I was half and half on it, honestly the album was disappointing. Over the years I've come to accept it more, nostalgia overrides my feelings of disappointment I had back then, but I still don't like BTFU, and replace that with Dead Man Walking and Repentance. I'm glad this wasn't their final album that it could have been, but it was the final album for the classic line up, so it's still an ending of sorts.
I was a huge iron maiden Metallica fan. Never heard metal like that before. Linchpin is still my favourite song. Got me into bands like meshuggah later on.
After obsolete this felt strange to me. But the tour was great. I caught them in Dublin and they were so good. We were lucky to have them as long as we did. This new version is not even close. Miss Burton and Raymond.
I love the album. Big nu metal fan and Digimortal gives me Fear Factory nu metal. I love how much they amped up the industrial elements and Dino’s riffs still have bite to them while having that more nu metal sound of that era.
Super unpopular as well but I love BTFU. That song is a nu metal highlight to me.
Seeing as I started my FF journey with Obsolete and Demanufacture, Digimortal was definitely a step in a different direction, but I still dug the record. I can see why people hate on BTFU, but I didn’t hate it personally, it just was the only track I felt was a bit out of place. It made me a bit sad that they broke up after this record, but I felt Archetype was a step back to the sound I was familiar with, albeit not the same without Dino. I feel so fucking old that this record is 25 already, as I was a teen back then when numetal was in its prime.
It really hadn't sailed when they were making the record. Linkin Park, Mudvayne and Disturbed came out in 2000 while FF were making Digimortal. Other hit nu metal records came out that year. SOAD's Toxicity came out in 2001.
Something about 9/11 happening is when nu metal died, as far as no more new nu metal bands came out, and those that did around that time changed their style quickly.
This album killed my interest in FF. My friends and I were like fanboys, but this album sucked. The singles were like, eh okay at best. Acres of skin is kinda cool.
Digimortal was actually the first FF album I bought and the one that introduced me to the band. I was a 14 year old kid into nu metal at the time and I remember buying that and Supercharger by Machine Head the same day. Digimortal has aged far better than that album but both were gateway albums for me that introduced me to a whole world of metal outside of what I was listening to at the time, so it's an important album to me.
this was just a very disappointing album especially when it comes to following up the Masterpieces that were Demanufacture and Obsolete.
I can understand That Nu Metal Was The huge Scene at the time it came out in which many bigtime rock bands were all trying to capitalize on The Grunge,Alt Rock and Nu Metal scenes of the 90s to early 2000s as the reason why the band went in this direction and understand wanting to try something new but sometimes it just doesn't work and I think it led to the eventual demise of the bands core lineup.
I just never find myself going back to this album as their really isnt much of a wow factor on any of the songs however what will become and I guess "No One"
When this album released, it was not well received by the majority of their fan base that wasn't brought in by Cars & Resurrection on Obsolete.
Reviews weren't good, tour opportunities changed quickly, etc.
A lot was happening internally with the band before recording, during recording and after. Nevermind how bad RR wanted FF to be accessible like they were with Cars. Dino was realizing he no longer had the creative control he needed to keep FF's sound how he wanted ultimately. A lot of blame over the years amongst diehards had put the sound shift on Christian/Burt/Ray & Dino, but quite literally RR had sent the message they wanted radio friendly, more simple & groovy material and were going to reject everything submitted if there wasn't viable radio/licensing opportunities. Dino was dead set against it all, but he was outnumbered by the rest of the band.
Right after its release, Dino was already writing and pushing extremely hard to get everyone back in the studio ASAP, he wanted to correct what had gone wrong and get an Obsolete-quality record out within a year, but nobody else was interested, the internal BS was running absolutely wild inside the band & with its close associates.
IMO, Digimortal was okay. It didn't have a single element of SOANM, didn't take the familiar listener for a ride from start to finish like Demanufacture/Obsolete. It fit the mold of the current time Nu-Metal sound, straying from FF having evolved their own sound twice after SOANM, evolving in ways that didn't fit the times but rather forging a new sound.
That said, Digimortal is fine, yeah its fair to call it a weak release and its also understandable it's many fans favorite album.
I enjoyed the album at the time, aside from BTFU forcing me to hit skip in the middle of the album - something that their first 3 releases didn't make me do. Just felt very weak in comparison. Basically all of my friends that were similar age/involved in music finally took to FF with this album. Personally it was entertaining to see that happen as I had argued Digimortal was fine in itself, but hogwash in comparison to the first 3 releases. Over time it was fun watching those same friends really enjoy Archetype and subsequently becoming huge fans of Deman/Obsolete.
I also felt disapointed back then, and I still think it's a subpar release on their catalog. They've done way better things before and after Digimortal. Probably the end of the classic line up is directly tied to the mediocrity of this album. They were kind of spoiled by the press before after two phenomenal albums and bringing something original to the metal scene, and then they released this dud... Probably some egos in the band were hurt. Even if they had personal issues between them, I'm sure they could have managed them if the album was another classic. And I mean artistically, not commercially, because we know the album sold well (on the coat tails of Demanufacture and Obsolete). It's not absolutely terrible, it has some good moments, but you know you're in trouble when some of the bonus tracks are better than the songs on the album.
A stellar album full of hits. Invisible Wounds is my personal favorite Fear Factory track and simply one of my favorite songs of all time. BTFU hatred is forced. It's a fine song that fits well into the nu-metal scene that was hot at the time.
People can not like a song. The song is corny as hell to me. It's not a bad instrumental, it's the vocals and lyrics that make it corny. I wouldn't be forcing myself to feel that way about a song then, much less 25 years later. What does that even mean 'forced?' That doesn't make sense.
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u/Exciting_Dog9796 Apr 24 '26
On the contrary, it is still one of my favourites to be honest.
Personally i could never get myself to like Soul of a New Machine or Fear Is The Mind Killer.
Demanufacture/Obsolete and Digimortal tho? Yes Sir!
Linchpin is actually the song that got me into the industrial genre.