Although Fear Factory have split up awhile ago, they have decided to release their very first album Concrete. This album has never been released before and miraculously has never even leaked out in bootlegged form nor leaked out on the Internet. Concrete is therefore a step back in time to a mostly pre-industrial time and features sixteen predominantly death metal songs. Eight of those songs were originally re-recorded and were released on Fear Factory’s debut album, “Soul Of A New Machine”, while four other songs, “Concrete”, “Soulwomb”, “Echoes Of Innocence” and “Piss Christ”, were transformed into totally new songs. However, the album also displays four songs, which truly have never been released before, “Sangre De Ninos”, “Deception”, “Anxiety” and “Ulceration”.

Like I mentioned before the songs are predominately death metal, however minor industrial influences can already be heard and Concrete sounds like the clear roots of Fear Factory.

The production is heavy and raw and fits the brutal death metal on this album perfectly, but one can easily notice that Fear Factory’s budget was limited and although they already had the intention to experiment in their early years, their limited budget prevented them from truly exploring their musical boundaries. Concrete was recorded in the studio of the well-known Blackie Lawless and was produced by Ross Robinson, now more known for producing bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit.

Ironically enough Fear Factory’s first album will be the one to end it all, for Fear Factory is no more and in that way Concrete is the perfect final release; the band has come full circle and ends where it all began. True, Fear Factory fans will be delighted by this release and one can only conclude that that’s exactly the reason why Fear Factory have decided to release this album.