MACHINE HEAD, FEAR FACTORY and ORBIT CULTURE Slaughter The Lyric

CONCERT REVIEW: MACHINE HEAD, FEAR FACTORY, ORBIT CULTURE
The Lyric at Skyway Theater
Minneapolis, MN
Jan 30, 2024
Photos by Brett Zisler
Review by Nick

MACHINE HEAD brought their SLAUGHTER THE MARTOUR to THE LYRIC at SKYWAY THEATER. It’s been almost 9 years since I last saw MACHINE HEAD at the now defunct Mill City Nights during their Evening With Machine Head run. MACHINE HEAD last played MN in Oct of 2018 on a similar Evening With Run.

That in itself explains the excitement buzzing in the Skyway Theater for the return of MACHINE HEAD to a MN stage and they came out firing on all cylinders with the always crushing “Imperium” complete with a new digital backdrop! You could see the excitement on their faces that the crowd showed up to rage.

“Ten Ton Hammer” was next and the mosh pit didn’t let up. The beauty of shows in the main Skyway Theater and in the new only slightly smaller The Lyric … is that they are old movie theater rooms so the floor slants down giving everyone a great sightline for the stage. It’s gradual so it’s not like you are moshing uphill. Though that would be an interesting pit.

This is the first tour in a long time with openers so Machine Head played a 90 minute set and was still able to get in most of the songs you would want to hear in a MH set. “Choke on the Ashes of Your Hate” got an electrifying response out of the crowd as one of three songs from Of Kingdom and Crown to show up on the set list. Which then moved in to the classic “Aesthetics of Hate” complete with Dimebag Darrell love. No Machine Head show would be complete without the crowd sing alongs of “Davidian” and a perfect Machine Head closer with “Halo.”

Robb has always been a strong vocalist and this might be the best he’s sounded live. The band is up there having a blast playing and the crowd was reciprocating the feelings back. Hopefully we don’t have to wait another 5 ½ years for Machine Head to come back around and hopefully with another killer lineup like we had tonight.

FEAR FACTORY came out of the gates with huge smiles on their faces giving a ferocious 40 min set of nothing but the best FEAR FACTORY has to offer. Swinging right out the gate with two legendary cuts “Shock” and “Edgecrusher” from the Obsolete album. The band Dino has put together is extremely tight and in fighting form.

Milo’s got it. Milo honors Burton’s legacy keeping the songs true to form on “Powershifter”, “Disruptor” and “Linchpin”. I’m beyond excited to see Milo does with new FF material, leaving Milo to make his mark on the FF sound. Milo looked way more confident as a vocalist than when Fear Factory was at The Fillmore with Static-X last year. That’s not to say Milo was even one ounce of bad last year. Milo just had that much more of a swagger to him tonight.

As Brett said after photographing the first 3 songs of Fear Factory’s set .. “There is no one that looks happier playing on stage than Dino!” The whole band just absolutely slayed that set ending with a loud crowd reaction for “Demanufacture” and “Replica”. I wish they would have had time to do an encore because the crowd was ready for one!

ORBIT CULTURE returned for their third swing thru Minneapolis and becoming a more powerful live force than ever before. Just the addition of CO2 shooting up during openers “Saw” and “Alienated” made a huge difference in their 30 min set. ORBIT CULTURE returning with their strongest material to date with their latest album Descent and they showed off the album with 4 out of the 7 songs in the set. Which was a nice, little change for fans that have seen all three of their MN sets so far.

Vocalist and guitarist Niklas Karlsson made full use of the entire stage by singing in three different spots during the set - center, stage left and stage right giving everyone an opportunity to see the vocalist up close! The crowd was here for it as it’s safe to say ORBIT CULTURE isn’t a baby band anymore. Just like Milo with Fear Factory, you could see a noticeable confidence in all four of the members of Orbit Culture’s stage presence. They were here to dominate the stage and definitely did that with time left on the clock.

“Descent,” “From the Inside” and “Vultures of North” went over huge with the crowd as did the newest track in the set “While We Serve” from December’s The Forgotten EP. Drummer Markus Bladh punished the drums as he was pretty close to the front of the stage. It’s also pretty amazing that guitarist Richard Hansson and bassist Fredrik Lennartsson can headbang as hard as they do and still crush their parts.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, if you aren’t in to Orbit Culture yet .. what are you waiting for? This was their best set yet and the band is only getting stronger. I would love to see what Orbit Culture can do with a longer set and hopefully we will see that sooner than later.

