Fear Factory Have Been Recoded

Being a Fear Factory fan is a little bit like being on a constant roller-coaster ride with a little bit of ghost train thrown in for good measure. Over the thirty years that the band has been operation for there have been plenty of highs, a couple of lows but added to that is the fact that you never know what is around the next corner.

Even if you just consider the last few years Fear Factory fans could be excused for thinking that they have seen everything play out right in front of them. The band toured to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of arguably their greatest album – Demanufacture – and also released the brilliant Aggression Continuum, but then came legal battles over the band’s name and then the news that lead singer Burton C. Bell was leaving the band for the second time.

In the wake of that news it was speculated that the band was finally done but out of that seemingly post-apocalyptic dust came some surprising news. First of all founding member Dino Cazares announced that the legal stuff was over and that the Fear Factory name was now in his hands and then came another album – Recoded which featured some massive re-workings of the tracks from Aggression Continuum. Now Cazares has some more news to share some news that is going to make Fear Factory fans very excited indeed.

“We are already in the middle of pre-production for a new album,” says Cazares when I ask him where things are at right now for the band. “We are going to be going on tour this year starting in February – and that will be going right around the world so that will be great. We won’t be able to hit Australia until 2024 but we will certainly be there and you can definitely expect a brand new record out later this year.”

That certainly puts the rest all the doomsayers that have predicted the end of the band and for Cazares he says this feels amazing being able to work on new material. “It has been a very exciting time,” he says with the excitement very clear in his voice. “We actually started working on the album not that long ago and I already have about four songs down… things are really moving along quite fast actually.”

The news of the album and 2024 tour of Australia leads Cazares to start telling me just how much the band’s Australian fans mean to him. “I always have such fond memories of being in Australia,” he says. “I think the first time was in 1994 for the Fear Is The Mind Killer tour, I think that was the name of the tour, and I loved it so much there that we kept coming back every year or every other year.”

“I loved doing all those festivals,” he says continuing on. “I loved Big Day Out, the Soundwave Festival and of course all the headline shows. What I really loved though was getting to play in some of the smaller rural areas as well – places like Townsville and Canberra and Tasmania – places that other people don’t go you know. Most people seem to just stick to the major cities – Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and maybe Adelaide and Perth. But for me I like to go to all of them and everywhere in between as well”

And to finish off our short but news-filled interview Dino had a special message for all of the Aussie Fear Factory fans out there. “I want to say thank you for being Fear Factory supporters from way back in the day,” he says. “We started coming there in 1994 and Australia was the first country where our second album Demanfacture went gold… thank you for all the support over the years.”

Recoded is out now through Nuclear Blast Records… and watch out for those tour announcements for 2024.