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New To Us: Fear Factory
38 Plays1 year ago
Today we checked out a brand new band as recommended to us by YOU guys!
You gave us 6 songs to check out and we did! Hear our thoughts on them (as well as a little history lesson on Fear Factory, too!) in the video...
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Transcript
Introduction and Audience Engagement
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Hello. Hi, Facebook. Hi, Instagram, and hi, YouTube. How are you all today?
Discovering Fear Factory
00:00:09
Speaker
Today, we're talking about Fear Factory. How exciting. I mean, totally new to us, but I mean, it's not the name, isn't it? New to us, Fear Factory. So how did it even happen? Why Fear Factory?
00:00:25
Speaker
so we put out a post didn't we asking we just basically wanted to find out you guys favorite bands and you came back to us in droves you there was lots of slayers lots of beer factories lots of it metallicers we've already done a metallic one and we thought you know slayer are not new to us and we thought fear factory that's an interesting one because i've heard lots of album haven't heard any music and they've been playing they've played at festivals like been to you know i just never checked them out they've always clashed with another band and we thought screw it why not just check out
00:00:54
Speaker
Check out this this new band so in another new to us we're here we've got six songs i think six or seven six songs that you gave us so when we told you guys that we were going to do a fear factory video you guys came and you told us a bunch of songs to do i think we had like 10 song recommendations or we've chosen six of them and everyone commented we've chosen at least one of your songs i believe
Industrial Metal: A Primer
00:01:15
Speaker
So yeah, what we're going to do is just going to talk a little bit about industrial metal, because that's really important. Then we're going to just do like we did with the Queensright video, for anyone who tuned into that one, we just, you know, for the research we've done, we're just going to give you kind of like a timeline of Fear Factory. That's what we've learned. And then the songs that we've chosen, we're going to go a little bit in depth and just tell you about our opinions and our thoughts on them. And that's about it, really.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yes, I am. I'm just going to ask YouTube viewers, could you please tell us if you can see us and hear us okay because we had a little hiccup with the video.
00:01:49
Speaker
so yeah please just tell us in the chat if you can hear us please okay right okay yeah ready to go yeah next and right so i think the most important thing is that fear factory are one of the most notable industrial metal bands now so i thought it was important to say what is industrial metal
00:02:08
Speaker
So industrial metal is this, it is industrial music and it is metal music. So the industrial music, you're talking about mechanical sounding stuff, you know, you actually want things to sound industrial, mechanics, machines working, experiment, but as well as this, you've got an experimental and an electronic sound as well. So this means that the use of synths
00:02:34
Speaker
keyboards, manufactured sounds, industrial sounds, you know that's why we use the word. That's your industrial part and your metal part is obviously heavy riffs, you're growling, you're distorted guitars, all that stuff. So from industrial we get mechanical, experimental and electronic and from metal we take the aggression, the instrumentation and basically the attitude.
00:02:56
Speaker
In the late 80s, you had bands like Ministry, Godflesh, and Nine Inch Nails, who were pioneering and really innovating this industrial metal sound, specifically three albums you guys should check out that's early industrial. Ministry's Land of Rape and Honey, Godflesh's Street Cleaner, and Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine.
00:03:16
Speaker
As the industrial metal scene grew and expanded and gained popularity into the mid-90s, you had a lot more bands coming out taking on this new style. You've got Marilyn Manson, KM FDM, Pitch Shifter, Fear Factory's one of them, Ramstein, Rob Zombie.
00:03:33
Speaker
it kind of exploded and it's interesting it kind of went in conjunction with new metal as well which I think is interesting because I've been a touch of it in this video. It is interesting. Well actually we have a comment saying I've never heard of Fear Factory so don't know. They've never heard of Fear Factory. No but I do love Rammstein and Marilyn Manson. There you go this might be for you then.
00:03:50
Speaker
So, some seminal and important albums in the 90s to do with Industrial Metal. You've got Ramstein's Senschucht, which you checked out today, didn't you? Yeah, I loved it. Oh my goodness. Fear Factory's De-Manufacture. You've definitely got a song from that album because that is considered their top one.
00:04:05
Speaker
and Rob Zombie's Hellbilly Deluxe. These are examples of mid-90s albums that took the attitude and the idea of the late 80s albums and just kind of developed it more, made it a bit more electronic, a bit more experimental, a bit more technical, overall a bit more industrial.
00:04:22
Speaker
As of today, people are still experimenting with different textures, tones, sounds, and it's all under the guise of industrial metal. They're fusing it a lot more. All this information I'm telling you now is from our Reels, so you should go and check out our industrial metal reel. But nowadays you get industrial metal fusing with other genres like techno, punk, EBM, synthwave, metalcore even. And some bands, some industrial metal bands or some bands that could be considered industrial metal today,
00:04:52
Speaker
You've got teeth, outlier, author and punisher, the witch was right, and perturbator. Just to name a few, there's plenty more out there, but those are kind of the big ones of modern industrial metal. Great. So, Fear Factory.