If this tour was any indication of how 2024 is going to be for live tours, buckle up because Machine Head, Fear Factory and Orbit Culture have set the bar extremely high.

SEE MORE OF BRETT'S PHOTOS OF MACHINE HEAD HERE!

SEE MORE OF BRETT'S PHOTO OF FEAR FACTORY AND ORBIT CULTURE HERE!

RISE OF THE MACHINES TOUR 2023

CONCERT REVIEW :: STATIC-X, FEAR FACTORY, DOPE, TWIZTID
The Fillmore in Minneapolis, MN
April 8, 2023
Photos by Brett
Review by Nick

The time has finally arrived! STATIC-X and FEAR FACTORY brought their “Rise of the Machine” Tour to The Fillmore in Minneapolis, MN for a very sold out crowd that was excited to see every band on the bill!

STATIC-X came out with a new look for XERO that complimented the “Rise of the Machine” tour name. XERO’s new mask looks even more incredible in person. You could see guitarist Koichi Fukuda, bassist Tony Campos and drummer Ken Jay smiling and having a blast up there on stage. The energy was infectious from the crowd to the stage for each band for their entire set. You had 5 bands that were all excited to be playing in front of a crowd that was just excited to see them and hear all these songs come to life again.

STATIC-X filled their 19 song set with hit after hit and still leaving crowd favorites out of the set and the crowd wanted more after the last song rang out. STATIC-X coming out of the gate swinging with 4 from Machine to start the show off with “Permanence”, “This is Not”, “Structural Defect” and “Black and White” before even stepping to classic tracks from Wisconsin Death Trip. This tour definitely reminded you how solid Machine is as an album in full. Tony Campos stated from the stage later in the night that since the tour was delayed so many times, it gave them more time to bring a bigger production. This was a production made for arenas but in a club setting. If their goal was to make everything bigger and better than the previous tour, they definitely did that and then some even bringing a big podium for Xero to use on “Permanence” and “I’m With Stupid” that made sure everyone even in the back got a good glimpse of Xero Version 2.0.

Plenty of tracks from Wisconsin Death Trip made it in to the set (you gotta play the track “Wisconsin Death Trip” when you are so close to Wisconsin!) along with a good taste of the rest of their catalog played in rapid succession with not much downtime in between many songs. Newer songs “Terminator Oscillator” and their recently released cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Terrible Lie” fit in perfectly amongst the Static-X classics like “Destroy All”, “Dirthouse” and “Cannibal” from later albums.

I don’t know what song the crowd sang along louder for “Cold”, “I’m With Stupid” or “Push It” which all came during the encore. Usually the crowd is spent by this point, not the case here. The crowd was louder than ever and the smiles on the band’s faces were bigger. The 3 year wait for this tour was definitely well worth it.

FEAR FACTORY came out blazing with new vocalist Milo Silverstro with two epic opening tracks both from Obsolete “Shock” and “Edgecrusher” setting the tone for their 50 min set. Milo filling the big shoes of Burton with ease in most parts as Fear Factory made their way thru the entire catalog playing songs from all over the map some of which might not have been played in a long time. “Distruptor” sounded fantastic along with “Powershifter” and “What Will Become”.

Guitarist Dino Cazares looked like he was having a blast up there with Milo, bassist Tony Campos and drummer Pete Webber. There’s no question that this lineup absolutely crushes these songs as they closed with 3 classics from Demanfacture, the title track, “Zero Signal” and “Replica”. These songs and this 10 song set isn’t for a beginner musician. FEAR FACTORY is back with a vengeance and I can’t wait to see them live again.

DOPE had a very short 6 song, 30 minute set which opened with the newest song in the set “Blood Money” because as Edsel Dope said from the stage “You didn’t come here to hear the new shit, you came hear to hear the old shit”. While there was only one song from the 1999 album Felons and Revolutionaries which was a shame, DOPE did a great job of picking out songs from all their albums to make sure to please any fan of the band. Closing with a super energetic version of their version of “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” that definitely was a crowd pleaser.

Overall, this was a fun show front to back. This was a celebration of these songs from STATIC-X and FEAR FACTORY coming back to life again. Both bands were firing on all cylinders and hopefully this will keep them on tour for years to come to celebrate the music and the legacy that all these bands have created and importantly, the life of Wayne Static.

SEE MORE OF BRETT'S PHOTOS FROM STATIC-X, FEAR FACTORY, DOPE and TWIZTID HERE!