Hatefiles

Shortly after 2002’s album “Concrete”, which was to appease Roadrunner Records’ album number requirement the band had agreed upon, another such release would follow in the form of a compilation known as, “Hatefiles”. Now, the major difference between the two obligatory releases is that “Concrete” was essentially the songs that appeared on “Soul of a New Machine”, but the unfiltered versions of those songs recorded under the “Ulceration” banner. That, along with a few other demos and a couple unrealized tracks made “Concerete” more of a compilation of demos and rough recordings as opposed to an album. “Hatefiles” on the other hand, is a straight compilation, composed of unreleased and remixed tracks.

To those unfamiliar, Fear Factory has hand a hand in movie soundtracks as well as video game soundtracks, some of which I had never heard or realized until the release of “Hatefiles”. The first four tracks are from the video game world, "Terminator: Dawn of Fate", “Frequency” and “Demolition Racer” to be exact, none of which I played in the past. They are solid tracks, that perhaps do not sound like they could be a part of any particular Fear Factory album, they do however, carry they Fear Factory sound. The songs' industrial nature and thick, groovy atmosphere make these songs a welcome addition fan any Fear Factory fan.

The next two are radio edits of previous songs "Invisible Wounds (Dark Bodies)"and “Resurrection”. Now, “Resurrection” has a nice change up to its sound, retaining it's core, but is more condensed and shortened to give more impact. but the edit of "Invisible Wounds (Dark Bodies) the Suture Remix” is one of my favorite Fear Factory songs of all time. I enjoyed the original version on Digimortal, but remix has some much more emotion and spunk to its sound that I always learn toward it before the original. The song was also featured on the Resident Evil Soundtrack.

The rest of the tracks are techno versions of previous songs similar to “Fear is the Mindkiller” or “Remanufacture”, a demo and a live track. Of the entire collection, I found the video game tracks, the radio edits and the lone demo ("Dark Bodies") to be the most interesting. The techno remixes are saturated with heavy dosages of electronic and synthesizers that give the original recordings a bouncy and dance club vibe to them, so fans of such should find a little goodness here as well.

Into the Abyss of Oblivion

Due to Dino causing angst among the band members and Fear Factory having broken up for a short period of time back in 2002, we got a sudden mass of releases from Fear Factory to fulfill label requirements. One of these is Concrete, the other is Hateflies. Hateflies, is basically an album that on the outside, sounds interesting and unique. But when you get it, you suddenly realize there was a reason they didn't release a lot of these on things before.

Tracks 1-4 are songs that were for soundtracks of video games. The first track is "Terminate", from Terminator : Dawn of Fate. This was originally intended to be their last song they were ever to record. An apt last song, with the Terminator theme and whatnot. Overall this is done in the Digimortal style with extreme amounts of computer effects. Overall it's a decent song. The next track is "Frequency", recorded for the game "Frequency". Not so heavy on the computer effects as Terminate was, thankfully. This is a pretty decent track. The next two tracks are songs from "Demolition Racer". These songs were recycled into songs for Digimortal. The track "Demolition Racer" itself is utterly short and worthless coming in at 50-something seconds. "Machine Debaser", the last of the first four original songs, is a very good instrumental weighing in around 4 minutes. Basically it's well fit for a racing game as DR was, it builds up a lot.. Although it really doesn't go anywhere. It's anti-climatic, but the way it's done was fitting for what it was intended for originally. Alone, it's somewhat worthless, but interesting for the Fear Factory fan. Anyone else will get tired of it, fast.

