Fear Factory

Fear Factory were among the earliest disciples to preach industrial metal’s dystopian gospel to the headbanging masses.

Though the Los Angelenos began life as a death-metal act in 1989, they grew by leaps and bounds before churning out a trio of records—1992’s Soul of a New Machine, 1995’s Demanufacture, and 1998’s Obsolete—that fully integrated cyberpunk electronics and mechanized riffage into their bulldozing grooves.

Pushing them over the top was the singular Burton C.