From the beginning, Fear Factory has been given to unorthodox experimentation, disintegrating the barriers between alternative, dance, industrial, and metal. The band also has a scientific view of society, bringing a sharp edge of reality to most of their work, something that has shown them to be innovative — not only stylistically, but socio-politically, as well. The band’s guitarist Dino Cazares agrees to talk with HM’s Doug Van Pelt.

Hey, I’ve got a tape recorder rolling, you ready to do an interview?

“I’m ready whenever you’re ready.”

Well, why don’t you describe for me the evolution of style and sound that Fear Factory has experienced since its inception?

“The evolution of Fear Factory... Well, back in the day when we came out, we wanted to do something different. We came from the era of death metal, but we needed to do something different to stand out. We were from three different bands, and we just kind of put it all together, and we came out with Soul of a New Machine. At the time, we were kind of taking chances, because we pushed this on to the metal crowd. And there was singing, there were actually, like, melodic vocals on the record. So the really death metal crowd was like, ‘Whoa, there’s singing on this,’ but it’s good, so it kind of grew on people, and it became, like, our style. So we said, ‘Let’s push the envelope even further. Let’s see what happens if we get industrial/techno and put it with death metal, and put it together and see what happens. This was 1992 we were thinking about this, and we put it together, and Fear of the Mind Killer came out. That was taking even stronger and bigger risks with the metal crowd. It was too different for the metal crowd, and for the industrial/techno crowd, it was too metal. So it was kind of like something that was kind of on its own, kind of lingering out there. I mean, people who got it were really into it. And then we decided to do Demanufacture. We realized that the electronic element really worked with Fear Factory. The combination really worked with Fear Factory. Fear of the Mind Killer was definitely a learning experiment, and experience, that worked. So we went with more of an electronic element for Demanufacture. And Demanufacture was where Fear Factory put a stamp on their signature sound. That sound became Fear Factory. Demanufacture is where we found what we were. This is what we are, Demanufacture. Then we decided to take it even further, and do remixes: Remanufacture. And a lot of kids had just gotten into Fear Factory on Demanufacture. It was a very popular record. It did really well in America, and overseas, so a lot of kids were into Demanufacture, and they weren’t aware of Fear of the Mind Killer or Soul of a New Machine. So when Remanufacture came out — it was no secret, because we talked about it all to the press — but kids were going, ‘Oh my God, my favorite band is techno now!’ They didn’t realize that it’s been the process, Fear Factory remixing tracks. So then, we decided to come back with something heavy. Actually, we didn’t even decide it; it was a natural process. I think we made some of the stuff we’ve done in the past more up-front. For instance, a lot of the melodic vocals are more up-front now, and there are a lot more melodic vocals on this record than there has been on any record that we’ve done. But it doesn’t seem out of place with Fear factory, you know what I mean?

Yeah. It sounds stinkin’ great, man.

“Yeah, and there were a few other things that we did on this record that were really cool. We had a 15- piece chamber ensemble from Vancouver, you know, strings, violins, and cellos come out and play on the album, which was something really different for us. It was definitely a big challenge for us to get all that stuff on the record. It came out on two tracks, “Resurrection” and “Timelessness.”

That’s an amazing thing to marry together, the technical, electronic side with the old strings...

“Yeah, we wanted to do something a little more organic. We wanted to take it to the next level. I mean, sure, we could’ve did it on keyboards. That would’ve saved us a lot of time, but it would’ve sounded like keyboards, so we wanted to go with something that was a little more natural, more real. So that’s when we called ‘em in, and it worked. That’s a whole new door for Fear Factory, so in the future, if we ever wanted to do something like that, we know we could do it. I can’t think of any heavy bands, as extreme as us, that have done stuff like that.”

Well, what bands out there inspire you guys to be heavier?

“Inspire us to be heavier... Uh, probably most of... I don’t know. It’s just something that’s in us. I think, since I was a kid, I’ve always been a fan of metal music, and it’s in my heart, and it’s just never leaving. It’s something that you do that’s just in you.”

What bands out there inspire you to be weirder, in the techno/industrial sense?

“That’s another good question. There’s so much out there. You know, Fear Factory is very much aware of what’s going on today, and we try to keep up with all the stuff that’s going on, whether like it or not. A lot of the industrial bands inspire me that way. Here’s a question. What’s HM?”

Well, it used to be called Heaven’s Metal, and it was Heaven’s Metal for ten years. And back when Nirvana came along, and with one fell swoop, destroyed the term “metal” in the media, we changed our name to HM, because a lot of people were calling us HM anyway.

“Alright. Well, what kind of magazine is it?”

Well, we predominantly cover the Christian hard music scene, and that’s why we’re doing Fear Factory, because they’re the next big Christian metal band. Actually, we do an interview with a band that doesn’t fit into that style in each issue, like, we’ve done Metallica, Megadeth, and Type O Negative, and a lot of people really like this section.

“Is it like a fanzine, sorta?”

No, it started out that way, but it’s kind of grown to the glossy, full color, 104 pages, international distribution.

“Cool. That’s killer. Because, you know what’s really funny? I was raised Catholic. I was extremely Catholic when I was a kid.”

Well, what do you think of Jesus?

“Well, I think He exists. I mean... there’s still a lot of questions for me. I still have a lot of questions. But, I think, that doesn’t mean you don’t have faith.”

Right. If we ever stop asking questions, we probably are in the wrong place anyway.