Soap Opera Horror - FEAR FACTORY

The fact that someone plays harsh music, is covered with tattoos, and looks so scary that young mothers and older ladies cross to the other side of the street when he is approaching does not mean that he doesn?t know what it is to act like a primadonna or that his life does not remind us of a cheap soap opera. Proof of this theory is the entire original line-up of Fear Factory. It would be too exhausting to describe how many times and how the different members fought with each other and then reconciled, who left the band and why, when it was dissolved and then restarted again. All these factors do not really matter as long as the music does not suffer. This year, the American band was one of the last star performers at the Sziget and they demonstrated how a death/groove metal band with an industrial background can cope with the passing of time.

 

The most painful loss seemed to be the change of drummer. In the case of a band like Fear Factory, the drummer is a central figure: the characteristic distorted industrial sound enhanced with incredibly fast and loud percussion has always been a decisive element of the band?s style. The new drummer, Gene Hoglan, played impressively, without mistakes. Despite this, his performance was forgettable, unlike in the case of previous drummer Raymond Herrera who now plays in (the Fear Factory ?successor?) Arkae. In other areas, the band seemed to be quite vigorous, though they were not in their best form on Sunday (Mechanize was not the only song that sounded a bit too mechanic). Still, had I not built up the huge expectation based on the 2006 show, this could have been a perfectly satisfying show.

 

It became clear right at the start that the songs of the new album Mechanize are more powerful live than on CD. Powershifter from the new album was a real blast and the classic Fear Factory songs that followed all punched with raw power.

 

Demanufacture, followed by Self-Bias Resistor, were both impossible to resist. It was no surprise that the audience sang along with the chorus of Demanufacture (?I've got no more goddamn regrets / I've got no more goddamn respect?) or during the concert?s closing number Replica (?I don't want to live that way?). We should also mention that Muse was playing its radio-friendly songs only a few stages away, yet the metal tent was nearly fully packed with people.

 

The concert essentially covered all of the best songs of the band?s past 21 years. Fear Factory is not a band than gives priority to visuals. Besides Hoglan, who seemed to enjoy throwing his drumsticks up in the air and then also managing to catch them, the concert?s visual show element boiled down to bassist Byron Stroud (who appears, with his large blonde hair and beard, like a scary hermit in the woods from a Scandinavian folk tale) moving from the right side of the stage to the centre where he seemed to feel uneasy and thus continued to the left, changing places with the guitarist Dino Cazares (who could play the role of the giant rock in the aforementioned folk tale). Frontman Burton C. Bell was doing his job, communicating with the audience in a friendly manner and of course singing the songs as one should expect. He managed to sing the high pitches as well as those coming from the abdomen perfectly well, unlike Satyricon at the same venue last year.  

      

It seems that regardless of the soap opera-like changes in the life of the band, there are no serious problems with Fear Factory. To tell the truth, this is not only owed to Bell?s performance skills and composure. If a band can produce this many fantastic songs from its past and is able to perform them live, then they cannot go wrong.

 

Author: Bálint Kovács / Photo: Tímea Karip