Soul of a New Machine
Encyclopedia
Soul of a New Machine is the debut studio album
(not counting the originally unreleased 1991 album Concrete) by the Los Angeles, California
metal
band Fear Factory
. It was released on August 25, 1992. The album was remastered and re-released on October 5, 2004 in a digipak
, packaged together with the remastered Fear Is the Mindkiller
EP
.
has stated that this album is a concept album
, concerning man's creation of a machine that could be either technological or governmental. It was also confirmed by bassist Christian Olde Wolbers in an interview. The machine-human connection would play a more prominent role in the later Fear Factory
concept albums.
The sound of this album is different from the later albums for it was heavily influenced by Napalm Death
and Godflesh
, therefore this one featured more of a death metal and grindcore
sound. Many feel this album is ground breaking as this is the first album to mix death growl
s with clean vocals.
While Fear Factory's main concept is man vs. machine, this album featured different themes. "Martyr" is about how Burton C. Bell
was bored with his lifestyle; "Leechmaster" and "Manipulation" are about relationship troubles; "Scapegoat" was based on how Cazares was once wrongfully accused by the law; "Crisis" is an anti-war song; "Crash Test" concerns animal testing
and "Suffer Age" is based on serial killer
John Wayne Gacy
. The other songs contain different themes as well. Samples from the movies Full Metal Jacket
, Blade Runner
and Apocalypse Now
are heard sporadically throughout the album.
Then-bassist Andrew Shives only played live with the group; the bass tracks on the album were performed by Dino Cazares. In 1993 Fear Factory released a 7" single under their Spanish name Factorio De Miedo called Sangre De Ninos. This is the only material that was ever recorded in a studio with Andrew Shives on bass. He was forced to leave the band due to some internal disputes and was replaced by Christian Olde Wolbers in December 1993.
Professional wrestler Jerry Lynn
used the song "Scapegoat" as his theme music
during his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling
. "Big God/Raped Souls" was used in The Crow: City of Angels
.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
(not counting the originally unreleased 1991 album Concrete) by the Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Fear Factory
Fear Factory
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...
. It was released on August 25, 1992. The album was remastered and re-released on October 5, 2004 in a digipak
Digipak
Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...
, packaged together with the remastered Fear Is the Mindkiller
Fear Is the Mindkiller
-Band members:* Burton C. Bell − Vocals* Dino Cazares − Guitar* Raymond Herrera − Drums-Production/continued credits:* Rhys Fulber − Digital adaptation* Brian Gardner − Mastering* Bernie Grundman − Mastering* Karl Kotas − Art direction, computer graphics...
EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
.
Album information
Guitarist Dino CazaresDino Cazares
Dino Cazares, born in El Centro, California, is a Mexican-American musician and the guitarist for Los Angeles-based industrial metal group Fear Factory. He also plays in the metal bands Divine Heresy and Asesino.-Biography:...
has stated that this album is a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
, concerning man's creation of a machine that could be either technological or governmental. It was also confirmed by bassist Christian Olde Wolbers in an interview. The machine-human connection would play a more prominent role in the later Fear Factory
Fear Factory
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...
concept albums.
The sound of this album is different from the later albums for it was heavily influenced by Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are a death metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's ...
and Godflesh
Godflesh
Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham, England. Originally known as Fall of Because, they formed in 1988 by Justin K. Broadrick and G.C. Green and disbanded in 2002. Godflesh's innovative music is widely regarded as a foundational influence on industrial metal and post-metal...
, therefore this one featured more of a death metal and grindcore
Grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk....
sound. Many feel this album is ground breaking as this is the first album to mix death growl
Death growl
A death growl, also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, and harsh vocals among other names, is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal and black metal music genre, but also used in a variety of heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres.Death...
s with clean vocals.
While Fear Factory's main concept is man vs. machine, this album featured different themes. "Martyr" is about how Burton C. Bell
Burton C. Bell
Burton Christopher Bell is an American musician. Bell is best known as the frontman of the metal band Fear Factory where he is the only consistent member. His singing style mixes clean vocals with death growls.-Fear Factory:...
was bored with his lifestyle; "Leechmaster" and "Manipulation" are about relationship troubles; "Scapegoat" was based on how Cazares was once wrongfully accused by the law; "Crisis" is an anti-war song; "Crash Test" concerns animal testing
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
and "Suffer Age" is based on serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was an American serial killer, rapist and clown who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawlspace of his home, buried three others elsewhere on his property, and discarded the...
. The other songs contain different themes as well. Samples from the movies Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
, Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
and Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
are heard sporadically throughout the album.
Then-bassist Andrew Shives only played live with the group; the bass tracks on the album were performed by Dino Cazares. In 1993 Fear Factory released a 7" single under their Spanish name Factorio De Miedo called Sangre De Ninos. This is the only material that was ever recorded in a studio with Andrew Shives on bass. He was forced to leave the band due to some internal disputes and was replaced by Christian Olde Wolbers in December 1993.
Professional wrestler Jerry Lynn
Jerry Lynn
Jeremy "Jerry" Lynn is an American professional wrestler who is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
used the song "Scapegoat" as his theme music
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
during his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
. "Big God/Raped Souls" was used in The Crow: City of Angels
The Crow: City of Angels (album)
The original soundtrack of the 1996 motion picture The Crow: City of Angels, sequel to the 1994 film The Crow. The album includes a cover of the Fleetwood Mac song "Gold Dust Woman" by Hole, as well as tracks by other heavyweight artists such as White Zombie, Korn and Iggy Pop...
.
Reception
- Kerrang!Kerrang!Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
(p. 61) - "[The album] contains all the unrefined qualities that would soon make Fear Factory legendary."
Track listing
Credits
- Burton C. BellBurton C. BellBurton Christopher Bell is an American musician. Bell is best known as the frontman of the metal band Fear Factory where he is the only consistent member. His singing style mixes clean vocals with death growls.-Fear Factory:...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Dino CazaresDino CazaresDino Cazares, born in El Centro, California, is a Mexican-American musician and the guitarist for Los Angeles-based industrial metal group Fear Factory. He also plays in the metal bands Divine Heresy and Asesino.-Biography:...
– guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, arranger, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may... - Raymond HerreraRaymond HerreraRaymond Herrera is the drummer for industrial metal band Arkaea. He is a former member of the industrial metal band Fear Factory and Mexican death metal band Brujeria.-Biography:Herrera has been an avid gamer all his life...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Colin RichardsonColin RichardsonColin Richardson is a British record producer, mixer and recording engineer. He has worked on over 100 albums, and is most frequently associated with heavy metal and its subgenres such as:*Anathema*As I Lay Dying*Behemoth*Bullet for My Valentine...
– producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, mixing - Steve Harris – engineer, mixing
- Bradley Cook – assistant engineer
- Rober Fayer – assistant engineer
- Eddy Schreyer – mastering
- Satok Lrak – computer graphics, art direction
- Joe Lance – photography
- Lora Porter – executive producer
- Otis – samplingSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
, credited as "Sample god" - Darius Seponlou – introduction on "Crash Test"
- Andrew Shives – live bass guitar
- Monte ConnerMonte ConnerMonte Conner is a producer and A&R person for Roadrunner Records. He has worked with numerous bands including, Slipknot, Trivium and King Diamond.- Discography :#Trivium - The Crusade#Stone Sour - Come WhatMay#Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip...
– A&RA&RArtists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...