Australian fans are a cluey bunch, and they’re not always ready to get on America’s bandwagon. Yet our ongoing affair with Fear Factory is a testament to the band’s pervasive influence as the timelessness of their music secures an eternal spot in the CD racks of metalheads everywhere.
Demanufacture, the 1995 sophomore release from American heavyweights Fear Factory, was so well received in Australia it is considered a classic and they are bringing it to our shores this July.
“We just felt there was a lot of history there so we decided to bring it to Australia first,” says guitarist Dino Cazares. “You guys really embrace that record and it’s going to be so good when we go there.”
Cazares remembers when Fear Factory first toured Australia for Demanufacture in 1995 and says that he can’t wait to play the album in its entirety.
“We’ve never done anything like this and we’ve heard of other bands doing it like Megadeth and Metallica,” says Cazares. “The last time we were in Australia somebody brought it to our attention and we thought it might be a cool idea, so we approached the promoters in Australia and they loved it.”
“AJ who puts on the Soundwave festival, he’s the one who’s bringing us over there and he’s really excited. I mean he’s the one who promoted our first Demanufacture tour in Australia in 1995.”
Cazares says that along with Australia being the first country in which Demanufacture went gold, there’s another main reason Fear Factory associates this album with our raucous fans.
“In 1995 when Demanufacture came out we were doing a tour in Australia and we had to cancel some shows. There was a riot in a university in Sydney and we got national news, it was crazy.”
When Fear Factory returned in 1996 for an appearance at Big Day Out it confirmed Australia loved them just as much as they loved us. Cazares says the influence of industrial and progressive metal that was coming out during the time of writing Demanufacture gave the album a unique sound that was able to connect with its audience.
“People just really love the sound of that record, every band has a classic record in their collection do you know what I mean? Slayer- Reign in Blood, Metallica- Master of Puppets, Fear Factory- Demanufacture. That’s the reason why we chose this record first.”
While Demanufacture was recorded with what is generally considered to be Fear Factory’s “classic” line-up, the Australian tour will include new bassist Matt DeVries and drummer Mike Heller who joined the band just before they released the 2012 studio album The Industrialist. When asked what was the most important life lesson he learnt during these transitional times in which he was absent from Fear Factory for eight years, Cazares replied:
“Make sure you have a good lawyer! One of the main things I’ve learnt is that you really need to protect what is yours because if you don’t protect it, somebody will take it. It sounds funny but it’s true. If I knew then what I knew now I’d be a much happier person.”
Fear Factory are currently finishing off a tour in Canada and America, before heading our way in July. But if you think a Fear Factory tour is just a one non-stop metal-blasting-fest, think again. Turns out, like everything in life, you need a little moderation.
“We actually listen to very minimal metal at all when we’re on the road just because we play it every night and we want to go back and crank again so we usually play something different to what we play at night.”
“When we go home and we’re not hearing loud guitars and drums every night it gives us a chance to listen to more metal, [but] if we’re on the bus we’d play like The Cure or Depeche Mode or anything from our nu-wave collection, maybe some easy listening stuff. Then there’s ‘70s rock music, like The Pretenders, but [we listen to] all different stuff, even techno shit.”
Cazares told HEAVY he also loves to play U2 on guitar, but make sure you give him the horns during Self Bias Resistor because it’s his favourite song to play live!
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