DINO CAZARES Recalls 'Spinal Tap Moment' From FEAR FACTORY's Tour With IRON MAIDEN

In a new interview with Bandbond, FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares recalled a particularly funny incident from a major tour the band played in the mid-1990s. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "There was one time when we were touring with MEGADETH, and we did about five weeks with MEGADETH in the U.S. And right after the tour, we went on tour with IRON MAIDEN. And so every night, we always say on the microphone, 'Hey, thank you for having us tonight. Are you guys ready for so-and-so?' which is the headlining act. So we had just got off the MEGADETH tour. We went on to the IRON MAIDEN tour. And our singer [Burton C. Bell] says, 'Hey, thank you for having us tonight. If you wanna go to the merch table, buy some merch… Blah blah blah… Are you guys ready for MEGADETH?' And we were on tour with IRON MAIDEN. And it was really funny, because Steve Harris [IRON MAIDEN bassist] was standing on the side of the stage and I wanna say Janick Gers [IRON MAIDEN guitarist]. And they were just laughing at us, they were making fun of us, because [Burton] had one of those 'Spinal Tap' moments."

Dino also talked about the lessons he and his bandmates learned while spending time on the road with some of the biggest names in heavy metal.

"In some ways, a lot of the bands that we toured with taught us how to tour," he said. "Because some of these bands that we toured with was in the beginning of our career, or early on in our career. And just seeing how they do it and how the professionals do it, it was eye-opening. Just the knowledge of how they know how to go and direct the crowd, how the singer talks to the crowd, how the guitar player moves, the bass player, the drummer… All those things really inspired us. How they set up their stage, how they set up their gear. All that stuff really was very fun for us, because we were still learning. We were like a sponge; our mind was like a sponge. It was, like, 'Oh, wow. They did that.' 'Oh, wow. They did this.' 'Oh, okay, that's how you do that.' So all of them inspired us and all of them showed us an interesting way of how they do things and how you can learn from those things. And so they were all fun to us — all of 'em."

FEAR FACTORY's latest album, "Aggression Continuum", came out on June 18 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP features Cazares; drummer Mike Heller; and former vocalist, lyricist, and co-founder Burton C. Bell. It was produced and engineered by Damien Rainaud (DRAGONFORCE, ONCE HUMAN),with keyboards by Igor Khoroshev (ex-YES),and programming on two songs from longtime collaborator Rhys Fulber (FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY). "Aggression Continuum" was mixed by Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, TRIVIUM),who also mixed FEAR FACTORY's previous album, 2015's "Genexus".

Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral