Fear Factory

Fear Factory is a Los Angeles, California-based industrial metal quartet fronted by co-founder and self-styled 'Dry Lung Vocal Martyr' Burton C. Bell.

Categorization and Sound

Although "industrial metal" is usually applied, the true "metal" genre of the South-Central LA based band has been subject under moderate discussion.

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Their first demos were strongly reminiscent to legendary British death metallers Napalm Death, along with Godflesh, who were not only tourmates but influences brought up by the band as well. Ironically, some of Justin Broadrick's vocals are comparable to those of Burton C. Bell after he discontinued the death grunt and when he still used it, his vocals were comparable to Napalm Death's vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway. His vocal style was considered ground breaking on Soul of a New Machine because no one before had ever mixed death grunts with melodic singing and this influenced many other metal vocalists, such as Robb Flynn of Machine Head.

Related Topics:
Napalm Death - Godflesh - Justin Broadrick - Burton C. Bell - Death grunt - Mark "Barney" Greenway - Robb Flynn - Machine Head

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Moreover, as other traditional death metal strong structures began to fade, they incorporated more of an "aggro-groove" into their sound, not so different than the style of Sepultura's 1996, "Roots" - an album many long-time fans spelt as the end of the band's death/thrash metal days. This new direction put both bands on the map as a nu-metal influence, eventhough both bands were never closely a part of the genre and their sound was still too extreme for radio standards.

Related Topics:
Death metal - Sepultura - Nu-metal

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In many ways, there was also a very limited industrial essence that made Fear Factory an industrial metal band. While Ministry were known for making industrial textures just as important as guitar riffs, Fear Factory were

Related Topics:
Industrial - Industrial metal - Ministry

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more conservatively heavy metal with some trance-like samples edited in to cyber-fast production.

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Regardless, the band has often been called a "stepping stone" leading mainstream listeners to venture into less-known/more-extreme bands, and one of few heavy metal bands consistently appreciated in the most polarizing and bitter of music genres.

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