Fear Factory: Origins and Evolution
00:05:06
Speaker
Fear Factory. Fear Factory. We'll start there. The first thing that we've both noticed with Fear Factory is how much their line-up changed, and how there was an influx of members going in and out, I think.
00:05:17
Speaker
So I'm just going to list the classic lineup for those who are interested. So on vocals you've got Burton C Bell, on guitars you've got Dino Cazares, and on bass you've got Christian Wolbers, and drums you've got Raymond Herrera.
00:05:30
Speaker
This changed multiple times. There was many iterations of them, but that is what is considered the classic Fear Factory lineup. So let's start on the Fear Factory journey. So in 1989, the band was formed in LA by Dino Cazares and Burton Seabel, and the initial name of the band was actually Ulceration.
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, I read about that. Interesting. I don't like that. No, me neither. I prefer Fear Factory. Fear Factory's cooler, yeah. And do you know how the name actually came about? It was something to do with Fear Factory. Something to do with their rehearsal studios being near a factory that was guarded by people like God with guns and Fear Factory, you know. I like you when names have a story. I know, but you know it's actually a very common thing when
00:06:19
Speaker
a band gets inspired by their surroundings at the time and then name like an album. It's a story. There's your story. So the first song that we were asked to listen to is called Big God slash Raped Souls. Now this came from the 1992 debut album called Soul of a New Machine.
00:06:41
Speaker
And this album was basically a fusion of death metal and industrial elements, if you like, you know, some electronic and keyboard synth stuff going on in there. I think predominantly it was a bit of a death metal album. What were your thoughts on Big Gold Rave Souls?
00:06:56
Speaker
Well I was shocked to hear those death growls and I mean they were proper death growls like they were so deep and then clean vocals straight afterwards I was like oh that's cool I like that that's such a big contrast and that's very death metal as well. Well the only industrial metal I'd known before this was a bit of Rammstein some Marilyn Manson and some nine inch nails and all of those have a kind of
00:07:26
Speaker
um a stable vocal tone if you like. So to an agreement with you to hear those death metal growls come and then just something completely clean I was like what's going on here? Yeah no it's very interesting and I think this becomes like sort of their thing throughout because he never just
00:07:47
Speaker
sings cleanly or he never just growls or he never just distorts you know there's a bit of everything i think and that's cool i like that i do but we just recently did a livestream on death and death metal and chuck shoulder now
00:08:05
Speaker
so as soon as i heard that song i was like oh definitely yeah it is it is very death metal in its aggression in the intensity and even to extend the production i didn't think the production on the first song was great um did the job but i don't think yeah it was far from perfect i thought the clean vocals whenever they came around they it kind of made it a little more progressive just gave it a little bit more of an atmosphere because whenever
00:08:28
Speaker
I think this is a theme throughout most of these songs and we might be lucky that we just picked the six songs that this all happens with but I imagine it's probably a consistent thing for them. You've got quite heavy verses with some screaming or shouting or aggressiveness and then choruses are just clean vocals.
00:08:45
Speaker
I reckon it's like their formula. Yeah, and if it works, why not? But we get that for the first, for our first time in this song. Yes. And I think the one thing I did notice is there was already signs of new metal and groove. Yeah. Yes. Bouncy verses, the production, simplified riffs and grooves. Now, although there were some very technical moments in all of these songs, I still think there was some moments where the riff was just simple for the sake of it. And that's a good thing.
00:09:13
Speaker
You know, when you say something's complicated for the sake of it, that's not a good thing, because you're insinuating that the artist is trying to purposely be complicated, but sometimes less is more. And I like it. You know, the thing I love about New Metal, I know you do too, is that it's simple. New Metal was the answer to Neo Metal. So towards the end of the 80s, you had bands like Pantera, and I don't know any off the top of my head, who were playing quite complicated music.
00:09:42
Speaker
and this is what they called Neo Metal. I think that was a harken back to like the Neoclassicalism, so new classical music, which we know classical music is very intricate and complex. And so the answer to Neo Metal, and Neo means new by the way,
00:09:59
Speaker
When you have this complicated music, other bands were saying, well, hold on, we can't keep up with this level of complexity. So we're going to make a new kind of metal that became new metal, simpler and simplified. And so, yeah, that's why you have these simplicity things in new metal.
