Fear Factory have officially unleashed ‘Roboticist’, giving fans their first recorded taste of the industrial metal veterans’ current line-up and completing the Skynet-inspired tease the band dropped earlier this month.
Released on August 29th, ‘Roboticist’ marks the recording debut of vocalist Milo Silvestro, drummer Pete Webber and bassist Tony Campos alongside founding guitarist Dino Cazares.
For a band whose entire existence has been wired into the collision between humanity and machinery, introducing a rebuilt Fear Factory through a track called ‘Roboticist’ feels almost suspiciously appropriate.
The single was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Damien Rainaud, while its accompanying video was directed by Vincente Cordero and produced by Arion Csihar.
Fear Factory ‘Roboticist’ video
Fulling commited
The band deliberately scheduled ‘Roboticist’ to arrive at 2:14am on August 29th, referencing the moment Skynet becomes self-aware in the Terminator universe.
It is the sort of nerdy detail that could feel painfully forced coming from almost anybody else. With Fear Factory, a band that has spent more than three decades exploring technology, automation and humanity being slowly crushed beneath its own creations, it practically qualifies as brand maintenance.
More importantly, ‘Roboticist’ finally puts the Silvestro-era Fear Factory onto record.
Silvestro officially joined the band in 2023 following the departure of longtime vocalist Burton C. Bell, while Webber subsequently took over behind the kit. Campos, already known for his work with Static-X and Ministry, joined Fear Factory on bass in 2024.
Now that configuration has finally moved beyond the live stage.
There will not be much time to sit around admiring the machinery, either. Fear Factory kick off their European Cybernetic Domination Tour today, August 30th, in Krakow alongside Hate, Crystal Lake and The Nocturnal Affair.
A lengthy US co-headlining run with Mushroomhead follows in October under the Soul Of A New War Machine Tour banner, before Fear Factory return to their Cybernetic Domination campaign in November with Darkest Hour and Brotality.
After years of rebuilding, ‘Roboticist’ feels like the point where this version of Fear Factory properly begins.
MORE IN News
