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Fear Factory: Exclusive Interview with Dino Cazares
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By: Spike Steffenhagen – special guest columnist and Hard Blast collaborator from the USA
Pictures: Chad Alexander – Hard Blast USA photographer collaborator |
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Spike: Reunions have a tendency to suck. For every brilliant result and welcome return (Iron Maiden) there are lackluster cash ins by the dozens (fill in the blank here, folks). Mechanize can't be called a Fear Factory reunion as its creation was the result of an ultimatum by two original members, but anyone within earshot of it will recognize it as a logical progression of Dino era Fear Factory. The man himself offers some clarification on the personnel change:
Dino: "Christian and Raymond didn't want me in the band, Burt did. I am not sure why they have an issue. I can tell you that Christian's wife was managing the band and banging Raymond and Christian and we felt we needed an actual manager without the recipe for disaster."
Spike: Rather than let the Spinal Tap flavored story line continue, vocalist and Co Founder Burton C Bell patched things up with old friend Dino Cazares. The result was a return to form in more ways than one.
Dino: "Burt lives in Pennsylvania, so when he comes out to California, he stays with me."
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Spike: The time together was both healing and a return to roots that made the Cazares / Bell partnership so influential.
Dino: "We were roommates when we formed the band, doing demos and using the bathroom for vocal tracks. It was cool because we talked about that a lot and worked in a natural manner on the new album."
Spike: The result - Mechanize- explores themes in a way that puts Fear Factory above the crowd. While many metal bands bitch about the injustices in the world, Fear Factory takes on topics with a level of intelligence and personal conviction that lands a knockout punch akin to "War Pigs".
Dino: "My Mother lived for seven years with MS," states Dino. "These fucking drug companies are not interested in finding a cure, they want to keep people alive to pay for the cost of medicine."
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Spike: The track "Final Exit" confronts this issue head on. Named after the controversial right to suicide tome by Derek Humphry, the song uses quotes from the author's video and the band disseminates information on the right to die movement at every opportunity. It is this passion and attention to detail that has made Fear Factory one of the most influential bands of the last 20 years. In essence, creating the music they wanted to hear has been a key.
Dino: "I am a huge Godflesh fan as everyone knows," he says by way of influences." And thrash, obviously. I'd listen to guys like Hetfield who is just a monster riff rider and think 'Why can't he follow the kick drum' so I'd play it like that. It was just this yearning to hear it played like that."
"And this may be heresy, but for me, the Dio era Sabbath was the best, riffs and all."
Spike: These days the kick drum he is following belongs to Gene Hoglan, a man who's resume and projects require a ream of paper to list and the bass being handled by Strapping Young Lad's Byron Stroud.
Dino: "Gene is committed to Fear Factory for this time period as we all are. We all have other projects we are doing outside of this."
Spike: Which begs the question…what about Dino's post FF band Divine Heresy?
Dino: "We're gonna open for Fear Factory," he says smiling ear to ear.
Spike: A few hours later, Fear Factory takes the stage. With the first chords of "Mechanize" ringing, it becomes obvious what was missing from previous releases.
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