Fear Factory

Fear Factory

Fear Factory is an American heavy metal band. The band formed in 1989 and 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, groove metal, thrash metal and industrial metal. The resultant sound proved to be enormously influential on the metal scene from the mid-90s and onwards. Their most recent album, Transgression, described as a more experimental and atypical effort, has also contained elements of pop music and progressive metal.

Fear Factory disbanded in March 2002 following some internal disputes, but they reformed later that year minus founding member Dino Cazares adding bassist, Byron Stroud, and casting then-bassist Christian Olde Wolbers as guitarist.

In April of 2009, a new lineup was announced with founding guitarist Cazares returning, and Gene Hoglan being added as drummer. Bell and Stroud are both reprising their respective roles, and the band is currently in the studio working on new material. Former members Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera (currently playing in Arkaea) dispute the legitimacy of the new lineup, and a legal battle is underway from both parties.

The band has toured with the likes of Black Sabbath, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Slayer, System of a Down, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Mastodon, Misery Index and Rammstein; performed at three Ozzfests as well as the inaugural Gigantour and has had singles in the US Mainstream Rock Top 40 and albums in the Billboard Top 40, 100 and 200. They are currently in the pre-production stages of the recording of a new full-length album and, for the time being, are functioning independent of a record label. Prior to 2001 they have toured around 2000 shows. They have sold over 1 million albums in the U.S. alone.

History

The early years

Fear Factory's roots lie in an outfit formed by guitarist Dino Cazares (formerly of The Douche Lords) and drummer Raymond Herrera in Los Angeles, California in 1989. Their first line-up was completed with the addition of vocalist Burton C. Bell (ex-Hate Face), allegedly recruited by an impressed Cazares upon overhearing him singing New Year's Day by U2 in the shower at a common boarding. Cazares played bass on the first 3 Fear Factory albums Concrete, Soul of a New Machine and Demanufacture.

They started out under the name Ulceration, apparently picked for no real reason other than that Burton C. Bell and/or other members thought it would "just be a cool name" for the band, but they subsequently shifted to Fear Factory in 1990; the new moniker being more reflective of their burgeoning new death metal sound, influenced just as much by early British industrial metal, industrial music and grindcore as much as it continued to remain firmly rooted in a conservative extreme metal approach; a facet of their music that eventually saw the band’s appeal spread out over a wider music audience.

The earliest demo recordings of the band are strongly reminiscent of the early works of Napalm Death and also Godflesh, an acknowledged influence of the band, in the grindcore driven approach of the former and the mechanical brutality, bleakness and vocal stylings of the latter. The demos are remarkable for integrating these influences into their death metal sound and for Burton C. Bell’s pioneering fusion of extreme death growls and clean vocals in the same song, which was to become a significant and influential element of the band’s sound throughout their career. The use of grunts and "throat singing" combined with clean vocals has later defined the nu metal and newer genres of metal. Many vocalists, in today's metal scene, use two or more methods of singing and vocalizing lyrics. The band contributed two songs to the L.A. Death Metal Compilation in 1990. They played their first show on Wednesday, October 31, 1990.

Concrete

Main article: Concrete (album)

In 1991, Fear Factory proceeded to record a series of cuts to comprise their debut album with the then relatively unknown producer, Ross Robinson in Blackie Lawless’ studio. However, due to the band being unhappy with the terms of their recording contract, the material was not released at the time.

They retained the rights to the songs, however, many of which they re-recorded with a different producer, Colin Richardson, for inclusion on their actual debut release Soul of a New Machine, in 1992. Meanwhile, Ross Robinson obtained the rights to the recording, which he used to promote himself, subsequently finding enormous success during the nu metal explosion of the mid-late 90s when he worked with bands such as Korn, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot; ironically, bands that had little in common with the Fear Factory of 1991. The recording itself was eventually given an official release through Roadrunner Records in 2002 under the title Concrete during the band’s interim demise. It was seen as a controversial release, being issued out of the band’s outstanding contractual obligations and without the approval of all of the band’s members.