00:10:15
Speaker
and i just found it interesting that although in this song there's quite a lot of complex stuff some really hard stuff to play yeah you also had the other side of it which was groovy and new just yeah keeping things simple yeah i thought the drums were quite death metal in places in rhythms i think rhythmically it was quite busy and um and very really in your face kind of thing i enjoyed that though i did i think it was great and it worked really well with the vocals
00:10:42
Speaker
um so yeah no really enjoyed it really really did actually yeah let's let so this was um 1992 solo a new machine album okay if we i don't know if we said that don't remember uh but the next album is called de-manufacture and is supposedly
Album Reviews: De-Manufacture and Obsolete
00:11:03
Speaker
one of the most famous yeah that's the one that every fear factory fan will tell you i'll go and check this one out this one came out in 1995 and as you just said it is considered their their opus magnum you know the best one they've done um it was it's considered a classic industrial metal album and not because it's overly used of it's overuse of electronics and keyboards and synth sounds but just because it started incorporating them into in a much more um
00:11:32
Speaker
in your face kind of way. It wasn't like they weren't trying to pull the wool over your eyes that you knew they wanted to sort of get this electronic sound going. Now I think from the beginning of the song it's industrial. I hear the sound effects, I hear the atmosphericness that it's trying to portray and straight away you hear something that's different
00:11:56
Speaker
to Nu Metal. Let's take Nu Metal as an example. Yeah. Again, unless the Nu Metal band is focused on electronics or electronic sounds, I thought that from the off of this song, which is called Zero Signal, by the way, we should have mentioned that. Zero Signal. The verses of this song reminded me of Sepultura. Oh my gosh. Really raw, very tribalistic, very death-y in a sense. You know, we said already Death Metal, you know, from the first album.
00:12:25
Speaker
I so agree with that and I actually went back and listened to Sepulchre today just to just to check my thoughts you know if I was correct but yeah I think that the beauty of Fear Factory for me at this stage you know just talking about the second song actually
00:12:47
Speaker
is the blend of genres yeah industrial metal mainly yes absolutely but there are just so many hints of other stuff yeah and what's good is that it's not trying to okay we're going to write this song like a death metal so this song's yeah it is all industrial metal but you can hear signs of things that came before like the deathiness even the silence and thrash very you know not too much but but there are some and you can also see how it paved the way
00:13:16
Speaker
in certain ways because I'm going to talk about something in the next song. At three minutes 12 of Zero Signal I thought the bridge was so electronic and programmed and I really really enjoyed it. I actually added a completely new dynamic because a lot of metal music focuses on the standard metal instrumentation which is you know the guitar, the drums, the bass, the vocals. And just to have something, listen this is not the first time I've heard synth over a metal song.
00:13:43
Speaker
This isn't new to me, in that sense, but to have it so prominently done and in such an excessive way, excessive but not overdone, I really enjoyed it. I did a really nice texture to the song. Yeah, same here, same here. And I still enjoyed the vocals, their formula that we mentioned. I think it just really works.
00:14:07
Speaker
I think it does the job of, it contrasts having the really heavy sections and then going something very atmospheric and progressive. And I think it's nice because it kind of ties the song together more and it makes it more accessible because you can have a chorus. Like, you know, take a death song. It's any song by the band, Death. And the chorus will be of the same nature as the verse or the bridge or the intro or whatever. The idea will not change.
00:14:36
Speaker
because that's what death is and that's what death metal is. Whereas with this, the chorus kind of completely changes the vibe of the song, but it doesn't affect the song negatively. I don't sit there and go, oh, I love the verse, but I don't like this chorus. I think it all really ties in and works together. And for people who don't like metal that's only growling, you've now got a little bit of accessibility. Because I don't, for example, I really struggle with
00:15:04
Speaker
just like death grass especially with stuff that's so low you know the grass that you can't really tell the lyrics you like to hear words i like to hear words it matters to me like i would read the lyrics sometimes i know you don't really care as much as i do but i really do care about the story behind it i like lyrics i just think that the vocals are just another instrument for me
00:15:27
Speaker
No, fair enough. You think I'm a man? No, I don't. You're a singer, you have to think that. No, I don't. That's the thing. I really don't. I can appreciate other instruments. This is why lyrics mean a lot to me because I take them as
00:15:40
Speaker
a big deal. With vocals you're doing two things. With a guitar you're only getting one thing out, with a bass it's only one, with drums it's only one. With vocals you're not only getting a melody or a rhythm out, you're also getting words out. I was joking about the singing thing. Do you have anything more to say about Zero Signal?
00:16:03
Speaker
Um, no, I thought that, you know, how we said that it sort of gets simplified, um, instrumentally. And I thought that it got simplified towards the end. I feel like I heard even like piano or something like keys.
