Fear Factory were formed in 1989 in Los Angeles by guitarist Dino Cazares and drummer Raymond Herrera. They are a metal band who have incorporated progressive, death, to industrial metal into their music. The band cite their early influences as Napalm Death and Godflesh.
With the addition of Burton C. Bell on vocals and Andy Romero on bass, the group took the name Fear Factory in 1990. They released their debut album Soul of a New Machine in 1992, an earlier work Concrete was held over from release due to a dispute between the band and their record company.
In 1992 the band released Soul of a New Machine which was described as groundbreaking for its innovative mix of death grunts and normally sung lyrics. The album was ahead of its time and although not commercially successful, it retains a cult following. The follow-up, described as the bands' defining album, was 1995's Demanufacture which moved into groove metal territory. It was popular with fans, charting in the US, where it went to the top 10 of the Billboard Heatseekers. It also went gold in Australia and silver in the UK. A remix of the album called Remanufacture: Cloning Technology made it into top 200 of the Billboard chart.
With the popularity of the bands' best selling Obsolete album, which saw the band fuse progressive and alternative elements, there was pressure to produce more, commercial material. However 2002's Digimortal didn't match sales expectations and after poor sales the band decided to part company, a decision made somewhat easier due to inter-band tensions.
In 2003 Fear Factory reformed without Dino Cazares and released 2004's Archetype. The album saw the band return to their groove metal period which was popular with their fans and the album made the top 30 of the Billboard 200. The 2005 album Transgression was rushed out and fans and critics alike felt that it had suffered as a result. The album sold half as many copies as Archetype.
