---

Have you or someone you know been hurt by bands replacing members? If so, you may be entitled to absolutely nothing.

So, we’ve all heard about the hot-button topic of lineup changes—from Lynyrd Skynyrd touring with zero original members, to Slipknot replacing members semi-annually, Static-X continuing on with “robo Wayne Xero” out front, a non-original member of the Murderdolls owning the rights to the name, Pantera without the Abbott brothers, all the way to Rush announcing after 11 years they’re going to tour without Neil Peart. Unheard of! Inconceivable! Infuriating! Downright bullshit! Whatever word to describe anger that any person with a social media account can pound out on a keyboard or touchscreen, we’ve all read it. The countless YouTube videos of people outraged over this are everywhere… and I literally could NOT give the slightest shit. I was lucky enough to be treated to the current touring version of Pantera this past summer, and it was awesome. I saw Pantera in late ’00, early ’01-ish, and the Abbott brothers’ energy and passion are unmatched by any mortal man—but the amount of respect that Charlie, Zakk, Phil, and Rex have shown their since-passed-on brothers is also unmatched. Seeing those songs still living on while my friend and I (in our early 40s) screamed the lyrics to “Becoming” with the same energy as some high-school-aged kids standing in front of us that we didn’t even know—that’s what being a metalhead is all about. Those kids weren’t even hatched the last time I saw Pantera’s seminal lineup, and they weren’t even a thought when the Cowboys from Hell split up. Yet they still somehow discovered these songs and got that same feeling I did when I first heard them. But unlike me and my friend John, they would never get the chance to see these songs played live because of some of the worst circumstances in the universe. However, those circumstances changed when a couple of the brothers’ closest friends were asked to fill in. Not only did these kids get to experience what I did 25 years ago—they got to see a once-in-a-lifetime lineup! Who knows if that’ll ever happen again? What’s stopping Phil and Rex from getting Ola Englund or Chris Adler to hold it down on the next tour?

That brings me to what made me start this article: I saw Fear Factory on their latest tour celebrating 30 years of Demanufacture, and it was excellent.

I was a young lad when the winter of ’98 happened. Directionless, with a job pumping gas for minimum wage—but it afforded me rent in a two-room dump, a couple cans of Copenhagen, some beers, a PlayStation, and a copy of Test Drive 5. Let’s say you were getting ready to start your latest campaign for street racing dominance on TD5, and your roommate starts the argument that a Dodge Viper is cooler than the Shelby GT500. (We all know the Shelby is waaaay better—Team Eleanor all day.) Anyway, if you don’t start the game and it plays through the game demo, the music video for Fear Factory’s “Replica” plays. I could not tell you what his basis of argument was—I don’t think I could name three other PlayStation games that I owned—but I will never forget seeing that video. I don’t even know how I found out the name of the band or song, but I did. I made it a mission to know this band. That syncopation of snare and riff during the verse was unlike anything I’d ever heard, and I needed more.

Fast forward to last year—a friend of mine invites me to a Machine Head show at the Roxian Theater in Pittsburgh. Machine Head is a fantastic live band, so without another question, I agree. On the trip down, they inform me that Fear Factory and Orbit Culture were on this tour. I couldn’t have cared less, and while waiting in line for doors to open, the chatter starts: Fear Factory’s bus broke down and they probably weren’t going to make the show. Who cares—Dino is the only original member, they have some young dude from Italy fronting, and Tony Campos is on tour with wayne-less Static-X.

We roll in, and the opening bands’ names escape me, but Orbit Culture blew me away! Definitely had to eat shit for being very close-minded about a band that I didn’t know. As their set closed, I hustled downstairs to their merch table. Those in the know, know that the trip downstairs at the Roxian involves a stairwell whose top floor features an 8’x8’ window—and through said window, I see a U-Haul truck backing into the band area. I see Dino, the little Italian kid, and who I can only assume is their tour manager exit the cab of said U-Haul… interesting. I get my swag and go back up to meet my friends behind the front-of-house booth. In hustles this dude with a mixing board who just starts plugging things in, in a very quick and efficient manner. At that point, I noticed the crew on stage feverishly setting up drums and cabs. Cue the Terminator theme song, and out walks three strangers and Dino Cazares. They do every one of my favorite FF songs to album quality with an intensity and respect like each one of them had a hand in writing them. They truly, genuinely loved these songs and delivered a show that exceeded the value of my ticket—and the headliner hadn’t even hit yet.

Mr. Cazares explains to us, the audience, their tour bus broke down, so they rented a U-Haul and loaded the essentials. Machine Head kindly hooked them up with anything extra so they could play. Well, just book me a trip to the shit deli, because I need to be eating a U-Haul truck worth of shit sandwiches for my unfair judgments.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago—I find out Fear Factory is doing their own headlining tour, and one of their first stops is my favorite venue, Preserving Underground just outside of Pittsburgh. I’m in. Rally my friends—we must attend. The last show I got caught slipping, judging, and being the old man in the back with my arms crossed, staring at the stage as if these bands need to prove their value to me personally. Pshhhh!!! As if. It won’t happen this time—or ever again! Turns out a friend of mine’s band was tapped for local support. It’s their first outing in 10 years, so I immediately hit him up to snail-mail me some tickets, and I respond with the correct cash amount via PayPal. 30 years of Demanufacture, let’s go!

