Fear Factory To Bring Their Cybernetic Domination Tour To Australia…

‘We’ve been working on the record nonstop. It’s coming out amazing and we can’t wait to share it with the world! It’s going to be a ripper, and I can’t wait to come down to Australia. It’s going to be the thirty-five year anniversary of Fear Factory in existence, and it’s also the twenty five year anniversary of ‘Digimortal’. So, we’re going to throw in a couple extra songs from ‘Digimortal’ that we haven’t done in a very, very long time and of course, you’re going to hear some of the classic hits!’

Dino Cazares is his usually buoyant, excited and engaging self when talking about his band of futuristic metal warriors and their up-and-coming terrorising of stages across Australia later this month. seven dates across the land making up for the one shot at Froth And Fury Festival in 2024, and with it also being the twenty five year anniversary of Digimortal, talk starts there.

‘We did play ‘Acres of Skin’ in Australia a few times. That is one of my favourite songs because there was a period when the label was really pushing us to write radio songs and go on a commercial route, work with these commercial producers for the record. There was only so much that we played along with the company. We wrote some of the more commercial songs on the record that we’ve ever written before. One of them turned out to be a major classic and one of our biggest songs to date, which is ‘Linchpin’. But we had all these more stripped down, more commercial-esque type songs like ‘Linchpin’ and ‘Digimortal’ and ‘Dark Bodies’, that I wanted to go back and write in some heavier stuff.’

‘That’s when I wrote ‘No One’, and I wrote ‘Acres of Skin’. I started bringing up those riffs and writing those songs just to balance out the record. You know what I mean? So that’s what we did. I mean, I still love that record. I still one hundred percent think it’s a great record. It’s a different record. Honestly, it fit for that time, that era, music at that time was changing. Nu-Metal was huge at that time, early 2000, and not saying that that’s what we were trying to fit into, I’m just saying that the climate of that kind of music was big at that time, and we were just trying to find our mould in that era.’

It is a brilliant album that sometimes gets lost in the story of Fear Factory despite its success. Sandwiched between the 90’s 1-2-3 punch in the face of Soul Of A New Machine, Demanufacture and Obsolete and the much discussed period after Dino’s departure with Archetype and Transgression, it often gets missed when discussing how much quality is on the album. Fortunately, the band has recently been putting the album back into people’s rotations.

‘On Record Store Day, April 28, we released a version, it had all the bonus tracks on the vinyl. We only made two thousand of those and those went super-fast. I mean, you’re lucky if you find one under one hundred and fifty bucks, you know what I mean? I thought it was a good idea, especially around the anniversary of that record. Just playing some songs and not letting people forget about it.’

‘But the really weird thing is, it’s very interesting, even though ‘Demanufacture’ is a fan favourite, and even though ‘Replica’ ‘Demanufacture’ and ‘Self Bias Resister’ on the top 10 Spotify list of songs that are our biggest, ‘Digimortel’ still outsells ‘Demanufacture’ still to this day.’

Demanufacture went gold in territories such as Australian and the UK, however reserves cult status elsewhere, while DigImortal, by this time the bands fourth long playing output, had them on the crest of a wave as the internet took over. So, was Demanufacture ahead of its time?

‘Yeah, because even though it may sound digital to you or maybe has a digital-esque vibe, we played everything. We didn’t have editing back then like we do now. We also didn’t have processed guitars where a lot of these digital devices still sound that they have a digital tone to them. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s getting better every year, but just the record, even though has a digital subject and a digital vibe, it still was very organic.’

The tour itself runs across seven cities. The main capitals are normal, and trips to Townsville and a first-time appearance at Hobert.

‘I’ve been to Townsville. We played there a few years back. I’m going to say somewhere between 2013 and 2015, around that time. Never played Hobart! It’s our first time, so I can’t wait. If it was up to me, I would play Wollongong. I would play Lismore. I would play Canberra, some places that we haven’t been to in a long time. I would love to go to all those cities and towns and just do it!’

Thirty five years of Fear Factory, and the fans’ appetite is, as we say, still frothing to see the band, something a grateful Cazares acknowledges.

‘I’m excited. Australia is one of the countries we just don’t ignore. We go there a lot. We’ve been going there since 1993, on every record. The first time we were there was for the EP, ‘Fear Is The Mindkiller’ tour. That was a tour for the EP, not an album, and we’ve been going ever since that record’s been out. The fans there just love what we’re doing, so we just want to keep going back and back, and we love it every time.’

By the time the band arrive, it will be the third run with ‘new’ vocalist Milo Silvestro. Whereas previous tours leant heavily on the classic first couple of records, this is going deeper into the collection, so how does Milo adapt.

‘It’s embedded in him because even though he wasn’t necessarily there when we were creating these records, he definitely learned from them. Burton C. Bell was one of his favourite singers, and it was one of the singers that he learned how to sing from. He learned all different aspects of Fear Factory when it came to the vocals.’

Keen followers would’ve noted themselves the changes Dino has made to himself, something that showed in the energetic performances last time out so on that, we leave him with the final word.

‘I’m ready to go. I lost a few pounds, so I’m even more ready. Go to fearfactory.com to get your tickets and VIP passes, and I will see you out there, bro!’

Interview By Iain McCallum

Catch Fear Factory on the following dates, tickets HERE…