'Demanufacture' Kickstarted New Era Of Music Says Fear Factory

“Me and Burt [C Bell, vocals] wanted to create the fucking ultimate hybrid of industrial metal,” Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares says when asked about the main goal they wanted to achieve with 1995's game-changing Demanufacture album. “I mean, combined with great songs. [On 1992 debut] Soul Of A New Machine, we had so many extra riffs and we kinda just threw them all in there and just put it on the record. Whereas with Demanufacture, we kept a lot of those extra riffs out and made these great songs. Me and Burton had so many different musical backgrounds. We liked so much different stuff, from gothic and industrial to alternative music – the early Nirvana, Sub Pop era – all that stuff; Helmet too. Everything from Sepultura to death metal stuff; we kinda made the ultimate hybrid of everything that we liked and created our own thing.”

Demanufacture, the US metallers' second full-length, surfaced amid a vastly different climate within heavy music and the planet at large. Infusing influences from Godflesh and Napalm Death, Soul Of A New Machine was a polarising, yet vital album, introducing industrial touches and clean vocals to the death metal format. However, it was but a teaser for the follow-up. Stripping away much of the death metal overtones, Demanufacture showcased Fear Factory morphing into a cold, taut and mechanical entity. The jackhammer-like delivery was heavier than a sack of anvils, sound-scapes eerily atmospheric while the songs bristled with irresistibly catchy hooks. The man-versus-machine lyrical theme also became one of their defining characteristics. The record also introduced them to legions of new fans – even scoring their first gold record worldwide in Australia.

The band arrived at Demanufacture following the underground success of Soul Of A New Machine and 1993's Fear Is The Mindkiller EP, whereby they reworked a number of songs from their debut. “It was Fear Is The Mindkiller that really helped us, like, see the [big] picture,” the axeman explains. “When we did Soul Of A New Machine we had 17 songs and we put them all on the record. Obviously that was a lot of songs. We trimmed a lot of the fat; we trimmed a lot of the unnecessary stuff that was on Soul Of A New Machine and our songwriting obviously got better.

“When we started to go into the remix EP Fear Is The Mindkiller… That helped us a lot, because [remixer] Rhys Fulber had all the technology that me and Burt couldn't afford. 'Cause we were just pretty much in a one-bedroom apartment living with five dudes. Pretty much scrounging around, living in Hollywood, having minimum wage jobs and we just couldn't really afford a lot of the keyboards, the computers and the technology stuff that Rhys Fulber had. So bringing him into the picture during Fear Is The Mindkiller, he was able to bring that to Demanufacture. Me and Burt really wanted it; we wanted it from the beginning, but we couldn't afford it. He definitely brought that into the studio and we were able to create Demanufacture.”

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