So now we've covered the first four tracks. Everything that follows is a mass of remixes.. Basically this is like, Fear Factory : The Rejected Remixes. Oh well.. Track 5 is a remix on Invisible Wounds from Digimortal. The main difference to this is the chorus is has some effects on the vocals, it has a slightly different beat added in, and the heavier part in the bridge is missing. There's so little that's noticably different with this remix from the original, it's obvious why it wasn't really used for much of anything. Next track is a remix of Resurrection from Obsolete. This remix is.. Well, not very different from the original track, either. Maybe I'm just missing altogether what's different, but it just has a softer feel, expecially from the verses to the chorus and through the chorus.. And that's about it. There's barely anything worth noting besides that it doesn't serve any purpose. Another worthless remix. Next two tracks are remixes on Edgecrusher and Descent from Obsolete by Junkie XL. I frequently enjoy XL's remixing work.. But the Edgecrusher remix is merely sub-par, but at least it's a very noticable remix on the original. It seems to take the vocal structuring of the original, remove everything else from it, and add a new track which is very little more than a couple echoing sounds and a simple drum beat. It just doesn't hold your attention at all, and Burton's vocals sound horrible over it all. Descent's remix is similar, with a simple looping beat, and the way it goes to the chorus is ultimately, anticlimatic. To hear Burton screaming loudly and then just get a slightly louder, different beat doesn't do anything for me. Then halfway through the remix, it breaks into simple guitar riff from the song.. And then it sorta fades into the background over the beats again. It's interesting for a listen, but it's nothing you're really going to go back to listen to repeatedly. Track 9 is a version on Body Hammer from Demanufacture, this sounds pretty good. I'd even say it tops the version they chose for Demanufacture. As noted in the liner notes which briefly go over every song, Christian does an interesting bass riff which isn't in the final version used on Demanufacture. Finally, we make it to track 10 on the album, a different version on Zero Signal from Demanufacture. You can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel by now. This version is basically just different because Burton sings the verses in a more melodic way. But the way he does it here, is just bad. I'm thankful they didn't use this version. It's interesting to hear, but something I never want to listen to more than I have to. Burton's vocals keep going up and down, not giving an interesting effect, more of one that he just can't find a decent pitch for the song and doesn't know what to do with it. It just doesn't work, even for an alternate version, it's not enjoyable. Next is a remix on Cars from the digipak version of Obsolete. This has Gary Numan singing the song to the FF version, with Burton singing the last chorus with Numan. It's interesting, but this was never one of FF's stronger tracks to begin with. This version adds in a little bit more effects between the verses and chorus. I'd take this version to the regular FF version for certain.

After all this is what I consider the best track from the entire CD.. A demo of Invisible Wounds (Dark Bodies) from Digimortal, just titled Dark Bodies for the demo. This is overall a lot better than the version on Digimortal, and I'd prefer this to it any time. It's a little more deeper sound to it, and the chorus has an entirely different sound. Very worthwhile. The next track, 13 is a live version of Replica. There's not much to say about it. It's a good live track, but there's not too much special about it. Next is another Junkie XL remix, this one for H-K from Demanufacture. This is by far better than the other Junkie XL tracks up until this point. The beat is at least somewhat intriguing and doesn't sound like it was put together in 30 minutes. For the FF remix fan, this is fairly decent. For myself, it's better than what's been there but still not great. Next is another Junkie XL remix on HK. Yeah. Two HK remixes, from the same person in a row.. I don't know why.. The obvious joke available to use offhand is that this is.. Ahem, "Overkill"? Oh well. The second is by far superior to the first. Transgenic is more atmospheric and has an interesting feel to it. The next track, Transgenic, is a remix to New Breed from Demanufacture that gets very annoying, very fast. This has an almost constant thumping sound to it. This track pisses me off every time I forget to skip past it. Next is a better remix track, titled "Manic Cure". Not the best remix track on it's own right, but an interesting track to say the least with parts from New Breed, Replica, Body Hammer, and Self-Bias Resistor, all from Demanufacture. It's hard to really enjoy the remix for any reason besides that, however. Finally, we hit the last track on this mess of a CD.. Another remix of New Breed. Hope you like hearing the same songs remixed multiple times on a CD. The liner notes make a claim of, "Love it or hate it, it's infectious and you will find it stuck in your head hours after you've heard it." Really? Funny, it slips my mind every time I hear it because it sucks poorly. It has a computerized voice singing "We are the new breed, we are the future" in a choiral attempting sound to open it up. Then it goes to more general "techno" sounds.. It has some of the original vocal tracks from the regular track, then it returns to the computer voice.. And it basically loops the "music" over and over. If it changes after that point from what's already been done 2 minutes before it, I certainly missed it. Then it ends, with the computer voice of sorts getting stuck on a note of singing "future".. And the CD's over.

So let's break it down. You had 4 new tracks, 2 of which you'll feel like you've heard in a worsened form on Digimortal, because you did.. One demo that practically carries the weight of the CD on its' own.. 3 unused original versions of songs released in different forms.. and 10 remixes from assorted albums, many of these remixes being done on the same track twice, which just makes the entire album all the more repetitious.

I'd say get it if you're a fan of Fear Factory and want to hear a few decent tracks here and there, and want Terminate and Frequency on a CD, or if you're big into FF's remix albums, as this is basically what it is. But for everyone else.. Stay away from this. It's a fans-only album, by far. Very little is enjoyable, even considering the fact that I absolutely love Fear Factory, this album just pisses all over itself in an attempt to say goodbye to Fear Factory. Just be thankful they're back, and they (hopefully) won't be releasing any more trash albums of tracks they didn't already use for a reason.