FAUX FACTORY

I was never a big Fear Factory person so someone please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but did anyone ever really care about any of the members of that band who weren’t Burton C. Bell or Dino Cazares?

I ask because after about a year of speculation that the original Factory would be reuniting, it’s been announced that, yes, Bell and Cazares will now be working together again – but as a new band with a different, still to be determined name.

The dumbest part of not calling it Fear Factory, which everyone will probably call it anyway: while drummer Raymond Herrera is somehow not involved in the project, Byron Stroud, who has played bass with the group since 2003 (but, interestingly enough, never played with the band while Cazares was still a member), will also be in The Bell-Cazares Experience.

I don’t know why Herrera isn’t involved. I’ve always heard that there was a lot of bad blood between Dino and the rest of the band; maybe Herrera just couldn’t move past that for the sake of a paycheck. Or maybe he wasn’t even invited.

In any case, it looks like the legendary Gene Hoglan will be taking Herrera’s place in Fear Factory Mach 2, and it’s hard to get too upset about that.

Now, Dino’s other band, Divine Heresy, have a new album coming out on July 28, Bringer of Plagues. Allegedly Divine Heresy is “unaffected” by this non-reunion, but if I were Tim Yeung or Joe Payne, I’d start looking for a new job right about now.

Anyway, more news about Not Fear Factory’s debut album, Souless Old Machine, as soon as we get it.

-AR