Before tearing up the stage at Hellsinki Metal Festival, we sat down with none other than Dino Cazares, the legendary guitarist and founding member of Fear Factory. With more than three decades of trailblazing influence behind him, Dino opened up about the band’s legacy, their pioneering use of technology in metal, and what success truly means after 33 years of redefining heavy music.
-Thirty years is a milestone most bands only dream of. When you step onstage now and play songs like “Replica” or “Demanufacture,” what hits harder: the nostalgia, the muscle memory, or the fact that these songs are still relevant?
-The fact that these songs are still relevant and that people still appreciate them today, both young and old — that’s probably the main thing that really excites me. Seeing the new generation getting into these songs, into the music. Not only my stuff, but other bands as well.
And seeing all these young people, you know, anywhere between 5 to 15, and even from 15 up to 50, really liking it, still appreciating it, and listening to it today — it’s very exciting. I don’t even know how to explain how I feel, because I never thought I’d still be here after 30 years.
-Looking back at the early days, was there a specific moment where you felt, “Yeah, we’ve become something bigger than we imagined”?
-The second record, well, obviously “Demanufacture”. Because “Soul of a New Machine” was kind of like our introduction. We were a small band coming up, and some people saw potential in us, but it wasn’t until “Demanufacture” that we really got noticed. Not just by fans or new listeners, but also within the music industry.
For instance, Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne, and Gloria Butler recognized our band and said, “We’ve got a great record, Demanufacture. Let’s take them on tour.” So they took us on tour, and we toured with Ozzy in 1995. Then we toured with Iron Maiden in 1996. We toured with Megadeth, and a lot of other big bands during that period. So it really opened the doors for us.
-In what ways has your definition of ‘success’ evolved over the decades?
-For me, success is having fans who really appreciate music — whether it’s one person or a million. When they truly connect with your music, that’s how I define success.
Success is also longevity. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and we’re still here. Our music is still relevant, thank God.
That’s how I measure success. It doesn’t necessarily have to be financial.
I’m able to make a living from this — this is my career, and it’s what I chose. So for me, being here and still doing it 33 years later, that’s success.
-You’ve influenced generations of industrial metal acts. What does it mean to you, personally, to be that band?
-Wow, that’s a heavy question. I feel that Fear Factory has definitely influenced a genre — not just a genre, but the genre as a whole.
Whether it’s deathcore, metalcore, or anyone who incorporates melodic elements like we did back in 1990 — with syncopated guitars, kick drums, heavy vocals, melodic choruses — that’s part of our influence.
That’s also a measure of success: being able to inspire others to expand on what we did and create something new. It’s very humbling and really cool.
But I don’t focus on that too much. I just try to keep writing, keep moving forward, and progress the band — musically, ideologically, career-wise, business-wise, and in terms of our shows.
We’ve never been a headlining band at a festival. To me, that’s the next level.
-You’re about to hit the road with the Cavalera brothers. What does this pairing mean to you, on a musical and personal level?
-Well, I love them. Back in 1994, when Max and Igor were in Sepultura, Max — being a big fan of Fear Factory — took us on one of our first early tours.
And that was an amazing tour. Now, 30 years later, we’re going back on tour with them, and it’s going to be great.
So now we’re going to be doing the songs we played back in 1994 when we were opening for Sepultura. We’ll play those songs at this concert, so it’s going to be cool.
Back then, there was no social media like there is now, so record labels encouraged you to play new songs even if they weren’t released yet.
We were playing songs from “Demanufacture” in 1994, before the album came out in 1995. Now, we’re going to be playing “Demanufacture” songs and so many tracks from Machine as well.
-How do you approach a co-headlining tour with such a powerful act? Are you feeding off each other’s energy or trying to push each other to the limit, night after night?
-Well, for me, we just go up there and do our own thing. I don’t worry about what the other bands are doing because everybody has their own schtick.
Everyone has something they like to do. I’m not going to be on tour co-headlining with Slipknot and put on masks — that’s their thing.
Sure, there’s some level of competitiveness with certain bands, but I don’t really go there.
I just try to go out and do the best I can. If anything, I’m actually more encouraging to everyone on the tour, saying things like, “Your show kicked ass.”
-Fear Factory came up in an era of cassette demos and flyer culture. How do you reflect on the massive shift to digital and has it changed the way you create, not just release, music?
Well, we’ve been exploring technology since day one. I remember Burton and I in our apartment, writing songs on a drum machine — this was actually before Fear Factory.
We had another band, and we were experimenting with drum machines and songwriting even back then. That was because we were influenced by bands like Godflesh, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails. We’ve been experimenting with technology from the start, and we’ve never stopped.
We’ve explored both the benefits and the pitfalls of technological use. With AI coming out and affecting so many things, we even addressed it on our record “Obsolete”, talking about how jobs and careers could become, well, obsolete. The message was clear: adapt. We’re going to have to adapt with these changes.
Now it’s all starting to come to fruition. Of course, there are people who are against AI, but if you’re against it, you’d have to get rid of all your devices — everything you’re recording on or listening right now. Everything we put online — comments, photos, videos — AI is learning from it. It’s learning how to be smarter, faster, better than us.
At some point, it could surpass us — smarter, quicker. Look at ChatGPT; everybody uses that every day. Robots taking over? It’s possible, 100%. Futurists have warned us, and we’ve been preaching that warning too.
But at the same time, I’m curious. I want to see where it all goes.
Interview: Pekka, Ditty
Photos: Pekka
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