Although fan opinion has been divided over whether the Ross Robinson production properly captures the intricacies of band’s sound, with the finished product favoring a more straight-up brutal approach and Robinson’s distinct drum sound, the “secret” album has nevertheless become an important document for fans of the early Fear Factory sound and can be seen as a bridge between the band’s sound on their demo recordings and that on their debut release, Soul of a New Machine as well as a source of the blueprints for some of the band’s later songs and b-sides.

Based on the Concrete recording, Max Cavalera recommended them to the then death metal focused Roadrunner Records label, who proceeded to offer them a recording contract. While the band signed the contract at the time, it has since become the source of some controversy based on Roadrunner’s treatment of the band during the events surrounding their interim break up in 2002. This is supported by Burton C. Bell’s scathing lyrics on “Slave Labor” - the opening song on 2004’s Archetype, the band’s first album after their reformation – that do not mince their words about the band’s feelings on the matter. After going through numerous amounts of Bassists, Andrew Shives was hired as a live bassist prior to the release of their debut album.

Soul of a New Machine

Main article: Soul of a New Machine

Recorded with producer Colin Richardson and released in 1992, Soul of a New Machine was the band’s first exposure to the wider music scene and was seen as revolutionary for its pioneering industrial death metal sound, combining Bell’s harsh and melodic vocals, Herrera’s machine-like battery, the integrated industrial samples and textures and the sharp, down tuned rhythmic death metal riffs of Dino Cazares.

Due to the extreme nature of the music, the album was not successful in the mainstream and even today remains more of a cult favorite, never seeing the level of popularity attained by their later, more accessible works. Indeed, the band’s style progressively shifted further away from the death metal sound with every subsequent release and Soul of a New Machine can strictly be seen as Fear Factory’s final effort that lies firmly in the death metal camp.

The band added sampler/keyboardist Reynor Diego to the lineup and supported the album by embarking on extensive tours across the U.S. with Biohazard, Sepultura, and Sick Of It All and a tour of Europe with Brutal Truth, then Cannibal Corpse, Cathedral, and Sleep. The following year, they hired Front Line Assembly member Rhys Fulber to remix some songs from the album, demonstrating the band’s willingness to experiment with their music even at this early stage. The results took on a predominantly industrial guise, and were released as the Fear Is the Mindkiller EP in 1993 (both Soul of a New Machine and Fear is the Mindkiller were re-released together in a new re-mastered reissue by Roadrunner Records in 2004).

In 1994, Andrew Shives was forced to leave the band. In the same year, the band met a vacationing Christian Olde Wolbers (originally from Belgium) in LA, through Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard, whom they recruited as their permanent bassist. Although Christian joined the band with immediate effect, due to tight studio deadlines and Cazares’ regular tweaking of the guitar parts on the next album, he was unable to record the bass parts on all of its songs, with Cazares recording the bass for the remainder of the tracks.

Demanufacture

Main article: Demanufacture

Fear Factory released their second album Demanufacture in 1995, featuring a slight thawing down in the overly brutal approach of the early recordings in favor of a more industrial metal approach, characterized by a mix of rapid fire thrash metal/industrial metal guitar riffs and tight, pulse driven drum beats, roaring (rather than growled, but still aggressive) vocals that made way for melodic singing and powerful bass lines.

The production was also more refined and the integration of atmospheric keyboard parts and industrial textures upon Cazares’ and Herrera’s precise musicianship made the songs sound clinical, cold and machine-like and gave the band’s music a futuristic feel; spearheading a sound described by some reviewers as ‘cyber-metal’. Many fans consider Rhys Fulber’s involvement with the band integral to this dimension of their sound. There were extensive contributions from Reynor Diego as well; adding key samples, loops and electronic flourishes to the group dynamics.

