Readers familiar with this site will know that an opportunity for a preamble has never been missed. There is a first time for everything though. If you require a sense of the expectations that were built up for the release of this album, you can check out the review of the Revolver Magazine exclusive EP here: http://jakespeare88.blogspot.com/2013/09/album-review-revolver-ep-by-scar-martyr.html
With that aside, a few notes on the full album:
-The criticisms levied against Henry Derek in that review remain fair, but something became very clear mere seconds into the first track on the full album: Rhys Fulber served as producer on this effort. Being a long time Fear Factory fan, his sonic imprint has become very familiar, and Fulber's work producing Burton Bell's voice brings a degree of confidence in Derek that wasn't there before. Fulber is very good about enhancing voices and melding them into the polished, heightened soundscapes that are the songs he works on, so if his effects are behind Derek's voice, than the voice that we're hearing is probably only enhanced, not artificially generated or as overly affected by Pro Tools as suspected.
-Jed Simon and Kris Norris are a pairing that should work together more often. Their work on this album is among if not the best guitar work I've heard this year. The way they manage to weave together solos is incredible.
-Going back to Fulber, he definitely should be commended for this one. His work for Fear Factory has been lessened seemingly by the increasingly lower budgets the band is working with now that they're on Candlelight instead of Roadrunner, but even then everything was very precise, mechanical, and clean. This album sounds like the horror movie the cover art and the imagery surrounding it suggests. Ugly, Gothic, and inhuman.
-My preorder was already in, so the full album was guaranteed regardless of what thoughts there were surrounding the EP, but if you haven't preordered like me, this is an album you should definitely pick up.
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