Review by John Hegarty for MPM
Considering the windy and wet weather we’ve been having recently it’s a surprisingly sunny crisp Autumn evening as we make our trek to Belfast for quite the mix of metal tonight, Fear Factory have packed the tour package with Metalcore, Death Metal and dark, almost gothic style of rock with Crystal Lake, Hate and The Nocturnal Affair. Having played the night before in Dublin and a few dates in the UK, Belfast fits snuggly in on a Tuesday night before heading back to UK.
It’s an early start with doors at 6.30pm and with only 15 minutes before The Nocturnal Affair hit the stage the early birds flood in and make their way to the front of the stage. Hailing from Nevada in the US, The Nocturnal Affair open their set with “Cross Me Out”, a catchy number to grab the audience’s attention which it quickly does with vocalist Brendan Shane’s hypnotic voice.
They continue their set with their newest single “Choke”, heavy riffs and a melodic chorus speaks volumes for the bands future, onwards to “Benefit of Doubt” which oddly reminds me of early Slipknot, which is not what I was expecting to hear. “Deal with It”, another new song is up next, followed by an appreciation of how the Irish drink from Brendan and then onto a song released in April of this year, “Oxygen”, an emotional song that the band plays with perfection. As an opening band on a tour like this they’ll always have a short set and the best way to end it? Well, it’s a bloody great cover of Haddaway’s “What is Love” which gets all the 80’s loving rockers singing along, I didn’t even realise they had covered this song in 2025 so it’s a surprisingly delightful and fun way to end a very successful set. I have no doubt these guys will just get bigger and bigger over the next few years and hopefully we’ll get a headlining show on these shores.
Next up is the complete opposite of The Nocturnal Affair, which is what makes this tour package so interesting, Polish blackened death metal titan’s “Hate” take to the stage, although founded around the same time as Behemoth these guys have stuck to their death metal roots rather than bowing down to the commercialised record companies. Heavy and brutal, Hate kicks off their set with “Bellum Regiis” from 2025’s album of the same name, with the blast beats you can feel the ground rumble as the death metal lovers in the crowd let the windmills fly. Next up is catchy riffs and speed with “Erebos” from the 2010 album also of the same name, Buszko vocals are on point and stronger than ever.
They continue their dirty fast riffs with “Sovereign Sanctity” from 2019’s “Auric Gates of Veles”, a bit more epic than the previous songs but still just as brutal. The band throughout the set stand with an authoritarian stance, asserting their dominance over the ever growing crowd, the skulls on poles make a nice addition too. “Rugia” is up next, once again from the album with the same name, although every song on this set are pretty modern, considering the band starting in 1990, just proves that after all these years they still very relevant in the world of blackened death metal. Finishing off the set is 2 songs from “Bellum Regiis”, “Ipigenia” and probably their most commercialised song (although not very commercialised) “The Vanguard”, they end their set with a huge appreciation from the crowd that has been building over the last 40 minutes, brutal, fast and solid is the best way I can describe their set,
Travelling all the way from Japan, well, not really as they’ve been on the road a lot over the last few years, is Crystal Lake, Japanese metalcore at its best. “Everblack” from “The Weight of Sound” lays the ground rules for nearly an hour of heavy nasty breakdowns which the crowd absolutely lap up.
Sticking with The Weight of Sound, we have “BludGod” up next, a bit softer than Everblack but still plenty heavy. The band doesn’t have a backdrop but they find other ways to make sure people never forget the name Crystal Lake. Next up is “Hail to the Fire” which still hits like an anthem with plenty of singalong moments (Zomba Zomba), “Six Feet Under” then keeps up the momentum with dirty and relentlessly heavy moments, the way metalcore should be, along with nasty breakdowns of course. “Aeon” from 2019’s “Helix” continues the onslaught of heavy riffs and screams that keeps the crowd engaged at all times. “Prometheus” and “The Weight of Sound” are the technical peaks of tonight’s performance, with masterful guitar work from YD and the harmonic vocals of PK, it’s hard to believe that this is PK’s first year with the band as he blends so perfectly with the band. To close out the set it has to be non other than “Apollo”, probably the bands biggest song, and that breakdown at the end made it feel like the ceiling was about to come down in the Limelight.
The band has definitely made a name for themselves here even though they played in Belfast only 2 years ago, this was a much bigger stage and crowd. On a personal note, they didn’t play “Watch me Burn” which was a disappointment but beggars can’t be choosers. The band receive a huge cheer from the crowd to end out their victorious set.
