Los Angeles industrial metal trailblazers Fear Factory have spent three decades redefining the landscape of heavy music. The tradition continues, after an October 28 release of remix album Recoded; a reformatted, restructured, and reassembled version of 2021’s long awaited tenth studio LP Aggression Continuum. Akin to the double-barrelled blast of Demanufacture (1995) and Remanufacture (1997), Recoded delivers a sonically dynamic, aurally diverse, and savagely addictive listening experience.
Mixed and mastered by Damien Rainaud (DragonForce, Once Human) Recoded features longtime collaborator Rhys Fulber, Zardonic, Tyrant Of Death, Rob GEE, and BLUSH_RESPONSE. Recoded is the fourth Fear Factory album featuring artwork by Anthony Clarkson.
It’s a drastic understatement to say that the journey of releasing both Aggression Continuum and Recoded has been personally and professionally taxing. An extended hiatus resulting from separate lawsuits brought against the band’s then-frontman Burton C. Bell and guitarist Dino Cazares by former band members drummer Raymond Herrera and bassist Christian Olde Wolbers, prevented the 2017 release of Aggression Continuum due to trademark usage disputes.
Herrera’s and Wolbers’ attorneys discovered that Bell did not list the Fear Factory trademark as an asset when filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011. As a direct result, Bell was legally barred from owning rights to the trademark, and the court then listed it for auction. The upshot of a complex legal situation that plagued band members for the last decade, saw Dino Cazares outbid Herrera and Wolbers in 2020 for 100% ownership of the Fear Factory trademark, ultimately taking back what has rightfully belonged to him since the founding of the band on October 31, 1990.
Cazares took quick action, launching a GoFundMe campaign, enhancing the production of Aggression Continuum to Fear Factory’s lofty standards, after all advances from record label, Nuclear Blast had been exhausted prior to the hiatus. The initiative raised $26,600 USD which foot the bill for improved production, mixing, mastering and live drums performed by Mike Heller.
In 2020, Bell called an end to his 30 year tenure as Fear Factory’s vocalist, citing his desire to focus on more melodic projects and behind-the-scenes frustration with past and present band members as the reason for his final exit. Aggression Continuum is Bell’s last performance as Fear Factory’s frontman and has proven to be more than a worthy swansong with its distinctive and unstoppable attack – some fans labelling the work as the band’s best since 1998’s Obsolete.
The new era of Fear Factory is upon us, as the rock world eagerly awaits the unveiling of Fear Factory’s brand-new vocalist. Recoded serves as a fitting celebration of the band’s 30 years of fear, setting the stage for new material. The time has come to ADAPT or DIE.
Fear Factory fan of 27 years ANDY JONES spoke to co-founder, songwriter, producer and guitarist Dino Cazares to find out the story behind the new remix album and how it feels to finally have some momentum after the court-imposed extended layoff.
Dino, congratulations on the release of Recoded! I’m not just speaking for myself; it’s fantastic that us fans are getting astoundingly awesome content from Fear Factory two years in a row, after such a long layoff. How awesome does it feel to have some momentum back with the release of Aggression Continuum and Recoded?
It feels great. I’m really happy that I’ve had the opportunity to make this happen. As you know, we’ve had a turbulent few years, with the lawsuits and with COVID. These issues prevented the band from playing live – our last show was in 2016. We got Aggression Continuum out in 2021, and then getting into Recoded, it feels really good to be able to move forward, and to hopefully not have any more problems (laughs). But it is what it is, it is the band, it is life, and that’s how things are sometimes. Also the loss of the singer, that’s a big thing, too. I took my time to find the right guy, which I have, and we are currently working on pre-production for new songs. We’re in the demo stages of doing this record – a lot of people don’t really understand what that means, because everybody’s like, “Oh, man, you’ve recorded new songs already? You’re gonna get the record out soon?” and I’m like, “Nah it’s gonna take some time. We’re just barely getting into it right now.”
More Fear Factory content! That’s really good news!