Demanufacture is generally considered to be the band’s defining work and received much critical acclaim upon release, being awarded the maximum five K's rating in the UK’s Kerrang! rock magazine. It went on to become a fairly successful album. While Soul of a New Machine failed to chart anywhere, Demanufacture made the Top 10 of the Billboard Heatseekers charts and a video was filmed for the song "Replica". The song "Zero Signal" was featured on the Mortal Kombat film soundtrack in 1995. Instrumental versions of Demanufacture songs were later used in the Carmageddon video game for the PC.

Fear Factory spent the next few years touring with such bands such as Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Iron Maiden and appearing at the 1996 and 1997 Ozzfests, among other music festivals. During that time their jersey is seen in the video of Counterfeit by Limp Bizkit. In May 1997, the band released a new album composed of Demanufacture remixes by artists such as DJ Dano or Junkie XL (now known as JXL) called Remanufacture - Cloning Technology, which marked the band’s first appearance on the Billboard 200 and also appeared on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Roadrunner Records re-released Demanufacture and Remanufacture in a 10th Anniversary single package reissue in 2005, similar to that of Soul of a New Machine in 2004. This edition also includes bonus tracks from the digipak version of Demanufacture, which was also released in 1995.

Obsolete

Main article: Obsolete (album)

July 1998, saw the release of Fear Factory’s third studio album, titled Obsolete, with the band reportedly canceling an appearance at the Dynamo Open Air Festival to finish the album sooner.

Obsolete was similar in sound to Demanufacture, but also saw the introduction of more progressive metal and alternative metal elements and for the first time, featured Christian Olde Wolbers recording with the band in his full capacity as a band member. It also featured Dino Cazares down tuning his 7-string guitars from standard tuning (B,E,A,D,G,B,E,) to A tuning (A,D,G,C,F,A,D,), paving the way for a lower-tuned sound than before. The album is also notable for Rhys Fulber’s increased involvement with the band.

While Fear Factory had explored the theme of “Man versus Machine” in their earlier work, Obsolete was their first actual concept album that dealt specifically with a literal interpretation of this subject, telling a story called Conception 5 written by Bell that takes place in a future world where mankind is rendered "obsolete" by the Machines, and features characters such as the “Edgecrusher”, “Smasher/Devourer” and the “Securitron” monitoring system. The story is presented in the lyrics booklet in a screenplay format in between the individual songs, with the printed story parts linking the lyrics of the songs together thematically.

Bell explained the concept in an interview as follows:

The concept of this record is that man is obsolete. The idea is still man versus machine - man versus the system machine... man versus the government machine. Demanufacture told a story, Remanufacture was another chapter in the story and Obsolete is another part of the Fear Factory concept. We're up to the point in the story where man is obsolete. Man has created these machines to make his life easier but in the long run it made him obsolete. The machines he created are now destroying him. Man is not the primary citizen on Earth.

— Burton C. Bell

Coincidentally released in the alternative metal boom of the late 90s, Obsolete, supported by tours with Slayer and later, Rammstein, along with a headlining spot on the second stage at Ozzfest in 1999 (as last-minute replacements for Judas Priest), went on to become the band’s highest selling album, marking the band’s first entry into the Top 100 on the Billboard charts. The album also spawned singles in "Descent" and in the digipak bonus track, "Cars", a cover of the famous Gary Numan song (featuring a guest appearance by Numan himself, on the song, as well as in its music video), that made the Mainstream Rock Top 40 in 1999 and was also featured in the video game, Test Drive 5. Incidentally, Numan also performs a spoken word sample on the album’s title track. A video was also filmed for the song, "Resurrection". To date, Obsolete remains the only Fear Factory album to have achieved gold sales in the US.

Digimortal and demise

Main article: Digimortal (album)

In early 2001, Fear Factory was asked to headline SnoCore Rock. The success of Obsolete and "Cars" was to be a turning point for the band, with Roadrunner Records now keen on capitalizing on the band’s sales potential and pressuring the band to record more accessible material for their follow-up album, titled Digimortal, which was released in 2001.

