FEAR FACTORY

FEAR FACTORY
Biography

Fear Factory are an industrial metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1989. They settled early on a shape that has been copied widely since — the speed and the roar of death metal set against machine-like repetition and a clean singing voice — and made ten studio albums between Soul of a New Machine in 1992 and Aggression Continuum in 2021. The guitarist Dino Cazares has been there from the start; since Burton C. Bell, who sang from 1990 to 2020, left the band, the singer has been Milo Silvestro, who joined in 2023.

The band and the debut (1989-1993)

The band began in Los Angeles in 1989 as Ulceration, became Fear the Factory the following year and then Fear Factory. The first line-up was Burton C. Bell on vocals, Dino Cazares on guitar, Raymond Herrera on drums and Dave Gibney on bass.

They signed to Roadrunner Records in 1991 and released Soul of a New Machine on 25 August 1992, seventeen songs produced by Colin Richardson and recorded that May in Hollywood. Andrew Shives is credited on bass, though Cazares has since said that he played all of the bass himself. The band's foundation is already audible on it: death metal speed and roaring set against industrial repetition and clean singing.

An EP of remixes drawn from that record, Fear Is the Mind Killer, followed in 1993. Christian Olde Wolbers joined on bass in 1994, and the four of him, Bell, Cazares and Herrera became what is usually called the classic line-up.

The trilogy (1995-2001)

Demanufacture, from 1995, is built on machine-like repetition and on a voice that moves between roaring and clean singing, and it is the record most often named as their best. A remix album assembled from its material, Remanufacture (Cloning Technology), followed in 1997.

Obsolete, from 1998, is a concept record built on "Conception 5", a story written by Bell. The band played in Japan for the first time during the years they toured it.

Digimortal, from April 2001, takes its title from Digital Mortality and closes the line that runs through Demanufacture and Obsolete, in which the man and the machine become one thing. It reached number thirty-two on the American Billboard 200 and number one on the independent albums chart, and B-Real of Cypress Hill appears on one song.

Breaking up and starting again (2002-2006)

Bell announced in March 2002 that he was leaving and the band broke up, with disagreements over the direction of the music given as the reason. That same year a recording made in 1991 with Ross Robinson finally appeared, as Concrete.

The band started again in 2003 without Cazares. Wolbers moved from bass to guitar and Byron Stroud came in on bass. Their first record was Archetype in 2004, whose number thirty on the American Billboard 200 was the band's highest placing at the time. Transgression followed in 2005 with the same four players and turned out to be the last album with Herrera and Wolbers. The band stopped in 2006.

Cazares returns, and the fight over the name (2009-2021)

In April 2009 Bell and Cazares announced that they had reconciled, and a new line-up began work with Gene Hoglan on drums and Byron Stroud on bass. Herrera and Wolbers were not part of it, and that June the two of them said publicly that they were still in the band, which began the dispute over who could use the name.

Mechanize, from February 2010, is that line-up's first record and the only Fear Factory album Hoglan played on. On The Industrialist in 2012 the drums are programmed and only Bell and Cazares are credited as members; the same year Stroud left, Matt DeVries came in on bass and Mike Heller on drums. On Genexus in 2015 Heller played several of the songs himself, and Tony Campos joined on bass that year.

Bell left the band in September 2020. He gave as his reason a run of dishonest representations and unfounded accusations by present and former members, and said that his relationship with Cazares had worsened after a physical confrontation during the recording of Genexus. In the same year Herrera and Wolbers sued Bell and Cazares over the use of the name, and that case held up the release of the next album.

Aggression Continuum, from June 2021, came out in the middle of all this. Its vocals had been recorded in 2017, so Bell's voice is on a record that appeared after he had gone. It is the first Fear Factory album since their debut to miss every American Billboard chart. In November 2024 Cazares said that he now holds all of the rights to the band.

The new line-up (2023-2026)

In February 2023, after more than three hundred people had auditioned, the Italian singer Milo Silvestro joined. The drummer Pete Webber was confirmed that May.

Recording for a new album began on 21 April 2025, and the first single by this line-up, "Roboticist", appeared on 29 August 2026. Tony Campos plays the bass, and it is reported to be the first Fear Factory record on which he plays every bass part in the studio.

About the members

The current line-up is Milo Silvestro on vocals, Dino Cazares on guitar, Tony Campos on bass and Pete Webber on drums. Cazares has been in the band since it formed in 1989, apart from the years between 2002 and 2009, and is its only founding member still in it.

Among the former members are Burton C. Bell, who sang from 1990 to 2020; Raymond Herrera, who played drums from 1989 to 2009; Christian Olde Wolbers, who joined on bass in 1994 and played guitar from 2003; Byron Stroud, on bass from 2003 to 2012; and Gene Hoglan, on drums from 2009 to 2012.

Discography

Ten studio albums. The running order, the CD details and the liner notes for each one are on its own page, reachable from the album list on this page.

Year	Title	Label
1992	Soul of a New Machine	Roadrunner
1995	Demanufacture	Roadrunner
1998	Obsolete	Roadrunner
2001	Digimortal	Roadrunner
2004	Archetype	Liquid 8
2005	Transgression	Calvin
2010	Mechanize	Candlelight and AFM
2012	The Industrialist	Candlelight and AFM
2015	Genexus	Nuclear Blast
2021	Aggression Continuum	Nuclear Blast

Beside these there are the remix records Fear Is the Mind Killer (1993), Remanufacture (Cloning Technology) (1997) and Recoded (2022), Concrete, which was recorded in 1991 and first issued in 2002, and Re-Industrialized, a 2023 re-recording with live drums.

Concerts in Japan

The band played in Japan for the first time during the Obsolete years, but no source opened for this page gives the dates, so those shows are not listed here.

The earliest concerts that can be dated are 25 and 26 September 2010 at Saitama Super Arena, where they opened for Metallica on both nights along with The Sword.

In September 2012 they headlined three shows behind The Industrialist: Shibuya Club Quattro on the 18th, Nagoya Club Quattro on the 19th and Umeda AKASO on the 20th, with the Polish band Decapitated as special guest, promoted by SMASH.

Two shows in Tokyo and Osaka were announced for October 2015 to mark twenty years of Demanufacture, but both were cancelled and refunded.

They next played in Japan on 12 November 2024, a single show at Akabane ReNY alpha. It was their first concert here in twelve years and the first with Milo Silvestro singing, with Cyclamen opening.

About the sources

The facts here come from the band's own site; the tour announcement of their Japanese label, Warner Music Japan; articles by Tower Records Japan and Gekirock; the promoter SMASH's own page for the 2015 tour; MusicBrainz; and the English and Japanese Wikipedia articles on the band and on each album. No player's name and no concert date is supplied by inference.