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By GREG MAKI
Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell working on a new project with keyboardist John Bechdel (Killing Joke, Ministry, Fear Factory) under the watchful eye of Ministry’s Al Jourgensen and released on Jourgensen’s 13th Planet Records to boot—it leads to a certain expectation, one that surely does not include Simon and Garfunkel covers. Now take that expectation, banish it to the dark recesses of your mind and never think of it again.
Ascension of the Watchers could not be farther from what these musicians have done in the past. Guitarist Edu Mussi joins Bell and Bechdel in creating 11 songs, 72 minutes worth of moody, orchestral soundscapes (including their take on “Sounds of Silence”). Numinosum could be the soundtrack to a movie yet to be made. It is completely unlike almost anything in my music collection. The only thing I can compare it to is the work David Bowie did with Brian Eno in the late 1970s. I need to be in a certain headspace to fully appreciate it—unwinding on the drive home from a metal show works best. One thing I do not have to in the right frame of mind to grasp: Bell’s versatility is astounding.
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