Divine Heresy - Fortifying the Machine
By:
Classic Fear Factory
Blistering.com: Obviously, working with a guy like Tim, there’s no limit to what he can do. Can you compare and contrast his style to say, Raymond’s?
Cazares: [laughs] There’s no comparison at all, whatsoever. It’s like night and day. Tim is like King Kong – you release those fucking chains and he kills it! He’s all over the place, but everything is tight. He puts everything in a strategic place and does it intelligently. When I was with Raymond, I definitely felt I was limited as to where we can go. If you heard a lot of Raymond’s stuff that he’s doing now, it’s the same. Whereas, I feel that jamming with not just Tim Yeung, but jamming with Gene Hoglan, Joey Jordison [Slipknot], Roy Mayorga [Soulfly, Stone Sour], with different drummers that have different styles has definitely helped me as a guitar player. I was able to see there was other killer elements of music I could learn.
When I was jamming with Raymond, I felt very limited and I think a lot of people could see that. Raymond is very good with his snare and his feet, but when it comes to rolls…Kerry King said it best: the guy is not good with his hands. With Tim Yeung, it’s limitless. There’s no comparison and now jamming with the living legend Gene Hoglan, a guy who has inspired every drummer, it’s like, “oh my God! Where else can I go?” My mind is about to explode. These guys are like “try this” [makes machine-gun blasting noise]…I’ve been lucky I’ve been able to jam with some of the best drummers in the business. For me, I’ve always had the connection with drummers. That’s the most important thing for me. Tim and I could probably just go on tour – him and me and I know people would be happy [laughs]. The vocals on top are just icing on the cake. Jamming with guys like Gene…the ideas are limitless; they don’t have one particular style because they’re every style.
Blistering.com: How much record company influence was there on the Digimortal album?
Cazares: There was a lot of discrepancy that split that record out. The first was the label wanted us to go more commercial. The second was that it was the first time we let Christian write songs with us. Prior, as I was saying before, I always had a connection with drummers and me and the drummer are so locked, so sometimes when other people came into it, it’s too many cooks in the kitchen. Back in the day, Raymond and I were locked for the three albums before that and then Christian came into the picture and Raymond was like, “Dino, we should let somebody else write. Why don’t you give him a chance?” And I was like, “if it’s not broken, why fix it?”
Maybe I was being selfish. Raymond was like “c’mon, let him write, let him write.” Christian’s influence at the time was on hip-hop guys and a lot of the stuff came out hip-hoppy-ish. We had a lot more…for a lack of a better word “nu metal riffs.” I was definitely biting my tongue and Raymond was looking at me going, “dude, don’t be a dick, let him fucking write.” That was probably my mistake in letting that other person into the kitchen and that’s where that record went and I had no control after that. And then, after that record you know what happened: I was weeded out.
Our record label was pushing us for more commercial producers and they were bringing producers into the studio and you know…the whole record lost focus at that point. There are some great moments on that record, don’t get me wrong. The record still did quite well. The record label expected it to sell a million and it only sold half of that and it was still considered a failure even though it sold a lot of records. I was definitely disappointed with that record. A lot of the heavier elements got cut out and that’s pretty much the issue with Digimortal [laughs].
Blisteirng.com: How much did you follow the band after you were ousted in 2002? Were the Archetype and Transgression albums given to you?
Cazares: They were definitely given to me, both albums.
Blistering.com: So what was your take on the riffs on both albums? A couple sort of sound like what you did before…
Cazares: [laughs] Let me ask you this question: how many similarities do you hear?
Blistering.com: More than a few.
Cazares: There were quite a few and I wouldn’t say similarities, I would say straight rip-offs and that’s ok. That’s what the kids wanted to hear, they made the right move. They took some old stuff and re-wrote it, gave it a different production and they satisfied the fans. That’s what they were trying to do. They had the Digimortal record and didn’t want to put any hip-hop elements into it. They made the smart move and came out with the heavier record. Then the next record, Transgression…I don’t know what happened there. I don’t think it was a fan favorite. I’m not speaking for the fans and judging from record sales, it was the worst selling Fear Factory in history.
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