FEAR FACTORY’s
Mechanize Confirmed For US Release
Candlelight Records today confirms February 9 as
the American release date for Mechanize, the seventh studio album from
Fear Factory. Mechanize features the highly reported
reconciliation of vocalist Burton C. Bell with original guitarist Dino Cazares
along with bassist Byron Stroud and journeyman drummer Gene Hoglan (Dethklok,
Strapping Young Lad). The anticipated album also welcomes back
keyboardist/producer Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly).
Mechanize is a full-fisted blast of
passion and innovation that sounds like the missing link between 1995’s
groundbreaking Demanufacture and 1998’s more texturally nuanced
Obsolete. Songs like “Industrial Discipline” and “Powershifter”
are crushing and colossal, melding fast and precise rhythms with vocals that
pinwheel from raw and scathing to hauntingly melodic while “Fear Campaign,”
which features harrowing spoken word passages, quickly segues into a showcase of
punishing beats, rapid-fire riffs and ghostly keyboards. For the first time
in years, the band’s industrial roots glimmer through its street-lethal metal,
thanks in part to Fulber, who worked on Fear Factory's popular industrial remix
albums Fear is the Mindkiller and Remanufacture.
“I didn’t want any of the soundscapes to sound
natural,” says Bell. “I wanted them to be really mechanical because I
wanted that aspect of Fear Factory to really shine again. I feel it kind of
got dulled over and that’s the aspect that I really enjoyed a lot about Fear
Factory. I was a huge fan of industrial music and still am. And you
don’t hear much of that anymore these days.”
While Mechanize is instantly reminiscent
of Fear Factory’s most potent moments of discovery, it’s hardly a stroll down
the old assembly line. Through a combination of technological advancements
and experience, Fear Factory have evolved like a computer virus, constantly
reconfiguring itself to maximize its destructive impact. As work began on the
album in early April, Bell, who resides in Pennsylvania, admitted he initially
expected the years apart would leave him feeling awkward or
uncomfortable. However, when Cazares picked him up at the airport his
apprehensions melted like a block of ice on a hot electric motor. “After
being with him a couple hours and talking to him everything was cool,” Bell
says. Three months later the duo had a fresh batch of new songs written and more
importantly a renewed confidence in their union.
“Our creative juices were really flowing the
whole time,” says Cazares about the entire creative process. “All of a
sudden we’d look at the clock and go, ‘Holy shit, it’s already 2:30 or 3:00
am.’ We just lost track of time because we were all bouncing ideas off each
other really productively. We were adding touches right up until the final
second to make the record as fresh as it could be.”
In the early ‘90s, many years before Killswitch
Engage and Shadows Fall started combining strangled growls with catchy vocal
melodies, and Static-X and Rammstein began blending pounding staccato riffs and
jackhammer beats with electronic samples, Los Angeles future-thinkers Fear
Factory were reinventing both death metal and industrial rock with an arsenal of
sonic styles. The band, with Bell and Cazares at its core, landed a record
deal based on a self-financed recording they made with producer Ross Robinson
(Slayer). They immediately entered the studio to record their first proper
album, Soul of a New Machine. Released in 1992, the album nearly
transformed death metal overnight with its blend of throat-abrading screams and
melodic vocals, and sci-fi lyrics about a machine that was invented to control
and contain mankind.
“A lot of people didn’t get it and really
ridiculed us,” Cazares recalls. “Because of the different vocals some
people were like, ‘whoah, this is cool, this is different.’ And then other
people went, ‘he’s singing melodically? That shouldn’t be on a fuckin’
death metal record.’ It took a while for more people to catch on to that
style of singing, and now it’s everywhere.”
Fear Factory would release four critically
acclaimed albums and two industrial remix EPs, selling well over a million
albums in the process. In early 2002, following a grueling tour with
Machine Head, the band imploded due to personal differences and sheer
over-exertion. A revamped group, moving forward without Cazares, would go
on release two more records over the next few years.
As time passed, the chance of a reunion between
Bell and Cazares seemed less likely. Then in April, 2008, a full six years
after they had last spoken, Bell, who at that time was touring with Ministry,
ran into Cazares while in Los Angeles and the two reopened the lines of
communication. “It just didn’t feel complete,” says Bell. “I realized
that Dino and I were a real integral part of Fear Factory and we needed each
other to make it work. Without the both of us it just lost that
intensity.”
In the six years that have passed since the
original Fear Factory splintered, lots of transformation has taken
place. Bell has formed the gothic rock band Ascension Of The Watchers, and
Cazares has put out two Divine Heresy discs and toured extensively. Stroud
and Hoglan have recorded and toured with Strapping Young Lad, Zimmers Hole and
Dethklok. For Bell, the myriad of projects have only provided creative
ideas and inspiration for Fear Factory. He notes, “in this day and age you
gotta keep busy. You can’t just rely on one band; something we’ve all
learned from time and years of experience. Not only is it good to support
yourself, but it also keeps you going creatively.”
“This is definitely a different chapter for us
and I think it’s the best thing we’ve ever done,” Cazares adds.
“Obviously, Burton and I have grown up and we’ve pretty much perfected what we
do. More importantly, we’ve discovered why we so were good together
in the first place. Our combination just works. All the ingredients
and the elements that we had in the past, combined with what we’ve learned since
being apart feels like putting on a new glove that still feels as good as an old
glove.”