Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares recently let a few bands have it in Jamey Jasta's most recent podcast. Cazares talks about Fear Factory seemingly silent influence on a lot of band's different riffs and ideas, obviously without ever having been credited for them. So y'know, like they jacked Fear Factory's riffs.
Like we took that groove element and wrote a song [called] “Scapegoat“, if you go listen to “Scapegoat” today and you listen to Korn “Blind” it’s the same riff.
Let's see!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp-UW6VL1es
I can definitely see where Cazares is coming from on that main rhythm and riff of Korn's. It's the same half-step chugging with the same rhythm, though the songs do diverge into their own styles after that. So let's give the point to Cazares on that one.
If you go listen to a song called “Suffer Age” from our first record, and listen a song like Coal Chamber “Loco“, or you listen to a song from Meshuggah… “Koloss“, I can’t remember the song, something about ‘bones’ or whatever [“Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion“]—it’s the same riff. Like it went from back 1990 all the way to 2014 on the last fucking Meshuggah record, like oh my god that riff went that far. And dudes are still doing it.
Survey says…
The Coal Chamber one I'm not really picking up on so much. I sort of get where he's coming from in that they have the same feel and all that, but the Fear Factory song has a much slower build than the Coal Chamber one did. So maybe I need to speed them up or something?
I see exactly where he's coming from for the Meshuggah song and I wholeheartedly disagree. Cazares is referring to the droning note and then having rhythmic guitars under it, and I'm not sure you can really rip off two droning notes. The rhythms are a little similar, so I'd say Cazares gets half a point on that. It's not a direct rip off but without him sitting here explaining it to me, I get it.
Then he has fun with it and says that Fear Factory was also ripped off by none other than Fear Factory themselves! Oh the plagiarist humanity!
So who was the worst offender on this list?
On a slightly more positive note, Cazares seems to have a pretty good relationship with guys like Devin Townsend and Killswitch Engage.
“There has been people who have admitted it. Like Devin Townsend admits it, when he was doing Strapping Young Lad, he was influenced by Fear Factory. I know the Meshuggah guys have admitted it, like way back, they said they were influenced by us. That’s really about it… Oh, the Killswitch guys have mentioned it. People have borrowed it in many different genres. But one of the main things is the vocal style. Burt‘s vocal style, you know what I mean? In every different genre from screamo bands to metalcore bands, to melodic death metal bands…”
Realistically, metal has been around long enough now to the point where things are going to inherently sound the same sometimes. There are only so many riffs and melodies you can make up before something sounds vaguely like something else, you know?
In related news, Fear Factory's new album, Genexus, is out today and the band is streaming the entire album for your sampling:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/RgVT1MjnXOg[/youtube]
[via ThePRP]