00:16:19
Speaker
and oh that was beautiful again something for everyone yeah yeah okay so the next song we're doing is the song is called shock and it's from the album obsolete which was released in 1998 now another critically acclaimed album this was the follow-up to de-manufacture and it solidified their status as kind of inductive
00:16:39
Speaker
industrial metal giants, if you want to call it. Maybe they weren't giants at the time, but industrial metal, one of the key performers in industrial metal. And so this is the song, Shop. So go and check that one out. Now, for me, this was very, I heard machine head all through this early machine head, early machine, because machine had had this early garage sound, which just meant kind of raw production, simplified arrangements and instrumentation. It's hard because
00:17:10
Speaker
You could lump Machinehead in with the Nu Metal crowd, but for me Nu Metal is taking the base of metal and adding something unique. Regius and Machine added rap and funk, Linkin Park added rap, System of a Down, I added Armenian folk music. So I don't really think Machinehead added anything special, but they still had that kind of simplified, let's focus more on groove. That's the perfect one, because people think Machinehead are a groove metal band and I wouldn't disagree.
00:17:38
Speaker
But when I say garage, I just mean very simplified in terms of production, arrangement, instrumentation. That's what I mean. And it had this kind of garage-y feel to it. And it really reminded me of Machine Head. I thought that was cool. But despite all I said about how raw it is and how simplified it is, this song's shock was so tight and organised and disciplined.
00:17:59
Speaker
I thought it's like I said it had the groove and the bounce of New Metal but they have the tightness and execution of a death metal song for example really well done. I really enjoyed that one and I actually went and listened to other things as well on the album and again really enjoyed it but I love New Metal as well.
00:18:18
Speaker
So that really worked for me. I also thought that that song felt even more electronic and futuristic. I think futuristic would be the right word. The extended final chorus just all through the last chorus had these underlying effects, these synth sounds, these electronic samples or whatever. And the outro as well would have those kind of electronic record scratches.
00:18:48
Speaker
I heard in the music of this song, I heard early slipknot. Okay, yeah. Any kind of like, it's funny, for me in this song, if there was vocals in it, I heard machine head. If there was just music, especially in the first few minutes, it was early slipknot to me. Because I really enjoyed it because I like machine head and I like slipknot, so it's like, why not? No, it is and I think we're still continuing with those really heavy guitars and drums and that is another
00:19:16
Speaker
kind of underlying thing that we can see throughout, I think, everything. I think it's like with the vocals, you know, there's a formula going on. But, you know, guitars do change and it gets simplified and drums get simplified, but there's so much energy in it. There is really, really lots of energy and yeah, love it. Yeah, excellent. So the next song we're going to do is Lynchpin, which is from 2001's Digimonal. This album was slightly more melodic
Exploring 'Lynchpin' and Band Dynamics
00:19:45
Speaker
mainstream it touched a bit more of a melodic kind of nerve if you like. Now I thought this was the first really interesting point I have to make is that you can hear the kick drum at the start of the song it sounds programmed or if not programmed heavily produced. I actually think I read something about them using drum machine there
00:20:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, that doesn't surprise me. You can hear it. Sometimes you might have just put a kick drum down and really overproduce this, like a lot of low end over there. It's a compressor, a reverb or something. You can get around it by doing that. But I feel like they actually use the programmed kick drum here because you can hear it. So not just a nice big fat kick you get. And again, this is just another sign of them being industrial. They've written a heavy song, but used a programmed electronic kick drum.
00:20:36
Speaker
you know i thought that that sums up an industrial view i think lynchpin so the song's called lynchpin did we say that yes yeah so lynchpin i thought that was really dancy and again it just like had this bounce yeah do it i got versus groovy and very produced so yeah i think um what worked really well for me is the fact that um
00:21:04
Speaker
Again, vocals and the verses blended really well with the industrial characteristics, you know, like effects on the voice in the chorus. It just works so well with the composition, with the song itself. I think the drums were much simpler as well actually coming back to the drums, you know, maybe because it was programmed, maybe just because they actually meant for it to be that way.
00:21:30
Speaker
But you know it gives it a vibe. Yeah and I thought the whole song had that kind of vibe. It was very groovy, very very laid back. I've got almost rappy, almost a little bisky. Now Fear Factory fans were not like I said that but it did always have that rappy vibe to it and again I could have said that. Do you know I've got conversational slash rappy vocals. There you go. So yeah.
00:21:54
Speaker
I thought the chorus sounded empty but I don't think that's a bad thing. Despite all the production I think the rest of the music is so, I don't want to say in your face, but it's so technical and organized and structured and well thought out but when the chorus comes along it just, it felt like
00:22:18
Speaker
half of that stuff was removed but instead we were treated to a lovely chorus. I had no problems with it, it just felt like that was a real change in tone when I went to the chorus of Linge Pin and I enjoyed it definitely. Yeah I actually have that
00:22:33
Speaker
lots of it felt like there's a lot of production in the chorus yeah yeah definitely and like like i said in the first song you kind of have this this day and night thing with fear factory or at least from the songs you've checked out where you've got really heavy intro and verses that all those death metal and then you go to a chorus where it just completely changes the atmosphere it's been more progressive been more atmospheric definitely more produced um from 235
00:22:56
Speaker
the chorus to the end, lots of effects again. And I like this because I like that you can essentially start a song with a really heavy vibe, really almost death metal-y. Then, as I said just now, you switch it over to that atmospheric proggy thing, but in the end, you combine them. As the outro of the song comes, you keep that heaviness, you retain it, but then you add in those sound effects, electronic samples, all that stuff, and you get a really, you get the marriage of both things at the end, which I thought was really cool.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, fantastic. Nobody likes to be compared with Limb Bizkit. Yeah, that is 100% true. But I just, do you know what, there was a moment, who said that? Sean, yeah. There's a moment, Sean, where I just, you know, when you hear something and you just split a second, you think, oh my God, Limb Bizkit. Like, I promise I would have chosen someone else if I didn't mind.
