Fear Factory
Pumpehuset, Copenhagen - 2023
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
For anyone following this site for any extended period of time, it should come as no shock (to the system) that all of us at Metalmoments enjoy Fear Factory greatly, and will do what we can to go see them when they swing by.
In fact, our last review of the band, from when they played this very venue in fact, ended with me saying that it doesn’t need to take three years and a new album for them to swing by again.
Ironically, it took them a new album (sort of) and no less than 7½ years to get back to us. Even so, we weren’t going to miss it for the world!
Now, of course, part of the delay was due to some personnel changes, and likely something leading up to said changes. Without delving deeper into that, let’s just mention that the band had a new drummer in Pete Webber (Havoc) and more shockingly, a new vocalist in Milo Silvestro (Dead Channel). The drum stool has rotated a bit in the past, but we’ve never seen a Fear Factory without Burton C. Bell before! Well, not live anyway. Silvestro had been announced as the official new vocalist for the band earlier in the year, but not much had been seen, and more importantly heard of him. I’m not going to lie, having a Fear Factory without Bell felt weird to me, but honestly, I felt Silvestro matched the sound of the band really well, and now it was time to see how he did in a live setting with them.
After three support bands, we were ready for the real deal, and it was about to hit. It was surprising to see some kind of contraption on a stick instead of a mic stand, but when the band entered and kicked the show off with a true classic in Shock, it soon became apparent. Silvestro was not only singing, but was live manipulating his sound with, I’m not sure, but some kind of sampler I suppose. A neat and unexpected trick that I haven’t seen used before, and I like it. Necessary? No. But still something fun to add to the band’s bag of tricks.
Silvestro was also delivering with a youthful energy - well, youthful compared to the rest of the band, yeah? - and gave a very active performance, but so did the rest of the guys. Tony Campos was definitely a happy little camper, glad to interact with the audience and wander around the stage. As I was standing in the frontrow enjoying the show, he even came by at one point and asked for a sip of my beer, ha ha! Great fun and a lot of positive vibes throughout.
Dino Cazares also looked happy, and while he obviously wasn’t as agile as Silvestro and had his angry metal face on contrary to Campos, he was still obviously enjoying himself immensely. He wasn’t late in locking eyes with the crowd, singing along with them or simply sharing knuckles and at select moments his guitar picks.
The setlist continued to be on fire, with surprisingly only one song from the latest ‘real’ release, 2021’s Aggression Continuum, and pretty much filled with classics the rest of the way. If it was intentional or not, I can only speculate, but to my mind, this was a very smart decision in regards to announcing the new band members. It showed range in terms of old and new material, and it kept fans happy with a well-known and cleverly curated list of beloved songs. The most surprising inclusion was perhaps Resurrection as a finisher, but it was also a very welcome addition as I don’t recall ever hearing it done live before. It certainly hasn’t happened during the time I’ve reviewed the band, that’s for sure!
As you can imagine, the well-filled hall of Pumpehuset held a lot of happy fans, who were absolutely invested in getting the most out of the evening, meaning there was a whole lot of moshing going on, headbanging galore, and just in case the ‘new guy’ wasn’t up to the task, there was a lot of singing along. Silvestro was up to the task, as was Webber and all the rest of them, and I’m happy to announce that this was a killer show from start to finish.
I don’t want to jinx anything, but please, don’t be so long in coming back next time, alright?
Setlist:
Shock
Edgecrusher
Recharger
Dielectric
Disruptor
Powershifter
Freedom Or Fire
Descent
Linchpin
What Will Become?
Slave Labor
Archetype
Martyr
Demanufacture
Zero Signal
Replica
Resurrection
In fact, our last review of the band, from when they played this very venue in fact, ended with me saying that it doesn’t need to take three years and a new album for them to swing by again.
Ironically, it took them a new album (sort of) and no less than 7½ years to get back to us. Even so, we weren’t going to miss it for the world!
Now, of course, part of the delay was due to some personnel changes, and likely something leading up to said changes. Without delving deeper into that, let’s just mention that the band had a new drummer in Pete Webber (Havoc) and more shockingly, a new vocalist in Milo Silvestro (Dead Channel). The drum stool has rotated a bit in the past, but we’ve never seen a Fear Factory without Burton C. Bell before! Well, not live anyway. Silvestro had been announced as the official new vocalist for the band earlier in the year, but not much had been seen, and more importantly heard of him. I’m not going to lie, having a Fear Factory without Bell felt weird to me, but honestly, I felt Silvestro matched the sound of the band really well, and now it was time to see how he did in a live setting with them.
After three support bands, we were ready for the real deal, and it was about to hit. It was surprising to see some kind of contraption on a stick instead of a mic stand, but when the band entered and kicked the show off with a true classic in Shock, it soon became apparent. Silvestro was not only singing, but was live manipulating his sound with, I’m not sure, but some kind of sampler I suppose. A neat and unexpected trick that I haven’t seen used before, and I like it. Necessary? No. But still something fun to add to the band’s bag of tricks.
Silvestro was also delivering with a youthful energy - well, youthful compared to the rest of the band, yeah? - and gave a very active performance, but so did the rest of the guys. Tony Campos was definitely a happy little camper, glad to interact with the audience and wander around the stage. As I was standing in the frontrow enjoying the show, he even came by at one point and asked for a sip of my beer, ha ha! Great fun and a lot of positive vibes throughout.
Dino Cazares also looked happy, and while he obviously wasn’t as agile as Silvestro and had his angry metal face on contrary to Campos, he was still obviously enjoying himself immensely. He wasn’t late in locking eyes with the crowd, singing along with them or simply sharing knuckles and at select moments his guitar picks.
The setlist continued to be on fire, with surprisingly only one song from the latest ‘real’ release, 2021’s Aggression Continuum, and pretty much filled with classics the rest of the way. If it was intentional or not, I can only speculate, but to my mind, this was a very smart decision in regards to announcing the new band members. It showed range in terms of old and new material, and it kept fans happy with a well-known and cleverly curated list of beloved songs. The most surprising inclusion was perhaps Resurrection as a finisher, but it was also a very welcome addition as I don’t recall ever hearing it done live before. It certainly hasn’t happened during the time I’ve reviewed the band, that’s for sure!
As you can imagine, the well-filled hall of Pumpehuset held a lot of happy fans, who were absolutely invested in getting the most out of the evening, meaning there was a whole lot of moshing going on, headbanging galore, and just in case the ‘new guy’ wasn’t up to the task, there was a lot of singing along. Silvestro was up to the task, as was Webber and all the rest of them, and I’m happy to announce that this was a killer show from start to finish.
I don’t want to jinx anything, but please, don’t be so long in coming back next time, alright?
Setlist:
Shock
Edgecrusher
Recharger
Dielectric
Disruptor
Powershifter
Freedom Or Fire
Descent
Linchpin
What Will Become?
Slave Labor
Archetype
Martyr
Demanufacture
Zero Signal
Replica
Resurrection
Fear Factory
