If you love the heaviest of heavy metal and have not heard this album, you do not know what you are missing! This album is truely awesome. It all starts off with "Shock", a heavy, grinding, kickin song, perfect for waking you up when you feel a little logy. From there, we have my personal favorite, "Edgecrusher", which kind of sounds like a Korn song, only about ten times better than anything by that band. From there, you've got several raging, bone-shattering songs that will blow you right out of your seat (with a short break from the heaviness on "Descent"). Perhaps the most interesting tracks, though, are the last two, "Resurrection" and "Timelessness". "Resurrection" features fast, eighties-rock-type guitar and soft vocals all the way through. Very cool. But, the most surprising of them all is "Timelessness", a soft, beautiful song with a string section. Yep, great album, almost all the way through (some songs I may have to listen to a bit to like more). As you probably already know, this is a concept album, and the storyline is great, it would make a killer movie. This is a bit different from their previous albums, but it's far from a sellout. This makes stuff from Korn and Limp Bizkit sound quite wimpy. Anyway, this album is very much recommended, I would also recommend "Demanufacture", it's probably even better than this (I wanted to buy it first, but this was the only one they had), but don't get "Soul of a New Machine" unless you like death metal type stuff. Oh, and make sure you get the version of this album that doesn't have "Cars", unless somehow you actually like that song. Well, that's about it. Buy this album, it is very heavy and very cool!

Having heard a few tracks from this album and liking them alot i went out and brought it. I had resnobly high expectations of this album and i wasnt dissapointed. Obsolete is a masterfully constructed tale of a not to distnat future where machines created by man are threating to make man obsolete and free speech and democracy are thing of the past. Each track tells part of the overall story which centers around the Edgecrusher and his fight for freedom. There are some great tracks on this album and Fear Factory show that they are multi dimensional by playing in various tempos and speeds something which many metal bands out there today seem to have trouble doing. Burton's soulfull voice comes out in the more placids tracks and builds some great atmosphere while in the harder songs he screams with the best of them. Showing again the ability of this band. My favourite track would probably be Edgecrusher but the whole albums great other highlights would probably be Decent, Securitron, Ressurection and Timelessness. Great stuff. Thanks guys for a great album. Rock on.

To all FF fans. Remember how nearly all Fear Factory songs are based around the drums? Well, on this cd, drums are a background instrument. That's right, the guitar is the main focus in this cd, and the drums merely back it up. That being said, while having a sound that differentiates from the typical Fear Factory we know and love, this cd still manages to achieve the loud, "Turn that down, young man!" values we've come to expect from a good Fear Factory album. The opening title, Shock, says on its own before you've gone any further that the cd is going to kick some seriously(...) butt. The next song, Edgecrusher, used turn tables to enhance the already high octane chorus that will have you speeding 90 miles down a crowded freeway if you're not careful. Smasher/devourer takes a step down, losing the fast pace of "High" octane and replacing it with "Pure" octane. In other words: turn it up as loud as you freakin can, cuz this one sounds best that way. Securitron 2000 is kind of a bland song, offering nothing special, although the opening is cool. Hi-Tech Hate is an awesome song that uses heavy drums and awesome guitar to make the vocals of Burton C. Bell seem even cooler than they already are. Freedom or Fire is a fast paced, guitar based song that you can't not listen to. Obsolete has a cool chorus, but the rest of it sounds kinda like everyone was doin their own thing instead of making a song. Resurrection uses an orchestra and heavy guitar combined the Burton's awesome melodic vocals to make for a 6 minute piece that's so good it doesn't even feel like 6 minutes. Timelessness uses the orchestra also, however, this time, it's incredibly depressing. If you're having troubles in life, skip this one or you'll kill yourself listening to it. lol, j/k. Cars...cars, cars, cars...I never thought the 80's version could get cooler. But guess what, with the combined vocals of Burton C. Bell and the original singer, Gary Numan, this song is pulled off with excellency and is easily one of the best songs on the cd. NOTE: A very interesting feature in this cd, for those of you who look at lyrics books, is a screenplay written inside the lyrics book. The screenplay revolves around the songs, and it all makes sense if you read through it. It's definitely worth checking out.

Make no mistake, my friends: this is NOT another baggy-pants, backwards baseball cap, "Yo Punk!" nu-metal album. This is heavy industrial METAL with a sci-fi story to back it up.

In a way, this CD would make a great soundtrack to the Terminator trilogy: cold, heartless, heavy, machine-laden music telling the story of the EDGECRUSHER: a cold, heartless, machine that was "percieved in hell beyond your depth of perception". My favorite songs on here include Shock, Edgecrusher, Smasher/Devourer (which describe the T-800 to a T), Securitron (Police State 2000), Resurrection, and Cars. Most of the songs on here are good, but there is a dud or two. But we'll all survive.

Burton's voice can go from beautiful singing to a deafening roar, Dino's guitar buzzes like a metal factory, Christian's bass gives the music backbone, and Raymond's double-bass kicks gives it more of an industrial edge. It makes for one hell of an album.

All in all, you need to have this one. Especially if NIN and Ministry are your ideas of ear candy.

FF has certainly lost something since the Demanufacture days. The songs are a bit less heavy, the guitar sounds mangled at times, and the programming element that made Demanufacture so good is almost gone. Some songs (most notably Obsolete) don't really even sound like they belong on the album. Still, with songs like Descent, Edgecrusher, and Freedom or Fire, this album is still a good buy. If you like hard metal though, stick with Demanufacture.