Fear Factory
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Fear Factory is an American metal band. The band formed in 1989 and have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal, groove metal, thrash metal and industrial metal The resultant sound proved to be enormously influential on the metal scene from the mid-90s and onwards. Their most recent album, Transgression, described as a more experimental and atypical effort, has also contained elements of pop music and progressive metal.
Fear Factory disbanded in March 2002 following some internal disputes, but they reformed later that year minus founding member Dino Cazares adding bassist, Byron Stroud, and casting then-bassist Christian Olde Wolbers as guitarist.
In April of 2009, a new lineup was announced with founding guitarist Cazares returning, and Gene Hoglan being added as drummer. Bell and Stroud are both reprising their respective roles, and the band is currently in the studio working on new material. Former members Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera (currently playing in Arkaea) dispute the legitimacy of the new lineup, and a legal battle is underway from both parties.
The band has toured with the likes of Black Sabbath, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Slayer, System of a Down, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Mastodon, Misery Index and Rammstein; performed at three Ozzfests as well as the inaugural Gigantour and has had singles in the US Mainstream Rock Top 40 and albums in the Billboard Top 40, 100 and 200. They are currently in the pre-production stages of the recording of a new full-length album and, for the time being, are functioning independent of a record label. Prior to 2001 they have toured around 2000 shows. They have sold over 1 million albums in the U.S. alone.
