While this is all relatively old news by now (in Internet time, anyway), since we’ve covered these stories before, we’re going to weigh in on a few band announcements and lineup changes:
FEAR FACTORY
Fear Factory has finally made it official and announced a release date and label for Mechanize. Well, 3/5ths of them, anyway. Their rhythm section of drummer Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde Wolbers are sitting out the reunion, instead continuing on with Arkaea. The album will be released on Candelight Records on February 9.
Normally, we wouldn’t count this as a full-on reunion, since Raymond Herrera’s machine-like drumming was such a big part of the band. However, they’ve lined up Gene Hoglan (Strapping Young Lad, Dethklok) as their drummer, who actually might be a machine. He’s joined by Byron Stroud, who’s played with Hoglan in SYL, and has been in Fear Factory since 2004. And the band’s seventh album is the first since 2001’s Digimortal to include both singer Burton C. Bell and guitarist Dino Cazares. Keyboardist/producer Rhys Fulbers should bring it back to enough of an old school sound to satisfy fans, and even the artwork looks a hell of a lot like the artwork for their best album, 1998’s Obsolete. We’re actually pretty psyched to hear this record,
The only question is how long this incarnation of the band will last. Hoglan is a drum mercenary, doing tons of studio work, as well as touring with bands like Dethklok. While he’s amazing, it doesn’t seem like his nature to join a band and stay in it, since he’s so in demand. And Dino might miss calling all the shots, like he does in Divine Heresy.
AEROSMITH
Aerosmith are about as metal as Lady Gaga right now. However, their early ’70s work was amazing – dirty, raw rock and roll that was closer in spirit to metal than the pop band they’ve been for the last two decades. And when they came back in the late ’80s, they were lumped in with the MTV hair-metal movement, which made sense. What’s this have to do with in 2009? Well, Stephen Tyler is leaving the band! According to an interview guitarist Joe Perry gave in the Las Vegas Sun, Tyler has quit the band. His Twitter account suggests that they’re looking for a new singer.
That’s all good and nice, except for one thing: Stephen Tyler is 61. What kind of solo career can he have? I mean, we’d call this a mid-life crisis, but that suggests that he’ll live to be 122. The guy broke his shoulder falling off stage in August. He might have a solo career ahead of him, but I can’t imagine it will be a long and industrious one.
And Aerosmith with a new singer after 40 years? Sure, some die-hards would go see them, but Tyler is synonymous with Aerosmith. It’s not like Journey, where someone that sounds like him can walk in and no one will really notice. Getting someone famous to fill in would do the trick for maybe one tour, but you can ask Queen how that worked out with Paul Rodgers (one album), or Van Halen how that worked with Gary Cherone (one album).
