The number of bands failing to make it over to the UK this winter has read like a Who's Who of American rock: Pantera, Slipknot, System Of A Down, Weezer, Guns N' Roses. So Fear Factory's decision to honour their commitments was well rewarded, with two sold-out shows in the capital.
FF's cyber metal juggernaut may have been overtaken on the chart highways by sleeker, newer models like Papa Roach and the aforementioned SOAD but, four albums down the line, they have a rabidly devoted following and can lay claim to being one of the progenitors of techno-metal fusion.
Tonight, though, their sound is more heavy artillery than brave new hybrid. With Dino Cavares' guitar and Christian Olde Wolbers' bass cranked up to 11, vocalist Burton C. Bell, resplendent in a baseball cap, is more often than not drowned out by his bandmates, his voice lying beneath the mix and discernible in patches, usually when things go quiet.
Which is a pity, as Bell is possessed of one of the most singular voices in rock, blessed with the ability to go from grunting, barked chorus lines to hypnotic, powerful singing. His only equal is the maverick Mike Patton.
Still, the audience don't seem to mind the lack of clarity in the mix, being quite happy to leap and slam to the riffs of the likes of 'What Will Become', 'Self Bias', 'Linchpin' and, well, pretty much the whole set. Fear Factory don't do ballads.
The set veers between current album 'Digimortal' and a choice sprinkling of back catalogue material, including old favourite 'Martyr'. On stage, Cavares and Wolbers do synchronised headbanging and the old metal concert trick of swapping sides of the stage in turn, while Bell skulks around in the centre and leans on the monitors to deliver his warnings of machine taking over man.
The lousy sound aside, it's a well-drilled, tightly-delivered set of precision metal. While the neutral wouldn't have been converted, Fear Factory are long past the need to innovate. As Cavares scampers gleefully off the stage at the end, having thrown his T-shirt into the crowd, it's not hard to see why they've kept the loyalty of their audience. Fear Factory do what they do, take it or leave it.
