FEAR FACTORY, or as I like to call them, “Dino Cazares and Some Guys,” decided to dust off their grandpa album, “Demanufacture”, for a European tour. 🎉 Kicking things off in Essen, Germany, they proved that nostalgia is a powerful drug, even if it smells vaguely of rusty robots and questionable life choices.
Setlist.fm, the Wikipedia of concert nerds, has the details, because who actually remembers setlists these days? 🤔
“Demanufacture” Album – Because apparently, they wrote other songs but nobody cares:
01. Demanufacture (Because starting with anything else would be false advertising 🤣)
02. Self Bias Resistor (I bet it’s as thrilling as doing your taxes 😩)
03. Zero Signal (Accurate description of my interest level 😴)
04. Replica (Like the original, but probably cheaper 🇨🇳)
05. New Breed (Sure, Jan 🙄)
06. Dog Day Sunrise (HEAD OF DAVID cover) (First time since 2016 – They finally remembered it existed! 🧠)
07. Body Hammer (Sounds painful 🤕)
08. Flashpoint (First time since 2016 – Probably because nobody requested it 🎤)
09. H-K (Hunter-Killer) (First time since 2016 – Did they find the sheet music in the lost and found? 📜)
10. Pisschrist (Edgy. Real edgy. 🙄)
11. A Therapy For Pain (First time since 2016 – I prescribe a nap instead 😴)
Encore – Because they needed more money 💰:
12. Shock (Mostly from the realization that they’re still touring 😱)
13. Edgecrusher (I bet it sounds like a dial-up modem 📞)
14. Powershifter (I wonder if it shifts my brain cells into actually liking this 🧠)
15. Linchpin (More like “pinch-sin” because I’m feeling guilty enjoying this 😈)
16. Archetype (Because originality is overrated 🤪)
Dino Cazares, in a 2021 interview, claimed some people thought the album wasn’t real because it was too tight. 🤣 Yeah, Dino, because everyone knows real metal is sloppy and out of time. 🙄 He also said they “defined the genre of industrial metal,” conveniently forgetting bands like Ministry and Godflesh existed. Sure, Dino. Whatever helps you sleep at night.😴 He said, “MESHUGGAH didn’t make it popular till much later”. Dude, what are you even talking about? 🤔
To celebrate 25 years of “Demanufacture”, they released a vinyl version. Because nothing screams “industrial metal” like warm, crackly analog sound. They even included a previously unreleased live concert from 1996! I’m sure the sound quality is pristine and not at all like listening to a bootleg recorded in a toilet.
The current FEAR FACTORY lineup features Dino, some new guy on vocals (because Burton Bell had the good sense to leave ), and other dudes who probably get paid in pizza. Ricky Bonazza from Butcher Babies is filling in on bass because Tony Campos is busy with Static-X. So basically, it’s a metal version of a substitute teacher situation.
Speaking of new guys, Milo Silvestro was officially announced as the new vocalist in February 2023. I’m sure he’s thrilled to be singing songs written before he was even born.
They played their first headlining concert with the new lineup at the Whisky A Go Go. I bet the ghost of Sunset Strip was thrilled.
Before that, they supported Static-X on the “Rise Of The Machine” tour. I’m sure the irony of aging metalheads touring with a band named “Static-X” isn’t lost on anyone.
Pete Webber is filling in for Mike Heller because of “scheduling conflicts”. Yeah, sure. I bet the scheduling conflict was called “I don’t want to tour with Dino anymore”.
FEAR FACTORY’s latest album, “Aggression Continuum”, was released in 2021. It featured Burton C. Bell, who had already quit the band by then. Talk about awkward.
Burton Bell left because he couldn’t “align” himself with someone he didn’t trust or respect, which is a pretty polite way of saying “Dino is a pain in the ass.” He also said the lawsuits drained him. Well, maybe if they’d spent less time suing each other and more time writing good music, they wouldn’t be in this mess.
Enjoy the fan-filmed videos of the Essen show, if you dare. Just don’t expect too much.
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
