Incredible tone, fast tempos, great drumming that is SO tight it almost sounds like drum machines. If you're into extreme metal stuff, this album will be surprisingly easy to digest, then you should check out their other innovative concept album "Obsolete"
Demanufacture is a package perfectly pieced together; the name and the album cover are appropriate and accurately represent the abrasiveness and heaviness, but additionally the whole album sounds crisp and super tight, with dark goth-like synth melodies thrown into the mix that really grabs the listener's attention. It still sounds fresh 27 years later.
Demanufacture aged INCREDIBLY well, since it was so influential in multiple genres. Likewise, Fear Factory as a band were from my perspective a pioneer of the nu metal sub-genre. So if you like bands like Korn, Slipknot, or Mudvayne, these guys will totally blow you away.
Musically, I relate Fear Factory to bands like Pantera and Meshuggah, but lyrically and conceptually they are on another level.
There are some really interesting themes brought to light on Demanufacture, related to machines taking over society and politics. This concept actually carried onto their next albums because obviously this is kind of a relevant premise today. For me, Fear Factory is HELLA unique and super interesting! An incredibly talented guitarist named Dino, who has the mind of an innovator, is the genius behind all the tight riffs.
Kind of like how Prince's 1989 'Batman' record contained no songs featured in the 1989 'Batman' movie, this whole album is like the unofficial soundtrack to the 1992 movie 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' (despite having no connection to the movie). The T-1000 is all I can picture in my head when I listen to this brilliant metal masterpiece, which terrifies me and thus the name "FEAR FACTORY" rings true!