Fear Factory pictures from Artist Direct

"Numinosum" by Ascension of the Watchers

Ascension Of The Watchers features Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell, and is signed to 13th Planet—the label owned and operated by Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen. However, despite the industrial-aggro associations of this project, it's the anti-thesis of cyberized metal! So if you're a huge Fear Factory or Ministry-diehard, check all of your pre-conceived notions and expectations at the door, because the pedigrees of those involved do not synch up with the music put forth on Numinosum. The album hypnotizes with ambient soundscapes, 5-minute-and-counting-songs, and Bell and his cohorts aren't afraid to stretch their creative muscles and show their softer sides. Ascension Of The Watchers is a bit like new age music, but hold up! I'm not talking "New Age" in the Yanni/John Tesh-sphere. Rather, this music is for metalheads looking for something a little more relaxing—a "sonic escape," if you will. Numinosum is peaceful, brooding, a bit eccentric, and will appeal to your cerebral

Published: 2008-03-25 Provider: Artist Direct

"Cover Up" by Ministry

If you want to judge a band by its covers, then Ministry have set themselves up for your hearty pat on the back with Cover Up, the final release by the band which is breaking up after establishing itself as the industrial scene’s force to be reckoned with in the early '90s. Most of Ministry’s albums have featured commentary on politics and the government, but Cover Up is the band’s way of having fun and flipping the bird. This is the Ministry party album. Featuring a variety of cohorts in the form of Fear Factory's Burton C. Bell and Static-X's Tony Campos, both of which share a common musical gene with Ministry, Cover Up features mechanized, cyberiffic versions of The Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb" and an upbeat yet gnashing retooling of Power Station's "Bang A Gong," where frontman Al Jourgensen asks, "What the fuck does Bang A Gong mean?" But the album’s biggest treat is Jourgensen's take on "What A Wonderful World," where his voice takes on the same gravelly pallor of Louis

Published: 2008-02-28 Provider: Artist Direct

"The Ascension" by Otep

By now we can all agree on this much: nu-metal was responsible for an unthinkable amount of garbage. But if there's one band extreme music fans should thank Fred Durst and his goateed cronies for, it's Los Angeles' OTEP. Counting metal's most imposing frontwoman (not in Arch Enemy) among its ranks, and pretty much ignoring drop-D sportsmetal conventions, the quartet crafted a pair of meaty releases (and one lean EP) that derived "grooves" from Cali stoner metal thickness, as opposed to the hip-hop its peers so clumsily approximated. On album three, as with past releases, what keeps OTEP in "nu-" territory are their guitars, which hang out somewhere between those of scene grampas Coal Chamber and Fear Factory and never miss a chance to make use of detuned flat-fingered riffs. Hardly groundbreaking. But what keeps the record fresh is frontwoman Otep Shamaya's dynamic vocals, thrashing from full-bore scream to whisper in less than seconds. To wit, The Ascension

Published: 2007-11-26 Provider: Artist Direct