Fear Factory

Fear Factory built a machine in Los Angeles and then climbed inside it. Signed to Roadrunner in 1991, they put out Soul of a New Machine the next year and toured their way to an underground following. The lineup that made their name settled in 1994: Burton C. Bell barking and crooning by turns, Dino Cazares chugging out riffs with robotic precision, founding drummer Raymond Herrera hitting like a pneumatic press, and Christian Olde Wolbers on bass.

That crew made Demanufacture in 1995 and Obsolete in 1998, and together those records set the band up as one of the most admired metal acts of the decade: industrial metal where the groove is as cold and exact as an assembly line and the choruses suddenly break open into melody. "Self Bias Resistor" is the blueprint. Digimortal in 2001 didn't land as hard, and in March 2002 the band came apart over internal disputes.

They were back the following year with Wolbers moving to guitar and Byron Stroud on bass, and Archetype in 2004 is a comeback with its jaw set, the title track stamping out the old formula with fresh conviction. Along the way they've played Ozzfest four times and the first Gigantour, and their albums have topped a million sold in America.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.