"The Fury" is the seventh solo studio album by English musician Gary Numan, originally released in September 1985. It was his second release on his self-owned Numa Records label. The album continues to explore the sample-heavy industrial sound that Numan had developed for his previous album, Berserker, released in 1984.
Although Gary Numan's previous album Berserker had failed to make a notable commercial impact, he decided to continue with a similar sound for his next album. For The Fury, he again chose to collaborate with others for the production, recruiting the Wave Team (Mike Smith, Ian Herron) as co-producers, with Colin Thurston assisting on one track.
The Fury continued the highly sampled, metallic, industrial sound heard on Berserker but also incorporated layers of electro-funk, which Numan had previously experimented with on I, Assassin (1982) and Warriors (1983). This style would become a significant part of his music as the 1980s progressed. As with Berserker, the album features aggressive electronic percussion and extensive use of samples, but the fretless bass prominent on the previous album is almost completely absent, with only three tracks featuring real bass. The rhythm elements were balanced with the PPG Wave synthesiser, while saxophonist Dick Morrissey, who had appeared on Warriors, provided melodic elements. Guitars are virtually non-existent, and Tessa Niles and Tracy Ackerman contributed female backing vocals, a theme that continued in Numan's work until the early 1990s.
Numan later described The Fury as having a very metallic, industrial feel, with rhythmic and funky elements built up using the PPG synthesiser. He noted that it was the first time he wrote a complete album in the studio, working on grooves first rather than composing melodies at home. The album's opening track, "Call Out the Dogs," prominently features samples from the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner, marking the beginning of Numan's fascination with the film, which would influence his subsequent albums, including Strange Charm (1986), Metal Rhythm (1988), and Outland (1991).
To support The Fury, Numan embarked on a 17-date live UK tour in September and October 1985, although no official live albums or videos from the tour have been released.
