FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY

Mechanical Soul Rich sonic textures off the Assembly line.

The album title Mechanical Soul sums up the life’s work of Canadian electro-industrialists Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber. Across their career they’ve created hypnotic, robotic soundscapes, then pasted in ice-cold, ethereal human voices. And the group has come full circle stylistically over the decades. Having started out as a purely electronic concern in the mid-80s, they introduced increasingly heavy guitar in the 90s and collaborated with Fear Factory. Upon returning to their roots almost 10 years ago, however, they all but eschewed the axe, and ‘Mechanical Soul’ is a virtually guitar-free zone, save for a few power chords from Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares on the punchy Stifle. A slow-burn affair that rewards each new listen, as opposed to an instant dancefloor filler, the album boasts such rousing highlights as the opening Purge, Glass

And Leather and Unknown. The mightiest song of all might be Barbarians, which ropes in guest singer Jean-Luc Demeyer from Front 242 for a towering, tuneful and memorable anthem. Showcasing a less bombastic, more mature Front Line Assembly who wield rich sonic textures with care, ‘Mechanical Soul’ conjures bewitching ghosts in the machine.