Gong from a day-time gig, to headlining the main stage at Metaldays on the opening day isn’t a bad upgrade, and not surprisingly we were very interested in seeing how Fear Factory would handle it.
Well, that, and in general just interested in showing up, screaming our lungs out to some bad-ass music, and enjoying the show.

“All the way from the USA, we have Fear motherfucking Factory motherfuckers! Show some motherfucking respect!”
- Random Girl (probably working with the band)

The small crowd gathered at the beginning of the show made it easy to get a good position, from which I could easily see that there once again was a new part in the machine. Matt DeVries was out, and instead Fear Factory had recruited Tony Campos for bass and backing vocal duties. Now, Campos may have been new in the Fear Factory outfit, but has for a long time collaborated with Dino Cazares, both in Brujeria and Asesino, and we have seen him with Soulfly, so he certainly wasn’t green, neither to the band nor us. He filled the part well as well, and kicked ass perfectly on level with the rest of the guys.
Because the band was kicking ass. The low attendance in the beginning did nothing to stop them from stepping up and showing themselves worthy of their headlining position. Cazares stepped up to the mic between songs and spoke to the crowd, sometimes making general comments, and other times demanding participation of one form or the other, like the time everyone had to chant Genexus out loud – a brilliant way to imprint the coming album’s name in us. He also had his now common display of nicely painted guitars with him, but sadly the sound wasn’t working properly, and the sound fell out at times.
Burton C. Bell on the other hand, showed remarkable control over his instrument. We were two thirds through the set before his voice broke in a serious way, and even then, he was quickly back in control again, and delivered one of his best vocal performances I have seen live.

“Are you motherfucking ready for this?!”
- Dino Cazares (guitar)

I have mentioned that there weren’t many to watch Fear Factory when it was time for them to start up the machine, but this didn’t last – a constant stream of festival guests made the crowd larger and larger, constantly growing, constantly shifting.
It was a lively crowd as well, and already during the second song, Edgecrusher, people were ready to both jump and mosh, and it only grew from there. A lot of crowd surfers were constantly sailing by, and especially Martyr and Demanufacture, which was celebrating its 20th birthday, saw massive and wild moshpits open up the middle of the ground.
Fear Factory had two new songs up their sleeve, Protomech and Soul Hacker, both of which displayed the typical Fear Factory sound. It wasn’t possible to delve deep into analysing them at this point, but the pumping power of them were enough to feed the masses who were partying hard in front of the stage.
At the end of the show, Random Girl, who had opened the show, made another appearance, now crowdsurfing and handing out guitar picks at the same time.

Yeah, Fear Factory showed themselves worthy of the upgrade that the festival had given them, and delivered everything we had been hoping for in power and party. A perfect headlining show for the first day of the festival.

Setlist:

Shock
Edgecrusher
Smasher/Devourer
Powershifter
Damaged
Protomech
Soul Hacker
What Will Become?
Martyr
Scapegoat
Demanufacture
Zero Signal
Replica