YMMV / Fear Factory

• Covered Up: They've pretty much completely covered up "Dog Day Sunrise" (originally by Head of David) and "0~0" (originally by Wiseblood).
• Contested Sequel: The Industrialist. Also Mechanize, though to a slightly smaller extent.
• Critical Dissonance: Digimortal was fairly well received by critics, but it gets a lot of hate from fans for having a simpler and more Nu Metal-influenced sound compared to previous releases.
• Fan Nickname: Dino Cazares, who's a bit heavy, is widely known on Fear Factory forums as "Self Diet Resistor."
• Fandom Rivalry: One almost happened with fans of Linkin Park, due to a comment Burton made in an interview where he said that he thought Hybrid Theory was "Demanufacture for kids". Burton had already left the band by this point, though, so it didn't affect things very much in the end.
• Growing the Beard: Demanufacture marked the point at which the band found their identity. It tones down the death metal influences while still remaining heavy, features clean vocals more prominently, and expands on their concepts regarding man-machine relations.
• Misattributed Song: They never did a cover of Kiss' "God of Thunder", that was by Death.
• Nightmare Fuel: The song 'Slave Labor' is about self-immolation, which means burning yourself alive.
  • Hell, many of their songs easily qualify, especially those appearing on Soul of a New Machine and Concrete (because these albums are Death Metal, a genre considered as Nightmare Fuel incarnate for the average listener).
• Once Original, Now Common: You know all those metalcore and groove metal bands that have one person doing aggressive and melodic vocals? You can either thank or blame Fear Factory for that.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: These days, people are more likely to talk about the personal and legal troubles surrounding the band than their music.
• Signature Song: "Replica", the cover of "Cars", "Linchpin", "Descent" and "Demanufacture"
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Arkaea was this to the Archetype and Transgression era of the band. The only difference in lineup between this era of Fear Factory and Arkaea is that it had a different vocalist.
  • Divine Heresy was originally considered as one to the classic era of the band too, even though it doesn't have any of the electronic and industrial influences of Fear Factory.
• Tough Act to Follow: Demanufacture is hailed as the band's classic. Almost everything the band released afterward (especially Digimortal) is more contested to varying degrees as a result.
• Win Back the Crowd: Archetype was intended to be this, going back to the classic sound of Demanufacture and Obsolete. Albums from Mechanize onward seem to have done a better job at doing this.