Fear Factory & Sylosis Live at The Electric Ballroom, Camden Town, London
Fresh from having my ears destroyed the previous night at Brixton Academy courtesy of Machine Head's overloud sound setup, I really wasn't sure if I was going to make this show. After numerous attempts to ship the tickets, I was unsuccessful, and thus headed down to The Electric Ballroom in Camden with Matt in tow for an evening with Burton, Dino and friends. We arrived too late (6pm doors, finish work at 6pm) to catch much of opening band October File apart from the last couple of songs, which sounded ok but very repetitive. Matt summed it up well when he said "they sound like they need another guitarist, not really enough going on".
Not many people in the crowd tonight seemed that familar with Sylosis, aside from a few people such as myself and Matt in the first couple of rows, but it didn't take them long to make an impact with the rapidly growing crowd at the sold out Electric Ballroom. Usual opener After Lifeless Years got heads banging and fists pumping and Reflections Through Fire had more than a few people screaming "Forced Into Fire!" back at vocalist Jamie Graham. Guitarists Josh and Alex then shredded their way through Conclusion of an Age as the first hints of a circle pit were starting to creep in, before a full blown pit broke out for the thrashy Stained Humanity. In amongst the thrash Jamie Graham found time to conduct us all in a rendition of happy birthday directed at none other than Mr Burton C Bell, complete with very distorted wah wah'd solo from Josh.
Sylosis tearing it up
By this time the crowd were fully on-board and Oath Of Silence (which prompted the tent wide circle pit at Sonisphere) prompted a good sized pit as people started going flying. In particular one prick who was hardcore dancing got pulverised by absolutely everyone else for making a total ass of himself. This short but sweet set was finished off the by awesome Teras. As per usual, Sylosis were fantastic, my only complaint is that they could have been given longer than the half an hour they got. Nevetheless I think they acquired some new fans, and I thoroughly encourage anyone to go and check them out on their headline tour all over the country next month (March).
Sylosis Setlist:
- Desolate Seas (instrumental intro)
- After Lifeless Years
- Reflections Through Fire
- Conclusion Of An Age
- Stained Humanity
- Oath Of Silence
- Teras
My only previous live encounter with Fear Factory was in April 2006 on the Archetype tour at the Astoria (R.I.P) when Breed 77 opened for them. Needless to say, a lot has happened to the band in the 4 year gap between then and now, with arguments, disbanding, making up, legal issues, new lineups and a new album. It's got to be said though, I imagine an awful lot of people would have been excited by the prospect of Fear Factory being made up of the once again best buddies Burton and Dino and half of the immense Strapping Young Lad in Bryon Stroud (being no stranger to Fear Factory having played bass for them since Dino's departure) and the drumming monster that is Gene Hoglan. I hadn't had much of a chance to listen to new album "Mechanize" before the show, but what I had heard sounded like Fear Factory back to their best.
As the lights dimmed and the intro music hit, there was a huge surge forward as the Fear Factory members took the stage and launched into the title track from new album Mechanize. Burton's vocal delivery on this song is outstanding on record and just as good live. The surge broke into a full blown pit throughout 3/4 of the Ballroom as they visited the Obsolete album for "Shock" and then the crowd chaos rammed up even higher with the very popular Edgecrusher. Dino was alternating between shredding and pulling large grins as he looked very happy to be back onstage in Fear Factory, where many people would argue is where he belongs. The capacity crowd were also obviously pleased to see Dino back, and showered him with the affectionate chant of "you fat bastard" many times (which Dino aimed back at a couple of the larger members of the audience).
New material such as Fear Campaign and Industrial Discipline sat nicely alongside the old and even older material such as Acres of Skin and Martyr. A particular highlight was when Burton announced to the crowd "time to get your dancing shoes on" before the unmistakable intro to Linchpin kicked in and the whole of the Electric Ballroom was bouncing as one and screaming "Can't Take Me Apart!". Byron was thundering out the bassline and Gene Hoglan was a whirl of arms, hair and legs complete with an enormous pair of headphones and Fear Factory have never sounded heavier (sorry Raymond and Christian!).
Linchpin from The Ballroom, provided by D_Marz from Twiiter
The main portion of the evening was closed with the phenomenal Final Exit, my personal favourite track from Mechanize and arguably one of the greatest tracks they've ever created (an opinion shared by the great Dom Lawson, amongst his many pearls of wisdom). They were not long offstage and upon the return, Burton announced "from here on out, we're doing stuff from Demanufacture" before launching into the album's title track. At my last encounter with Fear Factory live they played Demanufacture, Self Bias Resistor and Zero Signal as a 1-2-3 punch in the middle of the set. Tonight this was repeated during the encore, though after going mental for Self Bias Resistor, I chose to go get my coat from the cloakroom during Zero Signal (yes I know how very un-metal of me). I missed the closing combination of H-K Hunter Killer and Replica, but I had had more than a good enough time during the proceeding 70 minutes to know that I am very much looking forward to seeing Fear Factory again at Sonisphere. A thoroughly awesome metal evening.
Fear Factory's setlist was:
- 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
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