While Digimortal remained consistent with the band’s lyrical evolution, with Bell now singing about Man and Machine having become merged and unable to be separated without immense harm being caused, musically, the shift to simpler, more radio friendly song structures lost the band some of its more extreme metal fans and the album is considered by some to be inferior to their earlier releases. Fan opinion, however, remains strongly divided between those who view the album as a colossal failure, those who associate it with the nü metal movement and others who contend that the sound is still the same Fear Factory at its core and praise the merits afforded by the Rhys Fulber production.

Digimortal made the Top 40 on the Billboard album charts, the Top 20 in Canada and the Top 10 of the Australian album charts. "Linchpin" off the album again reached the Mainstream Rock Top 40.

A remix of the song "Invisible Wounds" was included on the Resident Evil film soundtrack, and an instrumental digipak bonus track called "Full Metal Contact" was originally written for the video game, Demolition Racer.

A VHS/DVD release called Digital Connectivity was released soon after, in January 2002, which documents each of the four album periods of the band via interviews, live clips, music videos and tour/studio footage. The video is not generally seen as exceptionally well put together.

Although Digimortal had a successful start, the sales did not reach anywhere near the levels of Obsolete and the band received little tour support. The direction of the album coupled with strong personal differences between some of the band members created a rift that escalated with time, to the point where Bell announced his exit in March 2002. The band disbanded immediately thereafter. The band’s contractual obligations remained unfulfilled however, and Roadrunner did not release them without controversially issuing the Concrete album (originally from 1991) in 2002 and the b-sides and rarities compilation, Hatefiles in 2003.

During his time away from Fear Factory, Bell started his side project along with John Bechdel, called Ascension of the Watchers, who released their first EP, Iconoclast, independently via their online store in 2005.

Return

Over time, it emerged that the rift between the members was largely between the guitarist Dino Cazares and the other members, particularly Bell.

Cazares was the first to speak out after the break-up, proceeding to make claims and allegations against Bell and the other members in May 2002 in a Blabbermouth.net interview. Almost all of these allegations were subsequently addressed and refuted by Herrera in a counter interview, speaking on behalf of all the other members.

Olde Wolbers and Herrera got back together later in 2002 and laid the foundations for what was to become the return of Fear Factory. With Cazares now permanently out of the line up, Bell was approached with their demo recordings and was impressed enough to rejoin the band and Fear Factory was formed once again. Christian switched to guitar and Byron Stroud of Strapping Young Lad was approached to join the band as their new bassist, and has been their bass player since 2003.

Dino Cazares has continued recording and performing with his side project called Asesino, a Mexican deathgrind band featuring Tony Campos of Static-X on vocals. As of 2007, he has also started a new group called Divine Heresy, featuring Tim Yeung, formerly of Hate Eternal and Vital Remains, on drums.

Archetype

Main article: Archetype (album)

Fear Factory made their live return as the mystery band at the Australian Big Day Out festival in January 2004, followed by their first American shows since reforming, on the spring Jägermeister tour along with Slipknot and Chimaira. The new lineup's first album Archetype was released on April 20 2004 through new record label Liquid 8 Records based in Minnesota.

Archetype saw Fear Factory returning to an alternative and partially industrial metal sound and is generally considered to be a strong and 'back-to-form' record, if not a particularly innovative effort, with most of the trademark elements of the band firmly in place.

When you look up the definition of the word, Archetype, it's the actual model from which everything else is copied. Fear Factory is that in my opinion, and Archetype is a defining moment for us. Listen to this record, and you'll know exactly where all these other bands came from.

— Burton C. Bell

Videos were shot for the songs "Cyberwaste", "Archetype" and "Bite the Hand that Bleeds", with the latter featuring on the Saw film soundtrack. Further tours with Lamb of God and Mastodon in the US and with Mnemic in Europe put the band back on the worldwide metal map. The new Fear Factory has largely abandoned the direct "Man versus Machine" theme prevalent on earlier releases in favor of subjects such as religion, war and corporatism.