00:23:50
Speaker
Are you done with Lindepin? Yes. Okay so now what we've done as you know is we've done this chronologically so you know the songs but now we get to some
00:24:01
Speaker
some different stuff happening in the band. So in 2001 Dino Kazares left the band. It's cited as creative differences, so trouble, you know, issues with agreeing on things in the studio. I heard there was a full-on fight happened between Dino and the singer maybe.
00:24:20
Speaker
uh during the recording process personal tensions so music and gigs and professionalism aside issues just with being with each other being in the room together disagreements over the band's direction and management and i think this is quite important because this comes up a lot and as would go on there'd be some more problems um the bass player replaced him in the band
00:24:46
Speaker
Yes, there was just a lot of drama at that point. And I was reading about and I'm just thinking, how can you create in this atmosphere? Yeah, it's tough. It's tricky. And it's just a shame really, you know, if we're being honest, it's just a shame. But what happened after this? So we've got archetypes.
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, but just before architized, the band took a break. So the band went on hiatus and this was important because this is where all the legal battles happened and this is where a lot of bad stuff went down. So for all of the reasons I mentioned above about Dino and his issues and why he left the band,
00:25:31
Speaker
After Dino departed, there became legal disputes with other members of the band, most notably Burton Seabell, the singer. I know, yes, I think it was, and Raymond Herrera. And this emerged, what am I meant to say, with battles over the rights and royalties of songs. So Dino Cazares had left the band, but the other band members will know, well, hold on, who's written what, who gets paid what. For those who don't know, you can split an album. You can say, OK, well, Dino wrote all the music.
00:26:01
Speaker
but all of us, or let's do it the other way, the whole band wrote the music but Dino wrote the lyrics. This is not true, I'm just as an example. So because of that we're going to split, so all the money that we make from the album, we're going to split in half, music and lyrics,
00:26:17
Speaker
The music side we split into four because four band members, everyone gets their share. The lyric money only goes to Dino because he wrote the lyrics. For example, this is how you could do it. So with Dino leaving the band and him being one of the founding members, it was quite hard to settle these things. It took three years to resolve these. So by 2004, the legal issues were resolved.
00:26:39
Speaker
And what Burton Bell and Raymond Herrera wanted is they wanted to use the Fear Factory name because Dino left Fear Factory, but I think there was an issue of, okay, can we still tour under Fear Factory? Can we still use it if Dino's not in the band? And it all got resolved a few years later. But the thing is, is that the resolution, excuse me,
00:26:58
Speaker
The resolution coincided with band members pursuing the other projects. So they all have other bands. And so Fear Factory kind of essentially, some people call it break up. I might just call it hiatus, which means an extended break. So kind of like they won the battle to use the Fear Factory name. It didn't matter because they were doing other bands anyway. And one more point to make is that they hadn't actually fulfilled their contractual obligations to the record label. And so some of you, if you're looking at the Fear Factory page, you might see the album Concrete there.
00:27:28
Speaker
Now Concrete is the first album they wrote, if I'm not mistaken, and the album was initially shelved. They didn't want to put it out, but they owed the label one more album. And so they were like, screw it, take that. And so they released Concrete. I actually think, I'm pretty sure about it, but correct me if I'm wrong, I think Label just released it without them knowing.
00:27:48
Speaker
I don't know about that maybe that yeah maybe you're right um because it was like there was like a drama about it well that's the thing so yeah i read that the album had been shelved which means that they just put it put it to the back so if the label had that and the guy's like screw it we're not doing another album maybe we're right maybe the label took it and said we're going to release it i think that's what happened which is just oh that's dramatic yeah you know and especially twice and you've got to think as well if you didn't want that music released yeah and you didn't want anyone
00:28:19
Speaker
listening to that yeah you would and you know this is this is where you get into a big debate about labels and what they're doing if they're worth it and all that stuff anyway next song? Yeah so the next song is called archetype off of the album archetype and it was released in 2004 so this album was recorded without kazaris that's right yes but in in place of that it kind of returned to that classic sound
00:28:45
Speaker
Yes return to like this industrial metal sound. Yeah just the heavyness but also with the effects on there because the last happens we said it's a bit more melodic a bit more mainstream. But yeah so what are your thoughts on the song? Well I've enjoyed it probably a bit less than other stuff for whatever reason. I don't actually know I can't put like I can't tell you why.
