By Lisa Burke
October 30th 2015, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: As far as Los Angeles-based bands go, Fear Factory is of the highest caliber, and last Friday night they played an excellently crafted 25th anniversary show at the Whisky-A-Go-Go in West Hollywood, with support acts Darksun and Caustic Method, among others.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out metalcore/hardcore band Caustic Method comes from Syracuse, NY, which is thirty minutes from the town I was born and raised in. They definitely reminded me of the style of metal that, generally speaking, comes out of that Northern East Coast area, yet they made it into their own version. With songs titled ‘Sex, Drugs, and Violence’, ‘Six Feet Under’, and the use of gutteral vocals, these guys brought out the New York in metal with ease. Though there was much stage banter between sets there was a clear passion behind it, and a desire to explain the art of the songs, which was commendable. Overall, I found them to be technically sound and entertaining throughout.
Next on the line up was thrashy, deathcore, grind metal band Darksun. This was my first live experience with this band despite their local origination in Orange County and existence since 2005, yet the sheer high energy of it all really perked up the audience from the very beginning and carried it straight through to the end of the set which concluded with none other than their cover of Pantera’s ‘Sandblasted Skin’. There was dynamic stage presence from all performers, and an Exodus-meets-Death Angel-meets-Anthrax vibe in the guitar playing that I found uniqueness and excitement in. Darksun was the perfect choice to set the mood and pump the audience for Fear Factory to headline. The differences between the two bands, without being out of each other’s element, enticed the audience to stay for the entire show even if they intended to come for one or the other.
Set List:
01. Devils
02. Seeds Of Truth
03. Desecration Of The Gods
04. Brokenfix
05. Madness Ensues
06. Sandblasted Skin (Pantera cover)
Of course, since this show was at Whisky, the most likely person to step on stage and introduce Fear Factory is “Mr. Belding” from Saved By The Bell who happens to be quite a big metal supporter himself. After his important announcement that “school is now in fuckin’ session” Burton C. Bell, Dino Cazares and the rest of industrial, groove/thrash/extreme metal band Fear Factory blew up the stage with their 25 years of metal. I’ve been a fan since I discovered them around 20 years ago, and must say they have such a unique style that they stayed true to since the beginning, yet they completely modernized and brought in an even heavier, more extreme metal sound to their newest album released this year, called ‘Genexus’. The new songs were a wonderful addition to the already perfect set list which brought an extra special energy to the audience. My favorite aspect of this band is Burton’s ability to jump from very serene melodical yet appropriately mechanical vocals into the opposing more screamed death style vocals. Majority of bands with male vocalists who try to attempt this end up mixing weak vocals with death beats which ends up sounding either wimpy, off key, or out of place. With Fear Factory, however, it is a beautiful smooth transition everytime and somehow the groove and drum beats follow the flow of the vocals to make the sound complete. Also, despite the angsty industrial lyrics and heavy riffs, the general feeling of pure happiness and calm emotions is always present in myself during their set. Perhaps I’m wired wrong because while I’m feeling elation, some other dude just beat up someone and got kicked out of the mosh pit and escorted out by security. If that wasn’t enough however, considering this show was scheduled the day before Halloween you would be a fool not to expect to see a Gingerbread man in the mosh pit. I might be able to just let this review write itself at this point considering the lack of a dull moment on this evening. Being such a site to see as not many others were in costume, Burton called him out saying “Someone get him outta the pit, he’s making me hungry”. A pretty fair, funny, and metal statement for such a non-metal situation, in my opinion.
On another side note, the stage lighting on this night was absolutely out of control. Definitely a photographer’s worst nightmare with every color of the rainbow and strobe effect flickering at the speed of light. The potential and idea was there and it didn’t not go with the music, I just wish it was a bit calmer to enhance the focus more. Back to the tunes and performance, Fear Factory played every song I wanted to hear including old-school favorites ‘Demanufacture’ and ‘Replica’, and I was highly impressed with the new tracks. I always try my best to attend every local Fear Factory show as every time is unique to the last despite the possible same location or even similar set list. This happened to be the best live performance I’ve seen of them to date, and I feel it’s owed to the direct progression they have achieved in transpiring their old songs into the new ones with that same efficiency of the dynamically smooth transformation from melodic to scream that Burton’s voice has. I’d also like to throw in that at this show Burton had some pretty fun mechanical dance moves at one point in the set that I hope he doesn’t discontinue as this man is clearly full of hidden talents.
One debatable issue with most industrial bands is their use of live keys or backing tracks on stage. Fear Factory had backing tracks and no live keys, yet they usually keep the backing to as much a minimal as possible, and while it is that industrial sound with not your typical keys, it is not missed to have a live performer. The style of the music is why this can be achieved successfully, and this is possible again because it all remains fluid. In some metalcore/deathcore bands the contradiction of unnecessary and inappropriate backing tracks mixed with death metal guitars and vocals usually makes me cringe, and look for the dude who should be on keys or a laptop at least. My point in all this is that while Fear Factory successfully accomplished and set the bar in their own extreme, groove, industrial scene, I feel some of the newer formed bands from mid 2000s took this inspiration and for whatever reason were not as accomplished with their end live results.
Of course, after all these fast-paced high energy bands of the night the closing the bar ‘get the fuck out’ DJ song after the set ended was none other than ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ from Simple Minds featured in The Breakfast Club movie soundtrack, because why shouldn’t Fear Factory be sandwiched in between a Saved By The Bell character intro and a Breakfast Club song ending? Bringing myself to the caboose of this train, if perhaps you are one of those people who thinks no good metal came from 1990, go see Fear Factory so you can prove yourself wrong.
Set List:
01. Martyr
02. Scapegoat
03. Shock
04. Edgecrusher
05. Smasher/Devourer
06. What Will Become?
07. Damaged
08. Powershifter
09. Archetype
10. Soul Hacker
11. Dielectric
12. Regenerate
13. Demanufacture
14. Zero Signal
15. Replica
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