Transgression

Main article: Transgression (album)

To the surprise of many fans, Fear Factory soon revealed plans to subsequently record and release their next full-length album over a very short period of time with mainstream rock producer Toby Wright (normally known to work with bands such as Korn and Alice in Chains). This was allegedly due to pressure from their new label, Calvin Records, who pulled back the album’s due date from four months away to just a month and a half, in order that the band would have a completed new album to support on the inaugural Gigantour, which they had been invited to participate on by Dave Mustaine.

The resultant album, Transgression, was released barely a year after Archetype on August 22, 2005 in the United Kingdom, and on the following day in North America to highly polarized reviews, with some critics hailing the album as a diverse and progressive effort and other reviewers not receiving the record very well. Although the album starts off as a Fear Factory record, subsequent songs include mellow/alt-rock numbers in "Echo of My Scream" (featuring Faith No More’s Billy Gould on bass) and "New Promise", a pop-rock song in "Supernova" and a faithful cover of U2’s poppy, "I Will Follow".

Christian Olde Wolbers has expressed disappointment with the finished product, calling it only half-finished, and has blamed the label for the severe time constraints imposed during the recording sessions and for the inclusion of the U2 cover, but Burton C. Bell has maintained that he is proud of the album and sees it as the band "stepping over boundaries". Over 2005-2006, Fear Factory went on to promote the album on their successful "Fifteen Years of Fear" world tour in celebration of their fifteenth anniversary, inviting bands such as Darkane, Strapping Young Lad and Soilwork to join them on the US jaunt and Misery Index to join them on the European jaunt. Late 2006 saw Fear Factory tour the US once again on the "Machines at War" tour, with an all star death metal line-up of special guests in Suffocation, Hypocrisy and Decapitated, playing certain old classics from Soul of a New Machine such as "Crash Test" which they had not performed live in many years.

Hiatus and other projects

An online statement from Wolbers in December 2006 indicated that the band was to head back into the studio to record a new album, produced by the band, immediately after the completion of the Transgression touring cycle. That same month, Burton C. Bell confirmed in an interview that the band would part ways with Liquid 8 Records. Yet rather than begin work on a new studio album, the band members briefly went their separate ways, and began working with other projects.

Bell contributed vocals to the songs "End Of Days, Pt.1", "End of Days, Pt. 2", and "Die In A Crash" on Ministry's 2007 album The Last Sucker, and later toured with the band in support of the album. Bell referred to this as a "dream come true" in an interview, describing Ministry front man Al Jourgensen as "one of [his] heroes." In that same interview, Bell talked at length about his new band Ascension of the Watchers, providing insight into the inspiration behind the project's formation.

Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera went on to start their own new band, called Arkaea, with vocalist Jon Howard and bassist Pat Kavanagh of Threat Signal. In describing the band, Wolbers stated that "Ironically, half of the Arkaea album consists of songs that were intended to be the next Fear Factory record." Arkaea released their debut album Years in the Darkness on July 14, 2009.

A third lineup and legal complications (2009 to present)

On April 7, 2009, Burton C. Bell and ex-guitarist Dino Cazares announced the reconciliation of their friendship, and the formation of a new project with Stroud on bass and drummer Gene Hoglan (Death, Strapping Young Lad). On April 28, this project was revealed to actually be a new version of Fear Factory, minus Herrera and Wolbers. Bell, when asked why Herrera and Wolbers were not included, stated that "[Fear Factory]'s like a business and I'm just reorganizing...We won't talk about [their exclusion]".

In June 2009, Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera finally spoke about the issue on the radio program "Speed Freaks". Instead of offering reasons for leaving the group, Herrera revealed that technically, he and Wolbers never left. "[Christian and I] are actually still in Fear Factory...[Burton and Dino] decided to start a new band, and furthermore, they decided to call it Fear Factory. They never communicated with us about it", said Herrera. Herrera went on to say that the original four members (Bell, Cazares, Wolbers, and himself) are contractually regarded as Fear Factory Incorporated, and said "it's almost like them two against us two, so it's kind of a stalemate."