It’s been 25 years since the previous release of a dedicated Fear Factory remix album in Remanufacture, and the world has changed dramatically since 1997. Just how different was the remix process for Recoded in comparison to Remanufacture? Also, what was it like teaming up with these collaborators, and how much of Recoded was you working with the collaborators in person, and how much was done remotely?
All the collaborators live in different parts of the world, and because of COVID, I couldn’t be there with them. I was able to communicate with these guys and collaborate on the remixes via Zoom.
With Remanufacture, we remixed five or six of the songs with Rhys Fulber in person. But on Recoded, it was mostly done via internet. I had more of a say on this one in comparison to Remanufacture because, when we sent out the songs to certain DJs in 1997, they gave us what they gave us, there was no going back and forth changing things.
I had a little bit more creative control on Recoded than I did with Remanufacture, and I was able to discuss ideas and make some changes. On Recoded, I was able to, communicate with Rhys quite a lot via the internet. Same thing with Zardonic, I collaborated with him a lot via the internet.
But with Rob GEE – I met him when he was here in LA. He was on a layover because he was going to the Electric Daisy Carnival. It’s a big techno festival in Las Vegas. He was at a hotel for a few hours, so I was able to listen to what he was working on. I gave him some ideas and my opinion. Boom! He nailed it!
I feel like that Hypocrisy of Faith track that Rob GEE worked on is probably the most unique track on the entire album.
Wow, that’s great. For me it’s more of a throwback to Remanufacture.
100%. It would easily slot into any of those 1997 releases, whether it was Remanufacture, or the BurnEP or the Gabber Remixes. It just pumps and it has that retro feel to it.
You know, over the years I have approached Thomas Holkenberg. Or people know him as Junkie XL.
He was prolific on Remanufacture, wasn’t he?
Yeah, he is just beyond our reach nowadays. You know, he’s doing major soundtracks for Batman and other things. He’s extremely busy, so he’s been beyond our reach.
How much was left to the creative licence of the collaborators and how much was you taking control of the direction?
I had a lot of input, for sure. More so with Zardonic than with anyone else. Just because I really feel like he’s an amazing guy, and he’s got amazing ideas. I really wanted to collaborate with him because I want to use him for the new record we are currently demoing. I really wanted to be part of the process with Zardonic because I just wanted to see where he was at creatively.
There’s a strong history of Fear Factory working with DJs. BLUSH_RESPONSE was involved in The Industrialist. Dualized was involved on Genexus and Aggression Continuum.
Definitely, I like reaching out to other creative people to have them add their elements into our music. I love that. I love seeking out new artists, like another guy too who I really want to use on this new record is Tyrant of Death. His remix track on Recoded is Empires Fall (remix of Collapse). That shit’s just heavy as fuck! He’s another artist that I want to possibly work with in the future.
Did you have to lay down any fresh parts to assist the collaborators, or was it all completely reengineered, recoded, and remixed by the collaborators of their own accord?
The only thing that we changed up was additional guitars on the song Recoded.
I particularly enjoy the sentence mixing, the vocal remixing, and in parts I think it enhances Burton’s original message, like the “FUCKING MADNESS!” in This is My Life (Cognitive Dissonance remix). Did you give the collaborators any advice on particular vocal lines you wanted to emphasise?
That was my idea! More so than previously. Because even when I’m working on a regular record, I always like to emphasise certain words, like in the song Disruptor on Aggression Continuum, it didn’t have “DISRUPTOR!” at the start of the song initially. I thought it was a great idea just to start out with a banger in that way, you know? “DISRUPTOR!” It just hits hard! Same as “Can’t take me apart!” in Linchpin off Digimortal.
Also, we added dialogue to I Am The Nightrider (Fuel Injected Suicide Machine remix). I wanted to pay a homage to the actor in Mad Max, not because he (Vince Gil) died recently, but because he was a character in the first movie. He said “I am the Nightrider!” in the first 10/15 minutes of the movie, and the song is based on him. So I wanted to add more dialogue from the movie. At the end of the song you’ll hear “The Toecutter! He knows who I am!”
Yeah, you can really hear that Austraaaaalian accent coming through.
