Fear Factory

Review of their gig in the Ambassador, Dublin, November 1st 2001

I entered the Ambassador all full of hope and wonder. Arriving late and only seeing the last two songs of Janus Stark's support set I felt that the worst had probably passed. Fear Factory could never be as dull as those Stark boys! And then came the waiting. Fortunately while we waited for Burton and the lads we were treated to Tool's Lateralus, "so far so good", I thought.

I'd like to be able to say I knew what the first few numbers they played were, but unfortunately most Fear Factory songs are indistinguishable, and without a track list, I was blissfully unaware of what rubbish they were playing. That is until Burton began with his "Hello Dublin! Is everyone having a good time? Can I have a 'Hell Yeah'!" and so on? It was then that he decided to tell us what was coming next as they launched into Digimortal and Lynchpin. Oh joy.

As they played these songs from their most recent album it became very clear that they had recycled a lot of the riffs from Obsolete. Having said that, there was an obvious improvement in the mood as classics like Resurrection, Shock and the amazing Edgecrusher were brought out.

Then they played some older stuff and I wanted to leave.

With a few more cries of "Hello Dublin!" and "Can I have a 'Hell Yeah!'?" the show finally wound to a forgettable close. Maybe it was just me, but there seemed to be a general sigh of relief as it became clear that there would be no encore and we could go home without seeming rude.

Maybe if they wrote a few good new songs and recycled fewer of their old ones this band might actually be quite impressive. But they didn't and they aren't.

Stephen McMullin