Tuesday, was like most days, pretty dull. It mainly comprised of work (a training
course), and then I checked my email and a spot of window shopping. Bought a cheap CD. Came home. Cooked. The girl came over, and then nothing much happened. Watched the rough n' ready Cure "Festival" DVD - which sounds much much better than it looks, courtesy of its guerilla film style , and went to bed.

Listened to the 2005 reissue of "Demanufacture" by Fear Factory, and switched it off after a few songs. I love the original album - pretty much the perfect cyber metal album of all time, but its a good job I didn't pay much for the double CD. The first CD is the original album plus a few bonus tracks from the digipak edition and the japanese import; the second disc the remixed "Remanufacture" album where it was re-done by obscure Dance acts, plus a few more remixes used on B-Sides; its good value at 155 minutes, and 34 tracks.

However, it sounds terrible - The 2005 remaster has been Re-EQ'd, and sounds horrendous. The guitars are all muddy and sludgy, rather than supersharp as they were before. As Monte Connor writes in the liner notes; "A lot of bands had that the same tinny, bright sound - When we remastered the deluxe edition, we worked really hard on adding in the thickness and the low end that has been missing. you'll really hear the difference".

Yes, the difference is it sounds like every other record you can buy nowadays, rather than the unique sound it had at the same time.In other words, this genre defining record that sold a shedload of records because of its sound... has had its sound changed to fit in with current trends by the A&R guy at the record company.

The problem here is that the low end on the guitar is raised up in the mix - into exactly the same frequencies already covered by the bass. So the audio range is in fact compressed and swamped. There's very little in the 4K-6K range in the remaster - a range that is very rarely used in heavy or industrial metal , and is EXACTLY the range that makes this album stand out from the rest of the crowd. Instead what you get is all the guitars mixed down in the equaliser to fir in with current trends, an act of historical and musical revisionism that is completely counterproductive. Instead, you lose the clearly defined dynamic between the guitars and bass .

Now, the 1995 original is one where I've never heard a record quite so clearly mixed - it is this clearly defined seperation which makes the original sound light years ahead of the pack In the 2005 remaster, the guitars are now in the same audible range as the bass to the point where it swamps the bass completely. What this does is make the record sound terribly muddy, swamped, and unclear. In no way at all, is this an improvement - it reduces the audio quality significantly. Its like macrovision for metal. Its like watching a digital shot movie on a 7" LCD screen, and pretending its the way the director always wanted it to be. its like smearing the camera with vaseline, or deliberately blurring the screen and claiming its a decision to get a contemporary romanticised 'soft focus look.

Sure - its great value, but a noticeably inferior product. Artisically speaking, its revisionist and muddies the waters - its up there with Greedo shoots first. As for the bonus tracks, its also telling porkies.

Firstly, none of the bonus tracks (all previously released) are identified as to where they were originally issued. So If you want to know where 'Manic Cure' first surfaced (its on the gabber mixes 12" from Mokum records, incidentally), you'll be hoping.

Secondly, there's a lot of missing tracks. Four, in total. Importantly, You can't dispense with the originals of either album for a multitude of reasons. Here they are -
i) Disc One ('Demanufacture') has been remixed into a sludgy mess (For best comparison, compare the US and UK mixes of Whitesnakes 1983 album, for a similar scenario), and is missing tracks on the original import digipak version. ii)There's an exclusive mix of 'Remanufacture' on the original remix album of the same name missing on this reissue.
iii)These releases are missing two other remixes too; the 'Steel Gun' mix of New Breed from the Gabber mixes 12" And the Edit version of 'Dog Day Sunrise' from the long deleted CD single of the same name.
iv)Similarly, they say that one track (the 'Electric Sheep' mix of Replica) couldn't fit on the disc - but thats blatant bullshit, because disc one runs to 75:36, and that track misisng due to time constraints is 3m56s. Now, you can produce cds up to 79m59s longs, and adding that track would add the running time up to 79m32s. So Why the bullshit excuse, guys?

A far better solution would be to bung all the 12 or so bonus tracks from this era onto a second disc, rather than using the second disc to repackage existing material that is extremely easily available already, as is the case with the entire of the 'Remanufacture' album here.For example, the 4 tracks from the Demanufacture digipak edition, the 3 tracks from the 'Dog Day Sunrise single, the 4 tracks from the Gabber 12" EP on Mokum (here only half the tracks are reproduced) and the tracks from the 'Burn' single. Easy, peasy and far better for the existing fans who made the record, and the record company, so much money in the first place. Don't piss on your fans, guys - especially as the onyl way to get most of these missing tracks is on records that have been unavailable for over a decade (such as the Sunrise CD single) or on a CD that was covermounted with Kerrang! for one week over a decade ago. Ludicrous.

Glad I bought it, mainly because i got it secondhand and I paid about a fifth of the price it should be at full retail. Even then, I feel disgruntled as how poor this package is. Please, stick to the original, and ignore this terribly mastered , terrible sounding, piece of record company cash in. And why do I say that? Despite the fact its a genre defining classic, if you buy, you'll be sending a message to the record company. the message is that we support, and endorse, you screwing around with old records to cash in on current trends, and will buy any old shite you put out. Treat us badly, and we will love you for it. Please, jump on the trend bandwagon of 'phat' sounding records, rather than how the band wanted and intended them to sound all along, just to flog a precious few copies to the sheep who never caught up with it first time around, or how the band intended.

And then they wonder why people don't buy records anymore, eh?

P.S. Bizarrely enough, if you look on the Wikipedia page for the album, you'll find thefinalword.co.uk - and my review - referenced as a source for many concluding it is a classic album...! It sure is funny seeing something you've written quoted in such a manner..