We arrive at the venue, and I always show up early. Preserving Underground is a no-railing, intimate AF venue with a record shop and hardcore museum attached to it. It’s a maze of awesome that I get lost in every time I go there. I always snag a couple CDs and buy a few beers because I want this place to stay FOREVER. They serve food, but the menu is all vegan. Now, as a carnivore, I’m here to tell you—the Deluxe burger is AMAZING. Don’t look down on it, and it pairs great with a PBR pounder.

Enough chit-chat—showtime. The first band’s name escapes me; they were a grindcore band, not really my cup of Pabst, but very good at what they do. Next up, my friend Mario’s band, Definitive Strike. If you like KMFDM, Psyclon 9, or any of the Fear Factory remixes, you’ll enjoy this band for sure. Lot of fun and fan-friendly.

Speaking of fan-friendly, Charleston, West Virginia’s Byzantine followed. Byzantine has been around forever, and I have seen their name on tons of flyers and all over social media groups—and not once had I jammed anything that they’ve done. Excitement and trepidation all at the same time—I’m guessing this is how Colonel Sanders felt when that first batch of finger-lickin’ chicken came out of the fryer. They were awesome—intense, crowd-responsive, groovy, and heavy. These dudes are the musical equivalent of a Shawn Michaels superkick in ’97. It’s like Prong and Pantera had a bastard child that they hid from the world for 25 years, then unleashed that monster on the world. SURPRISE!!!

Now it was time for the main course—cue that Terminator theme. FF came out with that same intensity as earlier in the year, but there was something different—a level of experience was being carried by Milo. (That’s right, little Italian kid has a name.) We all knew that he had the voice, but he now had more of a command of the stage. He has truly settled in as Fear Factory’s frontman, not just a fill-in guy. Dino will always be Dino—the strongest right hand in the business. Pete Webber is about as close to Raymond Herrera without being a clone. He puts his own nuances on these tunes while still showing the utmost respect to the architect of the drum archetype. (See what I did there?) I tried to find who was playing bass on this tour, but every search tells me it’s Tony Campos. I assure you it isn’t—but this mystery man was no slouch. He made the bassline break in “Edgecrusher” sound just as demonic and spooky as Campos or Mr. Olde Wolbers.

These guys played all my favorites—the aforementioned “Edgecrusher,” “Zero Signal,” “Body Hammer,” “Replica,” “New Breed,” “H-K,” “Pisschrist,” “Shock”—and as “Edgecrusher” finished, Dino announced that he had good news and bad news. The bad news: they had one song left. The good news: right after the show, they would be at the merch table signing everything and doing photos at no cost. They don’t do meet-and-greets; there’s no need to pay to meet other people. If fans supported the band by buying any merch or just the cost of tickets, they would sign or do photo ops. They closed with “Linchpin” (how ironic) and absolutely blew the lid off my favorite venue.

We strolled downstairs to get one last Blue Ribbon beer before we started the long trek home, and the line for the meet-and-greet wrapped completely around the entire downstairs—twice over. The boys from FF set up a table beside their merch table and were all smiles. In the span it took us to finish our 16-ounce adult beverage, my friends and I observed a very gracious, very humble group who took time with each individual—signing their wares and posing for photos. No attitude, no hustling people through—just genuine respect for each individual who supports them.

Now, before everyone jumps on my shit and thrashes me in the comments, hear me out: I would love nothing more than to see Fear Factory be Burton C. Bell, Dino Cazares, Raymond Herrera, and Christian Olde Wolbers. That’s the FF that I fell in love with—those are the guys who constructed these songs that I cherish. The architects of archetype! (I did it again!) That’s just not the way it is. Through lawsuits and whatever else happened behind the scenes, those bridges are torched, and I don’t see them being repaired anytime in the near future. However, Dino owns the FF name now, and he had just as much of a hand in the creation of these classic songs as the other three OG members—with some exceptions, of course—but that’s a whole other article.

Dino wants these songs to live on, and his motivation could be as simple as making money—but the two times I’ve seen this rendition, that’s not what I observed. I saw a man who understood how fortunate he is to be able to have an audience hungry for the art he helped create, and a man who’s grateful to be able to pay his bills doing the best job in the world. A human being who sought out Pete, Milo, and the mystery bass man to deliver a high-level experience to a fan base who just discovered or still loves these songs.

You absolutely do not have to like these legacy acts continuing on without seminal members. You don’t have to support them in any way, and you can burn all your records, CDs, tees, and posters. You’re still not going to stop others from enjoying or discovering these bands, and you’re not going to stop the copyright holders from touring under these banners. You’d have a better chance convincing someone whose political beliefs oppose yours to see your side of the aisle in an online argument than you would stopping someone from seeing their favorite guitar player carry on under the banner of a band that he helped build.

So please, save the online negativity and let some kid go see someone not named Chester sing “One Step Closer.” Let a robo-Wayne entertain an audience with “Push It.” Let Zakk solo “Floods.” And for fuck’s sake, let Milo “Linchpin!” I assure you we all want our favorite bands to remain intact forever—but the world can be a pretty horrible, damaging place, so let’s enjoy what we have and what we have left. Let’s stop posting the hate online and start posting the things we enjoy.

---