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BACK
 FEAR
FACTORY - Remanufacturing the Machine
By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley
When industrial metal act Fear Factory had disbanded in 2002 –
a decision brought on by the internal war of words and emotions
from within the band – it was indeed a sad day. Fear Factory
was a groundbreaking band in the ’90s, a band that managed
to deliver a brutal edge to music while expanding their sound with
melody, electronics and creativity.
Thankfully the breakup of the Los Angeles act was only for a short
time as singer Burton C. Bell, bassist Christian Olde Wolbers (now
playing guitar) and drummer Raymond Herrera regrouped in 2003 sans
guitarist Dino Cazares (who had been the source of the internal
strife) and recorded the much-anticipated Archetype (Liquid 8).
Now with positive reviews welcoming their comeback, months of tours
planned and new bassist Byron Stroud (Strapping Young Lad) helping
glue the unit together, once again the metallic machine rolls on.
"When I initially left the band, I was done," says Bell.
"I had no interest in the band and was just fed up with what
was going on there and needed to get away. I took time off, started
other projects and just kept to myself. Then a while later I was
contacted by Christian and Raymond who had been working on some
new material and they had gotten in touch with me hoping that I
would want to work with them but were 95 per cent sure I would say
no. Much to their surprise I said yes.
"I surprised myself as well," he adds. "I thought
I was never going to do this ever again, but things needed to happen.
After listening to the music they had written I thought it was killer
and I needed to be involved. I told them that the only way I was
going to come back to Fear Factory was if Dino wasn’t involved,
and they agreed with me on that."
It’s strange how things happen in life.
"It sure is, Adrian. I mean, I was done with Fear Factory.
Done. And here I am a few years later back in the band, going out
on tour and happy with the music we are putting out."
So, as one can tell by reading what Bell has said above (and what
you may have read elsewhere), Dino Cazares seems to have been the
main problem with the way things went for Fear Factory a few years
ago. Not to slam Dino, as I have met him a few times and he was
nice to me, but it doesn’t surprise me that there was conflict.
"It seems every band has one, and well, he was our conflict.
This stuff had been building up for years now – interpersonally
and extraneously – with the band and it was a lot to deal with
and I had a lot of reasons to want to leave," he laughs. "It
wasn’t something that came up overnight; it was something that
had been brewing for years."
I’m assuming, without Cazares in the fold, the studio work
must have felt very strange.
"It felt very different and it was refreshing too," says
the singer. "It works differently now. We run things differently.
It feels better and it is a lot more fun. I don’t miss the
dynamic of Dino, and I am enjoying this a lot more now."
Minus the fact that Dino is not involved, what sets this album apart
from the previous Fear Factory releases?
"I think the dynamic is a lot better. It seems to work a lot
more smoothly now. I think the music that we write is archetypal
Fear Factory and what we should be writing. We are not trying to
be something we are not – this is not forced. It is very natural
and this is what we do best. We want to hear this and so do our
fans. The album is a lot heavier and there is a lot of passion oozing
from this. Christian and Raymond worked their asses off for this
album and it shows. Raymond shines big time on this record and whether
Christian wants to believe it or not he had a lot to prove with
this record, and I think he pulled it off big time. He did a great
job with the bass and guitar on the recording. He is very talented,
and I think people who hear this album will take note of that. I
feel everything’s so grand and focused with this album and
I’m glad people are reacting positively to it."
As long as the band has been around it has always been about evolution.
The evolution of the intensity, the drive, and the sound.
"I am sure people thought that the new Fear Factory was going
to be very radio friendly or more melodic, when that wasn’t
the case. We just delivered the record that had to come out of us.
Like you said, the evolution of the band is in constant motion.
This isn’t contrived or forced one bit. It comes from our needs
and wants to express our emotions and explore what we can do as
a band within the mold of what Fear Factory is all about. We are
still the same band; we’ve just been modified, and I think
that modification has propelled us once again in a direction that
welcomes older ideas to mesh with newer ones. We didn’t need
a producer this time around as well, and I think that helped enhance
what you got here. Most of the time when we work with a producer
they either change things around or water things down and we felt
if we knew what we wanted we could easily achieve that if the band
self-produced the album. I mean after all, we know what we want
to hear and have enough studio experience to put it to work."
He ends off, "Archetype is a natural step for Fear Factory.
We took the necessary procedures to reform as a band and to create
this album, and we aren’t looking back."
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