"Descent" is a single by US metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 band Fear Factory

Fear Factory

Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...

 from their album Obsolete

Obsolete (album)

Obsolete is the third studio album by American industrial metal band Fear Factory, released on July 28, 1998. Conceptually, it is a sequel to 1995's Demanufacture...

. It was the third single released and the fifth track on the album. The music was composed by guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist Dino Cazares

Dino Cazares

Dino Cazares, born in El Centro, California, is a Mexican-American musician and the guitarist for Los Angeles-based industrial metal group Fear Factory. He also plays in the metal bands Divine Heresy and Asesino.-Biography:...

 and drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

mer Raymond Herrera

Raymond Herrera

Raymond Herrera is the drummer for industrial metal band Arkaea. He is a former member of the industrial metal band Fear Factory and Mexican death metal band Brujeria.-Biography:Herrera has been an avid gamer all his life...

, with lyrics by Burton C. Bell

Burton C. Bell

Burton Christopher Bell is an American musician. Bell is best known as the frontman of the metal band Fear Factory where he is the only consistent member. His singing style mixes clean vocals with death growls.-Fear Factory:...

. In the storyline of Obsolete's concept, "Descent" expresses the despair felt by the album's protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

, the dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

 Edgecrusher, as he rests briefly on his flight from the pursuing forces of Securitron. He questions the worth of his personal mission; in the end, he decides to continue his fight against his oppressors.

"Descent" peaked at number 38 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Mainstream Rock chart.

Track listing

1. Descent - 4:36
2. Descent (Falling Deeper Mix) - 4:36

"Descent (Falling Deeper Mix)" also appears on the album Hatefiles

Hatefiles

-Credits:*John Aguto - Mixing*Duane Baron - Engineer*John Bechdel - Keyboards, Programming*Burton C. Bell - vocals*Dino Cazares - Guitar, Mixing*Monte Conner - Compilation, Song Notes*Fear Factory - Producer...

.

Charts

Chart (1999)	Peak position
U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks	38