FEAR FACTORY’S OBSOLETE: A VERY, VERY HEAVY BURT-ATION

Like everybody, I got a good laugh from CBS L.A. news correspondent Serene Branson’s gibberish-packed meltdown/report from the Grammys in February (watch it here). But unlike most, I understood exactly what she meant by “heavy burtation.” It may have been seizure-induced mouth mutiny, but it’s a term that I wish existed back in 1998 when I interviewed Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell about their then-new, very burtatious record Obsolete. Over twenty minutes, I lauded his icy clean singing, his dystopian themes, and his big-balls performances on side B’s smashing (and alliterative) openers, “Hi-Tech Hate” and “Freedom Or Fire” (best FF jam ever, here). I pointed out that his vocals bound and accented the album’s ripping single-note riffs, mushrooming chords, and uber-violent snare drum. I blabbed at length about Obsolete’s intra-album dynamics, i.e. the way its snappy, pressurized first half sets up the crush and dispersal of its second half. But what a waste of breath, cuz here in 2011, we have a term to express all of those things: Heavy fuckin’ Burtation.

-ADF

Get heavily Burt-ated with Burton C. Bell & Fear Factory on tour starting June 1 in Tempe.