Looking for some bone-crunching aural action? Die-hard heavy, death, and nu metal fans need look no further than Fear Factory. The hard-rocking quartet has churned out another spine-chilling album with their 2001 release, Digimortal. Born of all things electronic and evil, Digimortal is a cornucopia of apocalyptic views of the evils waiting outside your door, under your bed, and inside your computer. The complete set of warnings on the dark days ahead linger like dense, lurking shadows in the form of the 11 foreboding tracks on the album. A sincere sense of heeded warning comes straight from Fear Factory's ominous crystal ball on tracks like the terse "What Will Become." The roar-filled title track, "Digimortal," where singer Burton C. Bell speaks of lost innocence and wails repeatedly about getting "one step closer/to my fate," is a more rhythmic version of the same cynical outlook, but with a more musically muscular impact. The techno-like beat and the pounding guitar of "Linchpin" combine to form the perfect eerie backdrop for rap-like spitting of lyrics for Fear Factory's gravely serious pleas for social awareness, when Bell sings, "We will never see the end/we will never breathe again." The lyrics take a defiant stance with "you can't change me," a statement that echoes the sincerity of the sentiments in the movie Shawshank Redemption when the prisoners speak of the safeguarded hope (that place they can't tamper with or destroy) deep inside. Digimortal is an ear-drum puncturing and adrenaline-induced cry out against a warning that the digital age may bring everyone those final fatal steps closer to their eminent doom as vital, viable human beings. [Digimortal was also released in a "clean" edition, containing no profanities or vulgarities.] ~ Kerry L. Smith