10 Classic Albums That Celebrated Their 20th Anniversary In 2015

Fear Factory – Demanufacture

Source // metalinjection.net

Fear Factory blasted onto the metal scene with their 1993 debut album Soul of a New Machine and even with its revolutionary blend of brutal death metal and clean vocal harmonies, few could have predicted what was to come just two short years later. With the all-conquering Demanufacture, pretty much all traces of their death metal past were extinguished and replaced with an industrialised thrash assault; dubbed “Terminator Metal” by the press at the time. Here was something new and the world took notice.

Listening to Demanufacture today, it’s easy to see why it’s still held in such high regard. Simply put, this is one of those albums where everything just clicked into place. Burton C Bells guttural growls of old were replaced by a militaristic bark and his clean vocals were never better, just check out his performance towards the end of “Pisschrist” if proof is required. Dino Cazeres unleashed a barrage of twisted robotic riffs, while the whole enterprise was driven along by the superhuman double bass perfornance of must-be-a-cyborg drummer Raymond Herrera. Meanwhile, the production and mixing courtesy of Colin Richardson and Rhys Fulber gave the whole affair an icy machine-like precision.

All this is fine but would mean absolutely nothing if the songs were below par. Fortunately, it’s safe to say there is not a weak track here, from the full blown thrash assault of “Demanufacture” and “Replica” to the closing “A Therapy For Pain” – which is almost hymnal in delivery – Demanufacture is one of those albums that you daren’t skip through; each track proving as decimating as the last.

It all resulted in utter perfection. 

Every few years an album catches the wider public’s conscious and, in 1995, Fear Factory came from nowhere to land at 27 in the UK chart; no mean feat for such an extreme album. Metal Hammer recently described the album best saying “An album so far ahead of its time that bands are still failing to convincingly rip it off today”. We can’t argue with that!

Not forgetting: Suffocation – Pierced From Within / White Zombie – Astro Creep: 2000 / Deftones – Adrenaline / Dissection – Storm Of The Light’s Bane / Opeth – Orchid….1995 truly was one hell of a year!!

Have we rudely ignored your favourite from ’95? Pop it in the comments below and we’ll have a friendly but old fashioned ding-dong about it!