Arkaea adopts a similar tack, combining the talents of Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera with Threat Signal's Jon Howard. Musically it's about what you'd expect. Herrera pummels his double-bass pedals like he's chasing down Lance Armstrong on the home stretch of the Tour de France, while his Fear Factory cohort spiffs up a gaggle of bog-standard riffs with more stop-start polyrhythms than you can shake a stick it. Terry Date's production is solid and Howard's vocals are actually a cut above his work on Threat Signal's _Vigilance_. Yet _Years in the Darkness_ is alarmingly flat and uninspiring. Described by Century Media as a "dangerous sonic machine that will blow your speakers with a whirlwind of metallic fury", it's anything but. Instead, with the exception of the catchy "Rise Today", this record sounds like exactly what it is: a pay-day to tide over Herrera and Wolbers while they squabble over the rights to the Fear Factory moniker in court.