Obsolete (styled as °BSΩLE+e) is the third studio album by American industrial metal band Fear Factory, released on July 28, 1998, through Roadrunner Records. It was produced by Fear Factory, Greg Reely and Rhys Fulber, the latter of whom wrote, arranged and performed all of the album's keyboard parts, and was the band's first full album to feature bassist Christian Olde Wolbers, who performed on around half of the tracks of the band's previous album Demanufacture (1995). The band's first fully fledged concept album, Obsolete revolves around a story penned by vocalist Burton C. Bell, "Conception 5", set in the year 2076 where machines have taken over mankind.
In 2019, Joe Smith-Engelhardt of Alternative Press included the song "Edgecrusher" in his list of "Top 10 nü-metal staples that still hold up today".
Background and recording
The group began writing and pre-production in late 1997. This came to a sudden halt when Ozzy Osbourne invited Fear Factory to open for the reunited Black Sabbath at two sold-out stadium shows at the Birmingham NEC. Fear Factory also headlined their own concert on December 7 in London. Early versions of “Edgecrusher” and “Smasher/Devourer” were performed at these shows. The band intended to return to work on their album in Los Angeles until late January when they would record in Vancouver with producers Rhys Fulber and Greg Reely. The working title Obsolete was announced during this time although not certain to remain. Production of the album lasted from February 21 to May 10, 1998. Recording lasted four weeks longer than the band planned, forcing them to cancel an appearance at the Dynamo Festival.
In a first, guitarist Dino Cazares used a seven-string guitar tuned down to A for this album. The song's breakdown features hip hop scratching. The latter would prove to be a point of contention not only with purist listeners, but within the band itself: According to Herrera, Olde Wolbers's suggestion to include it was initially met by strong resistance from Cazares, as did a number of other experimental ideas.
The title for "Smasher/Devourer" came from the anime version of A Wind Named Amnesia.
Concept and lyrics
Obsolete is a concept album. Bell explained, "We're up to the point in the story where man is obsolete. Man has created these machines to make his life easier, but in the long run it made him obsolete. The machines he created are now destroying him. Man is not the primary citizen on earth." The world is governed by an organisation known as the "Securitron", who also controls the "Police 2000" and "Smasher/Devourer". They are the words of a Securitron enforcer who grabs the megaphone after the members of the crowd disperse in order to escape detainment of the enforcers. Of course, the main message of the song is that "man is obsolete" and that "our world [is] obsolete".
Having witnessed the events of these three songs, Edgecrusher begins to think how their humanity disappeared into the darkness, how mechanized they have become. As he eludes the enforcers, he enters a church and finds a statue of Jesus Christ. He has seen this image before. He apparently gains a lot of memories from seeing the statue and extends his arm to touch the face of it. In the song "Resurrection" Edgecrusher swears to continue his mission to save humanity. Bell called "Resurrection" "one of the most human songs on [Obsolete], because it's all about compassion. To me, to revive humanity is to revive compassion for one another." A few other satisfactory songs that did not fit the album's concept, including "Cars", were also later included on a limited edition digipak in March 1999. The songs included the Wiseblood cover "0-0 (Where Evil Dwells)" and "Soulwound" (a re-recording of "Soulwomb" off of the band's demo Concrete). The digipak also contained "Concreto" (another Concrete re-recording), which was originally released during the Demanufacture era, and "Messiah", a song that was recorded for the video game Messiah (although the game repeatedly got delayed and was not released until 2000).
Touring and promotion
Fear Factory joined Rob Zombie and Monster Magnet for a fall 1998 tour. They also began their first headlining US tour with System of a Down, Hed PE, Static-X, and Spineshank in early 1998. The tour ran into tragedy, however, when a rental truck housing all of the band equipment and merchandise was stolen from a hotel parking lot in Philadelphia. This forced several shows to be immediately rescheduled. Three days later, the stolen truck was found near the Walt Whitman Bridge, empty and in flames.
Regarding the theft, Burton C. Bell told MTV, "January 23 was a very dark day in Fear Factory history. Our entire production was in that truck including lights, merchandise, everything. Not only was our entire production in that truck, but also the other two group's who traveled with us. System of a Down, all their stuff got taken with the truck, same with a band called Spineshank, all their equipment as well. So everything, the whole show just drove off." Such problems on Fear Factory's first headlining tour proved demoralizing; however, Bell described the events as somewhat of a "blessing in disguise" as various one-off major city dates that needed rescheduling were expanded into multiple shows heading into mid April.
In a last-minute change, Fear Factory replaced Judas Priest in the Second Stage headlining slot of Ozzfest '99. The tour ran from May through July.
Three singles were released for Obsolete. "Shock" and "Descent" managed to chart but did not endure lasting popularity. Only after the release of "Cars", exclusive to the limited edition digipack version of Obsolete, did Fear Factory gain significant mainstream exposure. This was further aided by the song's music video directed by John S. Bartley.
Charity auction
A gold record of Obsolete was provided to Allbeat.com's charity auction for Death frontman Chuck Schuldiner who was suffering from a brain tumor. The auction faced severe controversy however; while the record sold for $1,000, the buyer never materialized. Other items up for auction, including a guitar signed by Papa Roach and articles from Crazy Town and Slipknot, also did not materialize. A new auction was to be organized, but Schuldiner died on December 13, 2001.
Reception
Largely due to the popularity of the band's rendition of "Cars", which reached No. 57 on the UK charts, Obsolete gained significant commercial success. As of 2002, the album had sold over 406,000+ copies according to SoundScan. It is Fear Factory's best selling album to date and was certified gold in Australia by the ARIA and also in the US by the RIAA.
The album received positive reviews. AllMusic's Greg Prato noted, "Admirably, they've stayed true to their sound over the years, paying no mind to current musical trends - they're content with their original Ministry-meets-Slayer sound." Kerrang! was more mixed, calling it "a disappointingly empty, one-dimensional experience".
Track listing
Personnel
Fear Factory
- Burton C. Bell – vocals
- Dino Cazares – guitars
- Christian Olde Wolbers – bass, upright bass (2)
- Raymond Herrera – drums
Additional personnel
- Rhys Fulber – keyboards and programming, strings arrangements (9, 10)
- DJ Zodiac – technical scratching (2)
- Pat Hoed – intro voice (2)
- Gary Numan – spoken words (8), vocals (11)
- Mark Ferris – strings arrangements (9, 10)
Chamber strings (tracks 9 and 10)
- Chelsea Devon
- Cleo Ledingham
- Coco Collingwood
- El Feroce
- Falstaff Fallen
- Monty Washington
- Narcissa
- Pepé Lamoco
- Susie Hodge
- Walter Creery
Production
- Produced by Fear Factory and Rhys Fulber; additional production by Greg Reely
- Recorded by Greg Reely
- Mixed by Rhys Fulber and Greg Reely
- Mastered by Ted Jensen
- Artwork, design and cover concept by Dave McKean
- All songs published by Roadblock Music, Inc./Hatefile Music, except "Timelessness", published by Roadblock Music, Inc./Hatefile Music and Copyright Control.
Charts
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Chart
!Position
|-
|1998
|Billboard 200
|align="center"|77
|}