00:29:12
Speaker
But, I mean, overall it's good, but do you know, do you want to know a bit of drama? Okay, drama is the word of the stream today. The Fear Factory episode, pre-word drama. Apparently, this particular song is actually dedicated to Khazariz. Oh yes, yeah, I read something about that. It's like, the lyric is, you guys have to hear it, the lyric is, the infection has been removed, the soul of this machine has improved.
00:29:43
Speaker
Oh, that hurts. Doesn't it? Yeah. And you know what, we'll talk about it in a bit. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah, that was in this song. What did you think? Did you enjoy it? First of all, I just say I like all of the songs. I didn't really have a problem with any of them. I quite enjoyed them all. But this one, to me,
00:30:06
Speaker
80s Iron Maiden. The galloping with the synth behind just really kind of exuded and a simple harmonic progression you know with the earlier music because it was so riff based you wouldn't really get I mean of course you get chords played but it wasn't focused on the chords whereas in this one it's very simple chord movement and that's what really reminded me of Iron Maiden just really simple but the galloping with the synth going behind it I thought the intro could be just straight out of like Seven Son of a Seven Son
00:30:35
Speaker
um yes but interestingly the song feels freer compared to other songs what do you mean by freer i felt it just felt a little looser okay and that's not a bad thing whereas we're talking about how tight all the other songs were and the intricacy of the production and how technical some of the stuff is this just felt a little freer that that's the only word i can think to use freer looser
00:31:03
Speaker
I don't see the next word that comes to me is unstable, but I don't mean unstable because it is stable. It was a really good song. And this is where I mentioned that we're definitely seeing a theme from this band with the open, drawn out choruses compared to the tight, technical kind of verses and intros. And that's something I really liked about it. Yeah, I enjoyed it. It's like, I think I enjoyed the first four, just a bit more, not that this song wasn't
00:31:33
Speaker
good or anything. No, it was. It was. I still enjoyed it. It's just some things, you know, you like a bit more than others. Sometimes you choose your favorites, don't we? We haven't actually done that, but we'll have to do it at the end. Cool. Sounds good. Yes. So a year later, they released the album called Transgression.
00:31:49
Speaker
And transgression was quite criticized, received mixed reviews. It just deviated too far from what the fans associated with Fear Factory. They wanted this tight-knit metal sound, very industrial with heaviness and growls, and they didn't get it with transgression. Now, in 2009, Dino Kazari's returns to the band. Drama.
00:32:14
Speaker
many many complications and legal issues still still happening. Well because the singer left the band two years ago. Now he's like I don't know about this. You mean two years ago now? Yeah like 2021 or something. Yes yes sorry you're right I thought you meant 2007. So yeah they're still battling over whether he can sing fit back to his songs or whatever it's just a whole
00:32:38
Speaker
Yeah. That's that's now. Yeah, it's been going on for years. But in 2009, there were still many complications in legal issues. So they fired managers, they left the record label, and then you had all the stuff to sort out about Dino returning. Imagine you just sort it out. Right, he's left. So now, okay, he I'm gonna get this percent of this and he's gonna get that and I'm looking at to work with him. And then he comes back. I have many years later. A year later,
00:33:07
Speaker
You have the 2010 album, Mechanize, and this album went down quite well. I think fans must have been happy that Dino came back. Maybe he has a little something that he just injects into the band and gives them the extra. I think it's just the fact that he's a founding member as well.
00:33:23
Speaker
There's just something, there's a history and when there's a history, it's just purely on the human level. Yeah, you have a connection. As I said, well received, really liked by fans and critics because it was kind of a return to an earlier sound.
00:33:38
Speaker
Two years later, we have The Industrialist, which is the next album. And again, very well received and enjoyed. And this was interesting because it explored themes like artificial intelligence, which 10 years later, we're now living in a world of AI almost. So yeah, interesting. Next song.
Recent Works and Band Continuity
00:33:55
Speaker
And the final song from Our New to Us. Well, the last song we're going to talk about is called Regenerate.
00:34:03
Speaker
And it's off of, I don't know how to pronounce that, Ginexis. Ginexis, I'd say. Ginexis, 2015 Ginexis. I just think they again established their formula that we spoke about. It's, I can still hear hints of death metal in that, but, you know. It hasn't changed. No, not much, let's say.
00:34:28
Speaker
Interesting to note, actually, Genexus, as an album, it was another well-received album, and the fans consider it a really important addition to their discography. They loved the balance between the melodic and heavy elements. Remember earlier, we said they had that melodic and mainstream stuff that fans didn't really get on with. Well, now they found the perfect balance with Genexus. And I think that might be funny as to why it's my favorite song. Of those seven. Six.
