Burton C. Bell - Vocals, Hardware Dino Cazares - Guitars, Hardware Raymond Herrera - Drums, Percussion Christian Olde Wolbers - Bass "One thing I could say about Fear Factory is that you can put on a FearFactory song and know it's Fear Factory. Nowadays, so many bands arecopying each other but we've always remained true to our sound." - DinoCazares On their third album, Obsolete, Fear Factory continue to explore the battle ofman versus machine; organic versus digital. Frontman/lyricist Burton C.Bell explains: "The concept of this record is that man is obsolete. The ideais still man versus machine - man versus the system machine... man versusthe government machine. Demanufacture told a story, Remanufacture wasanother chapter in the story and Obsolete is another part of the Fear Factoryconcept. We're up to the point in the story where man is obsolete. Man hascreated these machines to make his life easier but in the long run it madehim obsolete. The machines he created are now destroying him. Man is notthe primary citizen on Earth." Obsolete is ten songs produced by Rhys Fulber, formerly of Front LineAssembly, currently of Delerium, Intermix, and Will. Rhys, who produced theband's 1992 remix EP Fear Is The Mind Killer, also played keyboards onObsolete (John Bechdel of Prong/Killing Joke/Revolting Cocks/Murder Inc. pedigree will serve as the touring keyboardist). Check out the intense coverart provided by longtime Fear Factory associate Dave McKean. For 1998, Fear Factory's development as a band is most evident. GuitaristDino Cazares has never sounded better; his riffs mean and lean.Belgian-born bassist Christian Olde Wolbers is far more predominant in themixes than in the past, while drummer Raymond Herrera has developed intoa phenomenal player, a literal man-machine. Bell's development andconfidence as a singer-boosted by his participation in Geezer Butler's G/Z/Rproject-is obvious on Obsolete, particularly in his searing vocalperformance with the eleven-piece Vancouver Chamber Ensemble, whichcontributed violins, cellos and violas to the songs "Resurrection" and"Timelessness." Fear Factory's state-of-the-art mindfuck is also evident onthe song "Edge Crusher," with cuts and scratches courtesy of San Diegomixmaster DJ Zodak. Obsolete material is also featured in the video game"Messiah" by Shiny Entertainment, which is slated for an October release. Dino offers the following assessment of Fear Factory: "Fear Factorydecided to stick to what we do best and that's play very aggressivemusic--and then add keyboard and vocal elements. We're dabbling in HipHop--Burt's actually rhyming on the record. The beautiful melodies that Burtsings are more apparent on this record and the brutality is definitely moreapparent. There's more keyboards on this album than any album we've everdone, but it's definitely not a Techno record. It's along the lines of whatwe're good at, and that's being heavy and experimental. If we're going tochange, we're going to change to something more extreme. We never take astep backwards." "I have a feeling people are expecting a Techno record and that's wherethey're wrong," Burt concludes. "We made the mistake of making theRemanunfacture EP album-length; people thought it was a full record.Obsolete has the groove Soul Of A New Machine had, that we lost onDemanufacture. We've not changed, but matured. The songs are writtenproperly and the arrangements are much better. We've found our niche onthis record. We've brought it back into Fear Factory so it's ripping riffs andkiller grooves. Our fans know to expect something big."
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