and evil, Digimortal is a cornucopia of apocalyptic views of the evils waiting outside your door, under your bed, and inside your computer. The complete set of warnings on the dark days ahead linger like dense, lurking shadows in the form of the 11 foreboding tracks on the album. A sincere sense of heeded warning comes straight from Fear Factory's ominous crystal ball on tracks like the terse "What Will Become." The roar-filled title track, "Digimortal," where singer Burton C. Bell speaks of lost innocence and wails repeatedly about getting "one step closer/to my fate," is a more rhythmic version of the same cynical outlook, but with a more musically muscular impact. The techno-like beat and the pounding guitar of "Linchpin" combine to form the perfect eerie backdrop for rap-like spitting of lyrics for Fear Factory's gravely serious pleas for social awareness, when Bell sings, "We will never see the end/we will never breathe again." The lyrics take a defiant stance with "you can't change me," a statement that echoes the sincerity of the sentiments in the movie Shawshank Redemption when the prisoners speak of the safeguarded hope (that place they can't tamper with or destroy) deep inside. Digimortal is an ear-drum puncturing and adrenaline-induced cry out against a warning that the digital age may bring everyone those final fatal steps closer to their eminent doom as vital, viable human beings. ~ Kerry Smith, All Music Guide

Thematically, Fear Factory has been exploring man's relationship with machines since its conception in 1990, and its obsession with cyborgs, robots, and all things sterile and computerized his shaped and manipulated its incendiary brand of heavy metal. In 1993, when the band hooked up with Front Line Assembly foreman Rhys Fulber, Fear Factory discovered the missing link that would help it seamlessly meld the organic with the mechanical. But its music was still daunting and oppressive.

Gradually, however, the band mutated from a hostile and inaccessible death-metal outfit to an innovative and provocative act that's equally fond of ear-catching melodies and head-severing noise. The transformation began with the radio-friendly passages in quot;Resurrection" and the cover of Gary Numan's "Cars," from 1998's Obsolete and reaches a head with the group's latest offering, Digimortal. The disc is Fear Factory's most engaging to date, combining grinding guitars, eerie hooks and vocals that see-saw between acrimony and tuneful woe. Most of the songs clock in at under four minutes and the surging, foot-tapping chorus of the single "Linchpin" sounds tailor-made for MTV. If you're a speed metal freak, before you clench your fists and spit in distain, give a listen to the machine-gun drum blasts and blowtorch guitars in the tune's pre-chorus.

With Digimortal, Fear Factory have achieved a masterful blend of underground rancor and mainstream melody that should excite Linkin Park followers without totally alienating Slayer fans