00:34:54
Speaker
Just that. Okay, I saw there's like a deeper meaning to it. Just really nice and melodic in places, but also really retaining that heaviness from earlier on. Lots of programmed electronic synths and samples, even from the start. I thought that it was just like, okay, basically we've listened to six songs that
00:35:19
Speaker
outline and define the career of Fear Factory and it's funny that we're hearing first song not much not much industrial next few songs okay you get the the industrial is there so it's obvious but the last song they start it as industrial as you can get just with synths and programmed samples all over the place i thought that is a band that fully embraced their industrial side they're like yeah we're industrial yeah no problem uh and again machine eddie for me
00:35:47
Speaker
machine learning, I think it's making the vocals. I didn't think about machine head, but it makes sense, it makes total sense. Bridge synth, very cool and another very similar chorus with clean sung, drawn out chorus, drawn out vocals that really kind of spread it out, give you a nice little breather from the hectic. And the effects worked as well, quite nicely on the clean vocal.
00:36:11
Speaker
So yeah, no, really enjoyable. I want to thank you so much for this experience, you guys. Yeah, good song choices as well. Yeah. And now you listen to de-manufacture. Tell everyone what you do on de-manufacture. Yeah, because lots of people suggested just to listen to the whole album. We could do it at some point, just as an album. I listened to de-manufacture and I listened to...
00:36:40
Speaker
digi-mortal today just because you see i like new metal and it worked really well for me both of these i actually did um i did enjoy de-manufactured just for this really classic industrial metal sound that it brings uh but that's just in a nutshell i think we should do a video on it um we should why not we'll do that in there at some point so yeah it is a very enjoyable experience and i'm really new to industrial metal very i mean i heard someone understand before but just like everyone has
00:37:12
Speaker
But yeah, thank you very much for that. So to finish off with Fear Factory's little timeline, in 2021 they released their latest album called Aggression Continuum. And just when you thought, okay, the Fear Factory, it's all good now, everyone's happy. More drama. September 2020, Dino Kazares announces there's going to be a new album in 2021. One month later, Burton Seabell announces he is quitting.
00:37:40
Speaker
He was very, very frustrated with promises being made that weren't being fulfilled, him being told about things that weren't happening, you know, like this, like Dino announcing there's a new album and he's like, hold on, what's going on here? Oh, seriously? Yeah, because Burton's vocals for this album were recorded in 2017, but they only started doing, adding drums and mixing it in 2020, I believe. And so more years of legal battles, personnel changes, musical differences,
00:38:09
Speaker
And now, at this point, Dino is the only original member left. Oh my goodness, you guys. It makes me very sad when this happens to bands. And it's not like, it's not new. They're not the only bands that's happened to. And it's just like, it's not all just happy, creative atmosphere. You know, let's write songs and just inform them. It's just not that by far sometimes.
00:38:35
Speaker
I think an interesting thing as well is when I was reading all this stuff, I thought, I struggle on a personal level to differentiate between the personal and the professional relationship. Yeah, you would. In the sense of, but I can do it and I have done it being a professional musician. You have to do that. You have to address professional issues to do with the artist you're playing for, the company and band you're playing with.
00:39:03
Speaker
And then you can still be friends. Like you have to be friends. Like it's just, um, but the thing I thought was interesting is how after all these arguments and legal battles and compensation and sorting this out, how and be, and be normal again. I didn't go into the rehearsal room knowing that six months ago, this guy was, was fighting to give you less of a percentage of your work.
00:39:33
Speaker
I find it really odd, really odd. And it's a shame because it seems to have impacted fear factories. I mean, who knows where they could be in like the echelons of metal. If these things hadn't happened. We see it all the way through everything. It starts with the Beatles all the way through. You've got, you know, there are more. It's just such a shame. It really is.
00:40:02
Speaker
And honestly, I can't imagine that would really affect the creative process for me personally. I'm just thinking like, right, okay, would I be okay with that? Could I just be like, okay, there's like, we're going to court tomorrow, but yeah, let's rehearse. I mean, in the end though, by definition, these guys are professionals. Yeah.
00:40:27
Speaker
By definition, they're getting paid to sing and to play. So maybe the professionalism is something that you never look at when you think about an original band. If you think, OK, well, you're going to go and play for the National Philharmonic Orchestra, right? That's a job you can hide to do. But when you put a band together with your friends, you don't think about the professional aspects of it. But having done it for 10, 15 years, like Fear Factory, having done it for like 10 or 15 years, professionalism must come into it. They must be able to discern between professional and personal relationships.
00:40:56
Speaker
wait it's all down to money isn't it yeah to be honest yeah it's all when big bucks come in especially you know it gets a bit more difficult my final point is that aggression continuum was well received and critically acclaimed so they went out on a high i mean they're still going they're playing near us this weekend yes yeah they're playing in britain's singer yes there is yeah yeah yeah i haven't heard of the guy before no i haven't heard him either apparently there's a new singer so there you go
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah, he's, he wanted to sing less heavy stuff. So he wanted to do like all kinds of rock.
