Do you know what can spice up a video game experience? Some killer metal songs. Over the years, more and more metal tracks have been included in a plethora of video games. For some of us, we came across metal thanks to games (playing such titles as that of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games and that of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City).
Via a recent conversation with Sonic Perspectives, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares speaks to that of metal music in games; specifically, he shares that he feels his band “pioneered” the way for more metal to be included in video games.
In talking about this subject, he mentions the band’s early days and then talks about the release of their album Remanufacture (and how the band started getting calls requesting their music to be placed within games). The following was transcribed by Metal Injection:
“Well back in 1993 when Fear Is The Mindkiller came out, a lot of people weren’t exactly sure what to make of it because it was pretty extreme for its time. You know, because if you listen to the band’s first album Soul Of A New Machine, we were pretty brutal. We were a cross between death metal, grindcore, and industrial music, and then we even had the melodic elements in there that [threw people off].
“Then all of a sudden when we released the EP of remixes it was like, ‘what the hell is this?’ People just became accustomed to us doing [what we did]. So when Demanufacture came out people were like ‘okay, we like this about Fear Factory.’ It’s another element that we have.
“I’m glad we got to do it again [with 2022’s Recoded] because I remember when we first did the early ones, it really got us into clubs, like different clubs. Fear Factory was getting played in industrial techno dance clubs and that was really cool because it opened a whole new door for us.
“Then when we did Remanufacture in 1997, all of a sudden video game companies started [calling us]. We came out in tons of video games and it opened the door for us in that market. I like to think that Fear Factory were the pioneers, or at least one of the early bands, that really got involved in the video game industry way back in 1997.”
When it comes to metal music in games, what are some of your favorite examples? Also, what are some of your favorite video games of 2022? You can also check out the full interview with Dino below.