After Crystal Lakes set, PK made his way to the merch stand to talk with fans and of course sell merch. After a short break its time for the headliners, Fear Factory, right off the bat I want to get this out of the way, Burton is not in the band anymore, some people find it hard to get over that fact, Milo is not Burton but he is energetic, an excellent vocalist and brings a whole new level of enthusiasm to the band.
So as the black covers come off the stage you can see the full stage set they have brought with them, owning the stage. A voiceover introduces the band and they come out full force with “Acres of Skin” from one of my personal favourite albums Digimortal to the very excited crowd of young and old(ish) folks. Then quickly shifted to the 2010 album Mechanize for “Industrial Discipline” and “Powershifter”, Milo commands the stage with great ease, an absolute pro. We are then transported back late 90’s for “Shock”, followed by the fist pumping anthem “Edgecrusher”, PK from Crystal Lake joins them on stage and off stage as this guy loves to stage dive, he did it during Crystal Lakes own set and half way through Edgecrusher he is back out stage diving, he’s a guy that loves to have fun, all the bands on the tour seem to get on really well.
Next up is a personal favourite and judging by the crowds reaction a definite fan favourite, “Linchpin”, this hard hitting classic (hard to believe its 25 years old) has the audience with their hands in the air and singing louder than the band. Sticking with Digimortal we get “No One” quickly followed by the beautiful opening of “Invisible Wounds”, another singalong, epic in nature and brings back lots of happy teenage memories for myself, it’s also a bit of break from the constant heavy force of Fear Factory. “Soul Hacker” follows from 2015’s Genexus, and no Milo we will not take your soul.
Milo asks the crowd if they have heard if they have their new song and in fairness, the vast majority seem to have heard it and appear to be very positive about it, rather than heading to the bar or toilet the crowd stick around to enjoy the new era of Fear Factory, “Roboticist” is from the upcoming album due for release in 2027 and if all the songs are as good as this it should be a belter of an album.
Going from the very new to the very old, up next is “Martyr” from 1992’s “Soul of the Machine”, clearly another fan favourite, sticking with Soul of the Machine, Martyr is followed by “Arise above Oppression”, probably Fear Factory’s shortest song but no less heavy, if anything its probably heavier than a lot of Fear Factory’s songs.
Before the last song of the main part of the set Dino gets on the mic to thank the fans and give a shout to each and every band on the tour, he sounds genuinely grateful to the Fear Factory fans for keeping the band going for 35 years, this leads into “Archetype” from Archetype, for some reason I still consider Archetype a fairly new album but since it was released over 20 years ago I’m beginning to suspect I might be getting older but on a night like this I still feel like a young pup. During the song Milo gives a big shout out to their legendary guitarist Dino, who really is the pillar of the band.
The band leave the stage for a short break and gives us a chance to catch our breath, but as the opening riffs hit for “Demanufacture” you can feel the excitement build, Milo signals to the crowd for a wall of death but unfortunately the crowd just do a standard mosh pit but it doesn’t effect the bands might performance, especially as the crowd do give it everything with the “I’ve got no more God damn regrets” chant. Following this is a string of classics to finish off the night, “Zero Signal” to keep the crowd going and then Milo introduces the next song in the best possible way, by having them sing the chorus before the song even starts, “I don’t want to live that way”, so obviously it’s “Replica”, a staple for Fear Factory.
Just before we hit the last song Dino again takes to the mic to introduce the band, Pete Webber from Havok, Tony from Static X, who has been playing off Dino all night, a great combination and then introduces the new age of Fear Factory, the Italian stallion, Milo on vocals. He also makes sure to thank the good people of “Belfist”.
“Resurrection” is the final song of the night, a beautiful combination of melody and heaviness which just releases such an uplifting euphoric feeling through the body. It’s safe to say everyone left the venue in a great mood, some of the older folk might have been a bit tired though after a 4 band bill, but at £36 for 4 bands its definitely value for money, and if you were one of the lucky folks at the front of the stage you probably got a plectrum or 2 to bring home as the band just threw them out everywhere. It was a 75 minute set but with such a large back catalogue we could have easily enjoyed another hour of classics
The band continue their tour back in the UK before heading home to the states to start their US tour on October 13th with support from Mushroomhead and Nine Treasures, another eclectic mix of genres.
Photography by MPM