Yeah! Just being a fan of those movies – I wanted to do heaps with that song. I love what Zardonic did, he actually took the middle part of the original Fuel Injected Suicide Machine song off Aggression Continuum that features melodic vocals and turned it into the chorus, then the original chorus doesn’t come into the remixed song until towards the end.
Did you recommend any riffs or melodies be focused on in the remixes or was it left to the creative license of the collaborators?
Yeah, a little here and there. When Zardonic and I worked on Worthless (End of Line remix), I told him, “No guitars, I want no guitars on the song. I want it to be all synth. I want it to be like a synth wave track.” And he’s like, “Do you know that this is not my genre?” I said, “I know that you’re talented enough to make it happen.” I also requested that less vocals be used in the remix too. I wanted no guitar and minimal vocals as possible. He made it happen, it was great.
There were a couple of little arrangements and ideas that I had on that song and I really wanted the melody that I wrote on the guitar to show on the synth. He made it work, and it shows really well. And that’s one of my favourite tracks on the record, just because it’s different. It’s so different. No guitars!
Yeah, I love it. There’s just so much contrast in the styles that have been put into the remix album. I’m a big fan of that!
Yeah, when Rhys Fulber did Hatred will Prevail (Monolith remix), I had very little input on it. Just a couple of little ideas that I had and that was about it. He pretty much created it on his own.
The synth in that song, I feel is quite a decent throwback to Demanufacture.
Maybe, I’m not sure. I didn’t think about it that way. But when Rhys was doing Path to Salvation (Purity remix), I also told him to think of a club mix, like you’re at a club, like a goth type of club, or even an industrial club. I gave him some examples. He worked on the Cyberpunk soundtrack for that video game. So he kind of like channelled some of those ideas into this track. And it came out great. I love it!
Rhys is very much part of the Fear Factory family, isn’t he?
Oh, 100%! 100%! I mean, he’s part of the reason why we have our sound, when it comes to the cinematic stuff that he wrote and all the little industrial elements that he put into the music. I mean, it was a vision that I had back in 1994, I just didn’t know how to create it because I didn’t have that type of technology. But with a guy like Rhys Fulber who’s been doing it for years, bringing all those elements into our sound, it really made a big difference.
In some ways, it’s the collaboration between us and Rhys Fulber that pretty much created our sound.
Do you foresee Fear Factory incorporating even more synth and sound design into the band’s sound as you move forward? Or is it your intention to explore the heavier elements of the band with future material?
Well, we’ve been using synth for a long time. But on this new record, we’re gonna try to add as much different shit as possible. As far as other elements coming into the music, for sure.
You’ve incorporated elements of your remixes into live performances of Scapegoat from your 1993 remix EP, Fear is the Mindkiller, how much of Recoded do you think can be transferred into live performances of Aggression Continuum songs?
I haven’t thought about that yet. You’ve got to realise when we added those elements into Scapegoat that didn’t happen until years after. We haven’t even toured Aggression Continuum yet, so we’re going to try to keep the tracks as they are from the record for right now.
But if anything, I would probably bring some elements from Disobey (Disruptor remix) into the live version. And maybe I Am The Nightrider (Fuel Injected Suicide Machine remix), you know, bring some of those elements in, especially the dialogue. Yeah.
Damien Rainaud was hired once again to mix and master Recoded after his involvement in Aggression Continuum, Genexus and The Industrialist. After watching interviews with him, he comes across as not just super skilled at what he does, but also a genuine dude. Does it feel like Damien is part of the Fear Factory family now?
Oh, yeah, for sure. We’re working on the new stuff right now. He’s definitely fast at creating a lot of great ideas, and we’ve been working together since The Industrialist. Yeah, definitely a part of the family for sure.
On the new album we’re demoing, there’s definitely going to be the usual cast of characters. Rhys will be working on some tracks. Me and Damien, we’re doing all the production duties, and then I’ll definitely get Dualized on a track, but I think the new collaborator will be Zardonic. He’ll be an additional part of the team that I really want to bring on to this new record.
