Fear Factory live at Groove, Buenos Aires, celebrating 30 years of “Demanufacture”
If we talk about Fear Factory, we’re talking about a band that helped keep Metal alive throughout the 90’s, when radio stations filled their programs with Grunge music or Alternative Rock.
Alongside these massive music movements, some new Metal genres were born: Industrial Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Nu Metal, etc.
One of the bigger names among them was Fear Factory, led by guitar player Dino Cazares, bringing an exotic mix between Extreme Metal and robotic sounds and vocals. Their album “Demanufacture”, released in 1995, is a perfect example of Metal evolving to new frontiers. That record was a true highlight in their career, and now in 2026 they are touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary.
As they are playing the album in its entirety, this could be a once-in-a-million opportunity to watch the band perform some hidden treasures. A total wet dream for a true fan.
The band is formed by its leader Dino, alongside Milo on vocals, Tony on bass (known from his career with Static-X), and Pete on drums (drummer for Havok as well), and after rescheduling the South American leg of the tour, due to a Dino’s unfortunate health issue, they’re returning on july, programming a gig in Buenos Aires on the 16th day.
Groove was the place selected for this show, and the local supporting acts were Fuerza Activa, Epitaphios and Head. Three different bands that brought the first metalheads to the theater, making everyone headbang and enjoy nasty riffs from early hours, as more fans approached minute by minute.
But even after bringing lots of energy, the crowd was ready for a second heat.
HEAD
At 21.30, stage screens showed images from the “Demanufacture” cover, as lights went off and the band slowly walked onto the stage with the Terminator theme sounding in the background.
A full room of metalheads raised their horns as a salute to the musicians, and they started their killer set with “Demanufacture”, like a clash to the wall and without anesthesia, followed by “Self Bias Resistor” and “Zero Signal” (track used on the Mortal Kombat film; it even had a “Fatality” sample in the middle). They weren’t joking and started playing the full album without asking for any permission, as the crowd went crazy and ran violently into the mosh pit.
Milo caught an Argentine football shirt thrown from the crowd and, of course, wished us luck for the final game against Spain. Dino joined with his good vibes and the crowd started chanting “Argentina, Argentina” with fists in the air.
Next song was the classic “Replica” where the floor actually trembled due to the massive jump of the people, then “New Breed” and “Dog Day Sunrise” appeared on the setlist to keep on “demanufacturing” the night (haha).
“Body Hammer”, “Flashpoint” and “H-K (Hunter-Killer)” were the following songs. The powerful wall of sound brought by Dino and Tony was sick, and Pete, in my opinion, is one of the best drummers of the last 20 years; he goes from Thrash to Industrial with both bands and makes it all seem so easy, like he would fit in any kind of Metal subgenre. And of course the young Milo, who has this killer vocal tone (and yes, everyone said it at the time he joined the band, but his voice is pretty similar to Burton Bell’s vocals, like he was born to sing those tunes), and that manual pad under the microphone to make distorted vocals such as in the original record.
With “Pisschrist” and “A Therapy for Pain” they finished the classic album set, the album that put them on the map. And after a short pause, when the band left the stage, they came back after hearing the crowd chanting.
The encore started with “Shock” and “Edgecrusher” from the album “Obsolete”, followed by “Powershifter” and their massive hit “Linchpin”, where every single fan in the crowd jumped at the tempo of the song.
“Martyr” was the next track, and then “Resurrection” dedicated to the deceased Soil and Broken Hope member Shaun Glass, who recently passed away. And it all ended with “Cars”, the Gary Numan cover.
Last thing we got to see onstage was Milo raising the Argentine shirt and putting it on, as Dino and left the stage saying “win the fourth cup this Sunday”.
Photos by Eliana Fernandez
Review by Agustín Lopez
Produced by FH Entertainment Argentina