Over the last few days...
Some random thoughts...Always amazed at how different North from Here sounds from the stuff that came right after. I mean, even Amok was basically a different beast. Hadn't listened to The Puppet Master in a long time...some nifty riffage in there, for sure. And Obsolete - another one I haven't revisited in ages. It was always going to be hard to follow Demanufacture (one of the top metal records of the 90s, as far as I'm concerned), and I always felt Fear Factory basically exhausted so much of their greatness on it. Indeed, this is not nearly as good but, honestly, with the perspective of many years now, it's a good one. The opening duo of Shock/Edgecrusher is truly, um, crushing. And the more experimental/melodic stuff is tasty (Descent, Freedom of Fire, Resurrection)
Some 2023 albums:
That Diviner album really is a good slab of epic metal...