OBSOLETE? NOT BY A LONG SHOT At the time of writing this, on Fear Factory, the band have just completed promotional duties for the forthcoming release of their new album Obsolete on July 27th. I'd already had an advance copy of the CD from their label for a few weeks prior to this & was impressed with the difference between this & Demanufacture. Organised by the band's label Roadrunner, Dino Cazeres, guitarist for the band gave me a call, where the first question I asked the band was about the release of the album. "Well, it's a simultaneous worldwide release, because Fear Factory is very much a global band these days. We've always had fantastic reactions from wherever we've played around the world & the fans wouldn't expect anything less I guess, so it's gonna be great for everyone to be able to pick it up at once." Touring for the album is scheduled straight away from the release of the album & Dino went on to talk about the aspect of touring the many countries & the hectic schedule the band have while touring. "That's something that Fear Factory have always loved doing is touring. As soon as we get back home, we'll be going out on the road for something like 2 years worth of touring in support of this album, the states of course, plus a lot of other countries & of course Australia will are definitely included on our touring schedule." Still on the subject of touring, I asked about the relationship the band had with it's fans in the many countries they've toured. "Our audiences are pretty much the same the world over, they're there for the music, it's that simple. Some fans love the vocals, some the guitars, others the drums & stuff, but they're essentially there for the same reason we are, great music. It's a real high getting on stage in front of the crowd, knowing they're going off because of us." The band have always had a good time during their gigs in Australia & I wondered aloud how the band's live performances went in other countries. "We've always gone down very well during our Australian shows & as I said, our audiences are pretty much the same everywhere. Sure, you may get a couple of bad gigs at times, but they're more than made up for by the good ones." I had recently come across Fear Factory's music in a computer game called Carmageddon & the band will feature on the new game to be released later this year, Messiah. Dino spoke briefly about their collaboration with the game's writers. "Carmageddon was pretty cool. Basically we were approached by the writers because they thought nour music was suited to the style of the game. This latest game was sort of the same thing, again we were approached & of course, we were interested. I think this is a natural evolution for bands. Music & technology have always been partners of sorts, particularly with a band like Fear Factory. I can see more bands collaborating on this sort of project in the future." Of course, it was back to the album & at the time I'm writing this, you need to remember that hardly anyone outside the music industry has heard the album yet. I asked Dino to explain what people could expect to this follow-up to the band's Demanufacture album. "Obsolete is really the next step for Fear Factory. Like with the computer game thing, it's an evolutionary step. There's a lot more melody going on in the songs but it's still as heavy as ever. We all reckon it's the best album we've done." Lastly, I asked Dino what his favourite track on the album was, where he in turn found out that mine was Descent. "Hey that's cool, a lot of people I've spoken to that have listened to the album like that one, though each person likes something different. My favourite on Obsolete is Resurrection, which will be the next single. We're hoping that everyone else likes it as much as we do." With that, I wished the band luck with the album, though after listening to it, I don't think they'll need it. Obsolete will be released July 27th on Roadrunner Records. Look out for the band near you on their world tour. Bye for now, Terry Allen hEARd Online