Fear Factory Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Fear Factory are predominantly an industrial/groove metal band, although their earliest stuff has more of a death metal sound. Vocalist and main lyricist Burton C. Bell as been the only member to appear on every album. On a few albums he has a bigger hand in the writing. Except for two albums Dino Cazares has been on guitar and has been the main writer. Early on he shared in writing with original drummer Raymond Herrera. Bassist Christian Olde Wolbers wrote while in the band and played guitar for the two albums that don’t have Dino. Gene Hoglan drummed on one album and shares in writing on many of those tracks. There has been other bass players and drummer, but non of which that are credited as contributing with writing. Much of Fear Factory’s industrial sound comes from producer and keyboardist Rhys Fulber who occasionally is giving writing credit and shares heavily in writing for The Industrialist. Although he’s not an official member of the band I will be including his influences as well. Other session players have contributed to the industrial side but none are credited with contributing to writing.
Pete Shelley
Rhys Fulber although only appear as a session player and not a member of the band, Dino said after meeting him they were able to add a lot of the more industrial aspects to their music. Rhys has also produced multiple FF albums. He has co-written songs and co-wrote most of the songs on The Industrialist.
Dino said he is not a fan of Kurt Cobain’s music but liked how he structured songs. He also said he liked the way Dave Grohl structures songs. He said he was a fan of producers Mutt Lang and Bob Rock. Dino took inspiration from industrial and hip-hop bands that used guitar samples for playing in a style that mimicked sampled guitars.
Christian said he developed an interest in hip-hop and from that realized sometimes a simple hook is better and more memorable than loads of complicated riffs.
Burton was in school and church choirs as a kid. He says he comes from more of a post-punk, industrial, and gothic background. He also says he’s a fan of move sound tracks, naming Blade Runner and composer Vangelis as well as Dredd composed by Paul Leonard-Morgan
Gene Hoglan was the drummer on Mechanize and and is given co-writing credits on a few songs.
Bands influenced by Fear Factory!
As this project advances, bands will be added here… there are many!
Sources:
https://blabbermouth.net/news/fear-factorys-dino-cazares-my-playing-was-never-influenced-by-pantera/#:~:text=Dino%20elaborated%20in%20a%20separate,%2C%20DEATH%20etc...%22
https://www.westword.com/music/fear-factorys-dino-cazares-on-living-in-the-technocratic-world-the-acts-been-singing-about-5716286
https://killyourstereo.com/interviews/1025779/fear-factory/
http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2013/12/21/in-depth-interview-with-fear-factory-guitarist-dino-cazares/
https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/dino-cazares-of-fear-factory
https://www.guitarworld.com/features/dino-cazares-aggression-continuum
https://www.musicomh.com/features/interviews/interview-fear-factory
https://www.metalunderground.com/interviews/details.cfm?newsid=8239
http://www.roughedge.com/features/fearfactory.htm
https://www.metal-rules.com/2008/11/05/christian-olde-wolbers-of-fear-factory/
http://www.dabelly.com/features/feature187.htm
https://www.loudersound.com/features/burton-c-bell-my-life-story
https://crypticrock.com/interview-burton-c-bell-of-fear-factory/
https://v13.net/2020/10/in-conversation-with-burton-c-bell-the-return-of-ascension-of-the-watchers-w-audio/
https://www.kerrang.com/features/im-proud-of-my-legacy-but-its-time-to-move-forward-burton-c-bell-on-leaving-fear-factory-and-whats-to-come/
https://www.electricityclub.co.uk/rhys-fulber-interview/
http://www.musicaldiscoveries.com/reviews/rhysfulber.htm