April 2001. The world is still months away from finding out who Osama Bin Laden and Al-Quaeda are. There's no war in Iraq, no war in Afghanistan, no crisis.

The European Union is yet to admit its first Eastern European member state and no country uses the Euro as its official currency. Mobile phones still have antennas. In Bulgaria the government of Ivan Kostov is still in power. Around that time Fear Factory released their last album that was something other than an attempt to make a Demanufacture, part II, and had something other than a stylized 'FF' on the cover.

The last in particular stands as the symbol of how a band, whose sound turned the idea of metal upside-down during the 90's, is now desperately digging in the mud on the bottom of a half-dry well of ideas. And 'The Industrialist' is Fear Factory's total return to the values of their rusty 1995 classic 'Demanufacture' – heavy groove riffs that take turns with rapid-fire guitars that mimic the insanely fast, machine-like drumming; deep grows that flow into cosmic clean vocals; industrial samples and subtle, dark keyboards.

Just like Prong's last album this is an example of a band that has given up on being relevant a long time ago and now just sticks to its craft, giving it the best it's got. 'The Industrialist' is an extremely fierce musical attack that brings up the whole arsenal of tricks Fear Factory are known for – maybe except one of their typical ballads. But songs like 'Recharger' and 'Dissassemble' are strong enough you almost won't notice.

On the other hand that sound, as well as the album's concept – about a machine built by man that becomes sentient and turns on its creators – is as fresh and intriguing as 'Terminator 2.' And back to the cover – the two F's also relate to something else. The band now consists of two people: vocalist Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares who recorded the guitars and bass, while the drums are programmed. And just like the band now features half of its original lineup, its production carries just half of the punch its classics releases had.