Many might have thought that Fear Factory was down for the count, what with numerous line-up changes and long silences in the doings of the band, but then finally the new album Mechanize arrived at the stores, which completely blew me away, marking a new spark of energy in the band can only be described as positive.
Shortly thereafter Burton C. Bell, newly returned Dino Cazares, Byron Stroud and finally new boy in camp Gene Hoglan hit the road in support of this new album, and as it turned out, it was here they really got the chance to shine!

A lot more people had arrived (luckily) after the good support from M.A.N, and though there was still a bit before KB would sell out, those who had arrived made their best not to let any free space go to waste; Mechanize started the show of well, showing the power of the new album and line-up, and when Shock came on afterwards a furious mosh grew in the crowd, only paused by jumping to tunes like Edgecrusher and the like.
You might think this would be a typical good start, which would later lose its intensity as the night grew on; if you did, you couldn’t be further from the truth! 18 songs were torn through, of which 6 were from Mechanize, and the largest part of the rest from the classic albums Demanufacture and Obsolete. Soul Of A New Machine and Digimortal were quickly visited, but Archetype and Transgression were completely left out. Normally devoting so much time to a completely new album isn’t very wise, but in the case of this album and show I was more than happy to take it all in!

The band worked their asses of on the stage, and both lights and sound worked well with them.
The most important was still the members themselves, and what they did was nothing short of amazing! It was great to see Cazares back in the band, and the way Stroud and he worked off each other you got the feeling it should never be any different. Bell on his part has never sounded better in a live situation, which I was very happy to notice.
And of course, the way Hoglan looked completely relaxed and groovy no matter what he was playing certainly did its part in lifting the show as well.

I can’t say for sure how long this constellation and energy will hold up, for my sake they could just keep it going like this for the rest of their days and I would be completely happy; all I do know is that I’m very happy to know that I will see them shortly again, and if you get the chance, you certainly should too!

Setlist:

Mechanize
Shock
Edgecrusher
Smasher/Devourer
Industrial Discipline
Acres Of Skin
Linchpin
Powershifter
Fear Campaign
Martyr
Christploitation
Resurrection
Final Exit
Demanufacture
Self Bias Resistor
Zero Signal
H-K (Hunter-Killer)
Replica