If The Terminator was a band, it would be Fear Factory – a gleaming mecha-human powerhouse who, with classic early albums Soul Of A New Machine, Demanufacture and Obsolete, harnessed technology to open up a door to a bold and terrifying new future.
The band’s new single Roboticist makes the link with the iconic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie series explicit. Their first new song in five years has just dropped on August 29 – the day the movies’ malevolent AI system Skynet became sentient.
“In Terminator 2, August 29 is the exact date Skynet becomes self-aware and launches the apocalypse,” FF guitarist Dino Cazares tells Metal Hammer. “Roboticist deals heavily with the rise of AI. The ‘roboticist’ is the architect who creates the artificial intelligence, like a human Skynet who doesn’t realize what he’s unleashed until it goes haywire.”
While Roboticist, which is the first single from Fear Factory’s upcoming 11th album, doesn’t directly reference the Terminator movies, it does share many of the same themes – something Fear Factory have tackled from the beginning of the band.
“If you go back to Demanufacture and Obsolete, we’ve always explored man becoming obsolete and machines taking over,” says Dino. “We’ve always sung about the relationship between man and machine, and now it’s caught up to reality. People complain about AI, but they’re using it every day, they just don’t realise it. We all have to embrace it in some way because it’s already integrated into everything we use, from cell phones to cars. Unless you live off the grid in the mountains, you can’t avoid it.”
Roboticist marks the recording debut of the very definitely flesh-and-blood Milo Silvestro, who replaced original Fear Factory singer Burton C Bell in 2023 following the latter’s acrimonious departure. Cazares discovered the Italian singer during Covid via the FF Facebook page, where he had been posting cover versions.
“As soon as airlines opened up, I flew him out, auditioned him, and was blown away,” says Dino. “We had a tour booked with Static-X in 2023, so I brought him into the band a month before we left, and we didn’t stop touring for three years straight. Milo’s voice brings a new energy, but it feels familiar because Burton was one of his favourite singers growing up.”
The guitarist is keeping details about the upcoming album close to his chest, though he does reveal that it will feature 10 songs, including Roboticist and the band’s next single, Detonizer. “He’s a character who is fighting back against the AI, who wants to detonize the system,” says Dino of the latter song.
The album, which will be released in 2027, comes on the heels of a turbulent decade-and-half in the band’s career. Cazares and Bell spent much of the 2010s embroiled in lawsuits with former FF drummer Raymond Herrera and bassist Christian Olde Wolbers, which eventually led to the guitarist filing for bankruptcy in order to retain the rights to the Fear Factory name. Bell himself officially departed in 2020, citing a breakdown of his working relationship with Cazares. If the new single is anything to go by, the 2026 model of Fear Factory have a massive point to prove.
“For me, every record is made out of desperation,” says Dino. “I always feel like I have to prove something. With this, it took a while to get back on our feet after all the lawsuits we went through and Burton quitting. But we’ve come out of it stronger than ever.”
Pix by Sarah Gilpin Photography JOHN BUTLER