00:41:43
Speaker
and stuff, can you believe it? That's quite common for this industrial metal platform because it's such an experimental genre that it doesn't surprise me that people go out there, you go to listen to Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, they've got music that you could class as, obviously not everything, you know, he hasn't got, you know, do what music, but so much, so many different kinds of experimental music, really going really heavy with the metal and focusing on
00:42:11
Speaker
funky stuff. There's a song by Nine Inch Nails called All Time Low that is so funky. And I only found out about it because one of my favorite bass players, Pino Palladino, plays on that song. And when I listened to it, I was like, my God, this is funky. Who is this? Nine Inch Nails? Wait, sorry, the industrial metal there, Nine Inch Nails. So there you go. Apparently, this is where I read, he just wanted to do something else. And there you go. I hated
00:42:41
Speaker
We just have a comment. I hate it when Business Ruins fans, Dave Lombardo's exit from Slayer was so pointy. Yeah, yeah. And and it's I think Slayer's last lineup was with Lombardo, wasn't it? As in if I know that they're ended now, aren't they? But Dave Lombardo came back into the fold. But you still just feel how do you come back into the rehearsal room? How is that first rehearsal where Paul Boastaff's been playing slave drums for how many years?
00:43:10
Speaker
And Dave Lombardo comes back in and he's like, hi guys, how have the last 10 years? Yeah, let's just forget that you kicked me out or this, that and the other. And the worst one for me is Bill Ward from Black Sabbath. Especially not getting to play on the last album, not being part of their show for the final one.
00:43:29
Speaker
Now, I've heard that Bill Ward was less than good at this stage. I mean, all the Sabbath are old guys now. And so maybe if he if he physically couldn't keep up with the demands, understandable. We got Tommy Krufetos in instead. And he was a brilliant drummer. Was it him? Yeah, I think I actually don't know. No, I saw them download. I think it was Tommy Krufetos that played. You saw them. I did. Yes. Tommy Krufetos played with them live. But the Rage of the Machine drummer recorded 13.
00:43:59
Speaker
okay yeah yeah um so yeah and it just i mean i think it's a shame yeah it's a huge shame and i feel like where you know the band has had an assistant lineup for years there's a certain you know warmth you feel about them you're like oh good for you guys been there 30 years when it all changes anyway thoughts on fear factory
00:44:27
Speaker
loved it, gonna check out more stuff, already listened to two albums, we'll be listening to more certainly, really love the
00:44:38
Speaker
the vocals. Of course I do. I love the growls. I love the energy. I love the clean versus distorted vocal. I love the guitars. I love the drums. It's so energetic and I love the industrial side of it. It's absolutely beautiful and so much groove as well. So much groove. So yeah, overall
00:44:58
Speaker
loved it. I think I'm actually going to become an industrial metal fan. I'm going to go and explore more and more things because of this experience. So thank you so much for for introducing me to Fear Factory. What about you? Yeah, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. I thought that the industrial side of it was a breath of fresh air. Because like I said, I don't listen to music, to metal music with much synths. You know, Iron Maiden sticks some synths in in Seven Sun and Seven Sun. But that, you know,
00:45:25
Speaker
It's not a new type of music. It was just a little experimentation. It's making things a little groggy. But yeah, for the electronic, for the technical, electronic, mechanical side of it, to be such a feature I really enjoyed. I don't know why I expected it to be like, but I suppose I didn't expect it to be so heavy in points. And I loved that it was. No, I didn't. And I loved that it was. And then at the same time, those kind of progressive and atmospheric choruses really reminded me of Tool.
00:45:53
Speaker
I thought as a chorus, like, yeah, I just thought it sounds like a tool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is interesting because people call tool a pro metal band, which I completely agree with. But actually, I think it's just I think Faith Factory is just like a much heavier version of tool. Less, less technical and less odd time signatures and everything. But yeah, I don't know. But ultimately, I did enjoy it. And I'm definitely going to check out the manufacturer first, because that's the key one, apparently.
00:46:20
Speaker
Yeah, it is a very good album. It is a very good album. Shall we? Thank you very much you guys. We'll see you again very soon on another new TOS video. Please make sure you subscribe to us. You support us on all socials. It's just us doing this, us doing all the research, all the prep, all the posting and
00:46:43
Speaker
We really need your support in this. We really do. And thank you to those of you who already do it. Thank you so much. Yeah, a little click, a little like, a little... Yeah. Every little helps. If you know anyone who loves metal, just point them our way. Please. Because, you know, yeah, always, always helpful. So thank you. And we love doing this new to us. We'll do another one soon. We'll get your opinions on the next one. So take care. Have a lovely day. We'll see you very soon.