DINO CAZARES Says FEAR FACTORY's Upcoming Album Is 'Diverse': 'It Goes Into Different Elements'

In a new interview with GRIMM Gent, FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares spoke about the band's latest single, "Roboticist", which came out in late August via Nuclear Blast. The track marks the band's first release with FEAR FACTORY's latest additions, singer Milo Silvestro and drummer Pete Webber, who have been part of FEAR FACTORY's touring lineup for more than three and a half years. Dino said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we had the 'Roboticist', the instrumental [version] I did three years ago, for a plugin that I was promoting that was a part of my plugin called the [Toneforge] Disruptor, and I wrote that song to show the different elements of what the plugin could do. So it was, like, clean tones, lo-fi tones, all my different types of distorted tones. And I also went into lower tuning as well with the low E. So the song kind of had all those different elements, and so, yeah, it was kicking around. I still think it's a great track instrumentally, but then when Milo came in and sang on top of it, and when he sang the hook, I was, like, 'That's it. That's it.' It needed to be released. We also slightly rearranged it. The midsection used to be the end section of the [song], and now on the video, original video that I did three years ago for the instrumental, I was playing two different guitars — I played a seven[-string guitar] and I played an eight[-string guitar] — but now I just play an eight[-string guitar] for the song. It's a signature guitar from Kiesel, seven- and eight-string. But, yeah, I thought it was really cool. We just did some rearranging for the vocals, and it came out great."

After the interviewer noted that some people have commented that they were surprised how much "Roboticist" sounds like classic FEAR FACTORY, despite the fact that the band has a new singer, Dino said: "Well, I don't understand why they would need to say that because FEAR FACTORY is my style, pretty much. I've read so many comments where some people are, like, 'It's too much like FEAR FACTORY.' 'It's not enough like FEAR FACTORY.' 'He's [Milo] too much like [original FEAR FACTORY singer] Burt [Burton C. Bell].' 'He's not enough like Burt.' And it's, like, you can't win, so you put it out and hope for the best.

"For me personally, I love the new song," he continued. "I love the [upcoming FEAR FACTORY full-length] record, and I can't wait for people to hear the rest of it. It is diverse. It does have a lot of FEAR FACTORY elements that people know, but it also goes into different elements as well. And, of course, Milo does introduce different styles of vocals. We wanted to put out just a quick banger — just a really quick banger just to get it out there. And I think the new song that we've got coming out after this is gonna be a little different too. But you're still gonna say, 'Okay, that's still FEAR FACTORY.' And you're still gonna notice that it still has our formula, yes, but there's just new, different elements that add to it."

Dino also talked about the lyrical themes covered on the upcoming FEAR FACTORY album and how much of continuation they are on the sci-fi and "man-versus-machine" topics covered on the band's previous LPs. He said: "Well, we've always sang about it. That's been our concept since day one. If you go back to the first record, 'Soul Of A New Machine', that was basically the birth of this concept, what makes FEAR FACTORY, FEAR FACTORY. But it's really the relationship between man and technology. Some people say organic versus digital, man versus machine. But it's really the relationship between both."

Regarding what the lyrics are about on the new FEAR FACTORY album, Dino said: "Well, I don't necessarily wanna give you the full concept of the record, but, yeah, these are elements that we've talked about in the past that are now here. And there's gonna be even more stuff beyond, because as A.I. grows and grows and grows, it's going to be able to create a lot more things than what it's doing now. But, with that being said, everything we use right now is either created by A.I. or being used by A.I. We let A.I. into our lives. All our phones, all the different apps are ran by A.I. All the algorithms are A.I. All the codes that people write are written through A.I. So it's here. A lot of people can talk good about it. There's pros and cons. And a lot of people talk about the cons. A lot of people talk about, 'Oh, you're taking art away from other artists.' Like, for instance, let's say you created some art with A.I., but some of the artists that we've hired and artists that I've seen other people hire use A.I. So you're not really taking away from the artist, you're actually... He's using it to help himself and get paid from it, which is fine — which is totally fine. But the thing is that we let it in. Every comment, every photo we put of food, hanging out, live concerts, you name it, it uses that, it learns from that. So every term and agreement that we accept every time we jump on a new app, you're giving it access to your photos, to your voice, to everything. So it's all there. The only way that you're gonna get rid of it is to not use it, but you'd have to really get rid of all electronic devices. To not use it or used by you or use stuff that was used to create it. So it's there. There's not really much you could do. We don't make those decisions. Somebody higher up makes those decisions. And it's all about money, and it's about data centers and all that stuff, and it's about using massive amounts of natural resources, which is water and land to create these massive data centers that our people are against. But the problem is they wouldn't have to make 'em if A.I. wasn't in demand, because A.I. is in major demand. And again, all those people on the Internet that are crying about it, if you really wanna do something about it… But they have to use the Internet to cry on about A.I. They're using A.I. to cry about A.I., which I think is hypocritical. But whatever. We've been singing about this concept for a long time — the pros and cons, the relationship between where technology is at that time. So for us, when we were making [the] 'Obsolete' [album], we were talking about how certain things were becoming obsolete. And they did — they eventually did. Like print magazines. A lot of kids know what I mean? Yeah. We used to go and buy magazines, and go to the magazine store, and buy Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, and all that stuff, and a lot of that stuff has become obsolete nowadays. And AM/FM radio — we used to listen to FM radio to see if they played your song or something like that, and had DJs and blah, blah, blah. Now it's all digitally programmed. Just a lot of things changed so much that we were talking about, kind of talking about that era."

"Roboticist" was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Damien Rainaud. The track arrived alongside a cinematic music video directed by Vincente Cordero and produced by Arion Csihar.

The "Roboticist" release coincided with the launch of FEAR FACTORY's "Cybernetic Domination" European tour with CRYSTAL LAKE, HATE and THE NOCTURNAL AFFAIR, which kicked off on August 29 in Poznan, Poland and concluded on October 10 in London, United Kingdom.

FEAR FACTORY recently announced a November 2026 U.S. tour with support from DARKEST HOUR and BROTALITY. The U.S. leg of the "Cybernetic Domination" trek will kick off immediately after FEAR FACTORY's upcoming co-headlining tour with Cleveland, Ohio-based masked metal masters MUSHROOMHEAD.

Silvestro's addition to FEAR FACTORY was officially announced in February 2023.

FEAR FACTORY played its first headlining concert with Silvestro and Webber on May 5, 2023 at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California.