Fear Factory

“The concept of this record is that man is obsolete,” explains frontman and lyricist Burton C. Bell. “The idea is still man versus machine – man versus the system machine and man versus the government machine.” Picking up the story Demanufacture and Remanufacture began, Obsolete is the next chapter in Fear Factory’s futuristic saga of mankind’s destiny. Bell continues, “We’re up to the point in the story where man is obsolete. Man has created these machines to make his life easier, but in the long run it made him obsolete. The machines he created are now destroying him. Man is not the primary citizen on Earth.” Taking lyrical inspirations from the technology age unfolding around us, as well as Terminator, THX 1138, Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World, Blade Runner, and George Orwell, Fear Factory’s Obsolete surges straight into your cerebral mainline captivating your ears and mind.

Working again with producer and former Front Line Assembly main man Rhys Fulber, Obsolete is a hybrid of aggro-rock and industrial that finds its roots in Metallica, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails and, strangely enough, U2. From the killer opening riff of “Shock” to the sweeping orchestration accompanying “Resurrection” and “Timelessness,” courtesy of the Vancouver Chamber Ensemble, Fear Factory have singlehandedly redefined people’s expectations of the genres they straddle.

Summer 1999 – the Los Angeles quartet are headlining the second stage at Ozzfest ’99 after spending the past year on the road with the likes of Rob Zombie and System of a Down. They even took time out of their never-ending touring grind to stop by MTV’s Spring Break ’99 Beach Brawl and perform “Shock,” “Edgecrusher” and “Descent” from Obsolete. But Spring Break reruns aren’t the only place you’ll see Fear Factory on MTV these days. The band recently finished shooting a video for their aggro-reworking of Gary Numan’s “Cars” that features a cameo by Numan himself, trading lines with Bell. Bells says “We managed to make it a Fear Factory concept video and show how we are a sci-fi tipped band. William Morrison, who directed the “Resurrection” video, created a five minute Stanley Kubrick film. It’s very visual, at one point I morph into Gary Numan.” The song has already had a huge success at radio and was the number one added track at Rock Radio and Active Rock Radio its first week out. Indeed, all signs point to “Cars” becoming the most successful single in Roadrunner Records history.

That in mind and with fans clamoring to get their hands on the song, the label have re-released Obsolete as a Digi-pak featuring “Cars” as well as four other extra tracks and have added “Cars” to the subsequent pressings of the jewel-box version “Messiah,” a song that the band wrote for the forthcoming Sony PlayStation game Messiah, a revamped version of “Soul Wound,” a cover of Jim Thirwell’s “0-0 (Where Evil Dwells),” and “Concreto” a b-side from the “Dog Day Sunrise” single. Their radio-story grows with each single released from Obsolete, to the point where the latest single, “Cars”, has gone Top 10 at Active Rock radio and is the band’s first single to enter the Modern Rock and Alternative charts.

Three chapters into the saga, Bell believes that people are finally catching on. “I think that people are beginning to understand the Fear Factory concept,” says Bell. “People have seen our shows and seen our video, and now they think ‘This is pretty cool.’ It’s our own vibe and our own identity.” If Obsolete documents the possibly hopeless battle of man against machine, where does the story go from here? “It could go either way. I like to think positive,” he laughs. “It could be that man is demolished or that man has been turned completely into machine or that he has devolved into a primitive form of man. There are so many possibilities for the story. I think of new ideas every day. I think it’s going to depend on the vibe I’m getting the music.”

No matter what the future holds, rest assured that Fear Factory will be ahead of their time.