Herrera also stated that he and Wolbers had written eight songs for the next Fear Factory record, but that a "personal disagreement" had come up between them and Bell, which left Bell unwanting to continue work with the band.

Fear Factory featuring Bell and Cazares was set to make its live debut on June 21 in the Metalway Festival in Zaragoza, Spain. However, the show was cancelled "at the last minute", apparently due to the legal complications referenced by Herrera that now surround the use of the name "Fear Factory". The rest of that lineup's planned performances to date, which included a tour of United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand in August 2009, have also been canceled. The group claims, however, that they canceled their touring plans so as to finish writing and recording the next Fear Factory album. Despite the cancelled performances in Europe, shows around December have been confirmed in many South American countries, including Argentina and Chile.

Despite ongoing issues between the two parties, the new Fear Factory is moving ahead with the recording process. In late July of 2009, a short video shot with a cell phone showed Dino recording over drum tracks with long time contributor Rhys Fulber. According to recent interviews with Bell and Cazares, the band is about half way through the recording process and is pushing for an early 2010 release, and at least one show in South America has been announced. No label has been selected at present.

Legacy and influence

Fear Factory’s innovative approach towards, and hybridization of the genres of industrial metal, death metal and alternative metal has had a lasting impact on heavy metal music ever since the release of their first album in 1992. Fear Factory is noteworthy among contemporaries for their lyrical focus on science fiction, with much of their music telling a single story spanning several concept albums.

The band has often been called a "stepping stone" leading mainstream listeners to venture into less-known/more extreme bands, and are consistently appreciated.

In the Soul of a New Machine re-release, Machine Head vocalist Robert Flynn, Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter and Spineshank guitarist Mike Sarkisyan have cited Fear Factory as an influence in the liner notes. Robert Flynn stated his vocal style was influenced by Burton Bell's vocals and that Machine Head have been wrongly credited for the vocal style. Mark Hunter stated that Chimaira's drumming was heavily influenced by Raymond Herrera. Other Bands that have Fear Factory in their liner notes include Disturbed, Static-X & Coal Chamber.

Modern bands such as Mnemic, Scarve and Sybreed contain significant influences of the band’s technique and have also credited a substantial debt of gratitude to the band.

Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy has said that “Fear Factory are close to our hearts” and that “Soul of a New Machine was the influence for me to start my other project, 'Pain'”.

Band members

Current

• Burton C. Bell – lead vocals (1990–present)
• Dino Cazares – guitar (1990−2002, 2009–present)
• Byron Stroud – bass (2003–present)
• Gene Hoglan – drums (2009–present)

Disputed

• Raymond Herrera – drums, percussion (1990–2009; disputed)
• Christian Olde Wolbers – bass (1993–2002) guitars (2002–2009; disputed)

Former

• Dave Gibney – bass, vocals (spoken word intro for "Big God/Raped Souls" on Concrete) (1989–1991)
• Andy Romero – bass on Concrete (1991–1992)
• Andrew Shives – bass (1992–1994)

Additional personnel

• Rhys Fulber – samples/keyboards/programming/mixing
• Reynor Diego – samples/keyboards (live and recorded on Demanufacture) (1991–1995)
• Steve Tushar – keyboards, programming, electronics
• John Bechdel – keyboards (live and recorded on Digimortal)

Discography

Further information: Fear Factory discography

Studio albums

Title	Date of Release	Label	US Charts	US Sales
Soul of a New Machine	August 25, 1992 October 5, 2004 (Reissue)	Roadrunner	-	130,000
Demanufacture	June 13, 1995 November 7, 1995 (Digipak) June 7, 2005 (Reissue)		-	285,000
Obsolete	July 28, 1998 March 23, 1999 (Digipak)		77	470,000
Digimortal	April 24, 2001		32	182,000
Concrete	July 30, 2002 (Recorded 1991)		-	34,000
Archetype	April 20, 2004	Liquid 8	30	143,000
Transgression	August 23, 2005	Calvin	45	75,000

External links

• Official website
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