Fear Factory
Fear Factory began in 1990 and were originally called Ulceration which didn’t really mean anything apart from the fact that it sounded really cool being only teenagers at the time, they later on the same year changed it to Fear Factory as it closely represents the music they were projecting at the time.Their early demo CD was pretty much a straight up death metal record which would later on be turned and re-recorded into their debut Soul of a new machine, released in 1992.It turned out a lot less death metal than the previous demos and lead singer Burton C. Bell started doing what is now known as the aggressive verses with melodic choruses that we all know and love today, industrialising the sound at the same time, they have stumbled upon gold and the world of heavy music started to take notice because something new and exciting was happening in their backyard.To the band, that album was just a blueprint compared to what they had in mind for Fear Factory, they have by now completely shed their death metal sound and opted for a very machine-like, cold and dark fusion of industrial and metal, by this time the band has accidentally created a new sub-genre for themselves: Cyber-metal. Demanufacture was the second release which came out in 1995 and by now they have been established as a force to reckon with by sharing stages with Sepultura, Pantera, Ozzy and other Rock/Metal royalty. The new record could not have been more perfect and to this day still remains their best release to date. Lead single Replica saw the band making their first video for it. The songs on the record are extremely calculated with deadly precision but at the same time the choruses would humanise the songs, something that bands at the time were either too scared to do or too stubborn, Fear Factory took the leap and smashed all boundaries by incorporating electronics and other small but effective experiments. This was also the record that saw them being known for the machine gun riffs along with the drums syncopated to produce that stop/start rhythm you hear a lot these days. After the success of Demanufacture, they were due to make a new record and in 1998, they unleashed Obsolete. A concept album that follows a story which is closely intertwined with the main songs, with each song serving as highlighted episodes of the whole story which needs following through the booklet that came with the CD *illegal downloaders are missing out on this one*. The story revolves around the idea that man and machine can not co-exist and in time, the machines will rise and wage war on mankind *this predated The Matrix by a year*. Musically it’s very fitting too, the opener Shock pretty much gives you a taste of what’s to come through out the album and also acts as an intro to the story lyrically. Through a combination of technological advancements and experience, Fear Factory have evolved like a computer virus, constantly reconfiguring itself to maximize its destructive impact. This was the first Fear Factory album I bought… in fact, it was the first metal album I bought and I still remember 9 years ago when I received it by post, the excitement I felt, I haven’t felt like that since that day, I can easily say that part of me has changed forever for the better knowing that a band exists with the sounds of my dreams, a sound that I thought one day I hoped to have stumble upon and it turned out to be that they were doing it since I was in primary school. Skipping 3 years after the successful Obsolete, the band released their final album with Guitarist and founding member Dino Cazares, the portly Mexican is now officially an innovator surrounded by imitators. Digimortal was released in 2001, their most commercial and radio friendly to date. This time round, they decided that this record would only have the core aspects of Fear factory and completely peel away the rest and the result turns out to be a more direct and simple approach to song writing, more electronics has been added to transform them into a more futuristic sounding beast of an album. Its not a concept album like the last one but a message still flows throughout the record, still dealing with the same topics of an dystopian future, the message of Digimortal is that we need the machines and it needs us and that we can live side by side in harmony, digital mortality, without them we die, without us it dies, Burton has said that this idea came to him while being at home and realising that he was surrounded by technology and electronic gadgetry, feeling extremely co-dependent on the things that have potential of stripping someone of their humanity as time goes by, computers, phones, fax machines, televisions, microwaves and other very helpful contraptions that we all are in need of in this day and age. Shortly after a brief tour in 2002, singer Burton decided to leave the band publicly stating that he didn’t want to play with the band anymore, especially with Dino, thus begins the dissolution my beloved Fear Factory. They made enough records to last me a lifetime in my opinion but I was still devastated that I’ve only known of them for couple of years. Burton shortly after decided to concentrate on his side project; Dino went to form Asesino, a death grindcore band with fellow Mexican Tony Campos of Static-X on bass and vocals. The remaining members of Fear Factory were Christian Olde Wolbers who played bass and Raymond Herrera who played the drums and without anybody knowing, they secretly decided to start writing a new record and recorded demos, those songs were later on presented to singer Burton who liked what he heard which signalled the reawakening of the deathly machine that is Fear Factory. This meant that Dino would be left out in the cold due to their fallout which came to the conclusion that Christian has now officially switched from bass to guitar and recruited the assistance of Byron Stroud of Strapping Young Lad to fill the bass duties. An album was shortly recorded with those early demos and the album was released in 2004 appropriately titled Archetype to signify and send the out the message that Fear factory are firing all cylinders and let the world of metal know who started that sound. This time round, the whole man/machine concepts has been ditched and therefore allowing Burton to write about the last 4 years of his life outside Fear factory. The first single Cyberwaste takes a swipe at the people using the net to talk shit about people and never actually dare express those feelings to their faces.
“Assume that you know my thoughts
This was the first album to have been self-produced by the band themselves and received great reviews by critics and fans alike and it turns out that things are going well without Dino. Just a year later, the band announced that they were releasing a new record which was too soon in many opinions… The record received the title Transgression which was an experimental album to try things that they never dared to do before, the album contained two cover songs of U2 and Killing Joke. The whole thing felt rushed and Christian stated that he was unhappy with the guitar sound and production in general even though the album redeemed itself by the fact that half of the record contained songs heavy enough to break skulls. There has been a long silence since 2005, due to the fact that Burton was busy completing, releasing and touring his side project. During that time, Christian and Raymond started writing the next record stating that “it will be a heavy record from start to finish” but Burton was too busy to rejoin them. To their frustration, Christian and Raymond recruited Jon Howard of Threat Signal to start a new side project and let him sing on those already-written songs instead of them going to waste, that project has come to be known as Arkaea. While Arkaea were busy doing their stuff, Dino and Burton buried their hatchet and became friends and so talks of playing together again has surfaced. They recruited the legendary Gene Hoglan of Strapping Young Lad on drums along with current bassist Byron Stroud and decided to call themselves Fear Factory… A monstrously mutated version of the previous model. The problem with that great idea is that no one told Christian and Raymond, were they in the band anymore? What was their role in this? The two camps were not in contact anymore due to Burton and Dino not responding to Christian and Raymond. So weeks goes by and the Arkaea duo decide to launch a law suit stating that they were very much still FF members and are refusing for the newly assembled FF to use that name to record an album which will be called ‘Mechanize’ out in Feb 2010… The story continues… Despite the messy ending there, this band is as close to me as my heart is and no matter whom the members are, they know what Fear Factory is, what it means and what it stands for. Fear Factory has since directly influenced Killswitch engage, Korn, Spineshank, Devildriver, In Flames, Linkin Park, Machine Head, Meshuggah, Slipknot, Soilwork, Trivium, Static-X and other countless bands who came and went over the years. There will be a time when they will be replaced by a new , fresher and younger band that will carry that same signature sound that I love most but that time won’t be for a while more as things are getting really exciting once again… just like the first day.
Related Groups:
Daily Music Dose, YOUR OLD/NEW FAVORITE BANDS
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