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FEAR FACTORY
by Jonathan Williams
Photos by Frank Mullen
From the September 2005 issue of Prick Magazine.
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 Fear Factory is: Christian Olde Wolbers, Byron Stroud, Raymond Herrera, Burton C. Bell. |
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For a band that seemed to have no future just a couple of years ago, Fear Factory has not
only survived lineup changes, but has also proven to be more productive than ever. After
the departure of founding guitarist and key songwriter Dino Cazares in 2003, rumors were
flying that Fear Factory was no more. However, when bassist Christian Olde Wolbers switched to
guitar and Strapping Young Lad's Byron Stroud was brought on as the new bass player, the band
was back on track.
In April 2004, Fear Factory released Archetype and spent most of the year touring with bands
like Slipknot and Lamb Of God. As soon as the band got off the road in January of this year, work
began on Transgression, which was released last month.
As the title implies, Transgression is a departure in many ways for Fear Factory. Most notably, the
futuristic concepts of man vs. machine aren't so prevalent as they have been on the band's previous
releases.
|
 Burton C. Bell (singer). |
 Christian Olde Wolbers (guiar). |
 Byron Stroud (bass). |
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"Conceptually, it's not really telling a story," says vocalist Burton C. Bell. "Each song is an image
of a transgression in our lifestyles today. For instance, the song '540,000 Degrees Fahrenheit,'
which is the first song on the album, that is the estimated temperature at ground zero to a third
of a mile out from a nuclear blast. So, it's basically describing what someone might experience
within that third of a mile. 'Moment Of Impact' is someone either in an airplane going down or
someone who jumped off a building knowing when exactly they're going to die and describing that.
"'New Promise' [co-written by Lamb Of God's Mark Morton] is a song inspired by the Terri
Schiavo incident," he continues. "But it takes the perspective of the husband. Basically, the song
kind of starts off like the husband's whispering into a
loved one's ear saying, 'I know you're feeling all sorts of
pain, but I have to do this.' Basically, 'I love you this much.
I can't see you go this way.' So that's the idea of these
songs, just descriptions of transgression and what people
experience."
Bell's lyrics have always dealt with a Terminator -like
future that offers little hope for humanity. And like all good
science fiction, these ideas are inspired by the horrors of
modern day reality. When writing Transgression, Bell saw that
there was no need to predict what the future holds when
there is enough tragedy in the world today to draw from.
"I consider myself a writer of sorts and I've been writing
for many years, even before the band," he says. "I've
studied writers and I've realized that when science fiction
writers are writing about the future, they take ideas that
are there in the present and just expand upon them. It's
the ability to see into the future and taking from what the
past has done.
"With this record, we realize that reality is far more
frightening than fiction, especially in this day and age," he
continues. "It's insane what' going on in this world. It's
almost like the '60s has reinvented itself into the new millennium.
There's so much oppression from governments,
there's war everywhere, there's fighting everywhere,
there's homeland terrorism, there's foreign terrorism – the world is just out
of control. It seems like the more people there are the more out of control it
is. And it's frightening."
|
 Burton C. Bell. |
 Byron Stroud. |
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Despite the band's effort to do something different on Transgression, Fear
Factory's signature sound is still there. The cyber metal combination of death
metal guitars and growls with relentless drums, electronic keyboard textures
and soaring choruses can definitely be found on songs like "Spinal
Compression" and "Empty Vision." And considering that the band has recorded
cover songs ranging
from Gary Numan to
Agnostic Front, no Fear
Factory release would
be complete without
their take on someone
else's songs (this time
around it's U2's "I Will
Follow" and Killing Joke's
"Millennium").
But with contributions
from producer
Toby Wright, who has
worked on such landmark
metal albums as
Metallica's ...And Justice
For All and Korn's Follow
The Leader, and Faith No
More bassist Billy Gould,
who added a cinematic,
Pink Floyd-like tone to
"Supernova" and "Echo
Of My Scream,"
Transgression is clearly a
path towards a different
future for Fear Factory.
On every Fear
Factory record the bass
has always followed the
songs," says Bell. "We felt
that if we wanted a song
with a little different vibe,
why not give the bass its
own life?"
|
 Christian Olde Wolbers. |
 Byron Stroud. |
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"I think this record is the most experimental record we've done in a long
time, actually probably more experimental than Obsolete," he adds. "It’s Fear
Factory, but there's a new life to it, there's a different sound to it.
Outside of recording, touring and contributing music to video games (most
recently Rainbow Six: Lockdown, each member
somehow still finds time for other projects as
well. Bell has an ambient side project called
Ascension of The Watchers, Olde Wolbers
producers other bands, drummer Raymond
Herrera has a video game sound effects company
called 3volution Productions, and Stroud
still plays with Strapping Young Lad.
But at the end of the day, Fear Factory is the
machine in which each member's soul resides.
"Fear Factory is a machine generating these
ideas and concepts of future apocalypse and
images of hate and oppression and things like
that," says Bell. "When the band was born and
we created that name, that's the philosophy
we created. A couple of times I've gone so far
as to write a story of man vs. machine, but this
record's not that. We've done it so many times
that I just wanted to try something different.
But that idea will always be there."
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 Burton C. Bell. |
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Fear Factory will be on tour with Soilwork, Strapping Young Lad and Darkbane beginning on October 28.
For more information, go to www.fearfactory.com or www.liquid8records.com.
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