Fear Factory Guitarist Dino Cazares: “Why Can’t Metallica do More of That?”

Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares talked about old metal days, James Hetfield himself, and Metallica’s influence on his music. Dino Cazares of Fear Factory was under the spotlight talking about the legendary band Metallica. Cazares named a riff from Metallica of which he was a huge fan, mentioned his old memories, and revealed that she had a close friend who was friends with James Hetfield. The guitarist also talked on Led Zeppelin in the interview. Here’s what Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares had to say in his appearance on Speak N’ Destroy, transcribed by Ultimate Guitar:

Dino Cazares on the old days and Metallica

The guitarist was asked about then-popular Armored Saint, who was touring with Metallica at the time. “Yeah, they were bigger than Metallica at the time, but obviously you could see that a lot of people left after Metallica during that tour. I think Armored Saint might’ve talked about that, but I was still a huge Armored Saint fan. They came out with dudes with swords and armor, the full armor, I thought that was amazing. Don’t get me wrong, Metallica just came in no T-shirts, you could tell these guys have been on tour forever, ripped jeans, guitars that said ‘f*** off’ on it…”

He talked about the vibe Metallica gave on the stage. That vibe was just “epic to see” according to Dino Cazares. “They just kind of had this attitude of, ‘We don’t give a f***, we don’t need no f***ing lights, we’ll just come in and f***ing destroy you.’ And that’s kind of what it was, it was epic to see that. It was just epic to see that, and at that point, you knew about all the ‘Alcoholica’ t-shirts, you’re like, ‘Yeah, these guys drink beer, just thrash the place.’

And people, when they hit the stage, you just saw, because back then you got to realize there’s not much security, people go slam pits, people jump off the f***ing tables, whatever. You could just do whatever, and so when they came on, the whole place just rubbed it, and I was that kid right in the middle slamming there too, just watching it all being, ‘That’s exactly what I want to do.'”

Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares on his friend who knew Metallica frontman James Hetfield

Cazares apparently had a friend who was very close to Papa Het. That friend helped him to meet Hetfield, who then introduced Cazares to Jim Martin from Faith No More. “There was a girl who was staying with me in Hollywood, she was a friend of mine. She did artwork for bands, she also was a model, and at that time, she was friends with James Hetfield. So she brought James Hetfield a couple of times over to the apartment, I met James, and then from her and James I met [guitarist] Jim Martin from Faith No More, so I became really tight with Jim Martin.”

He then talked about the transformation Faith No More went through, also mentioning how he founded Fear Factory: “I didn’t see them for a while, but that was when that album – I believe it was like 1989 – when ‘The Real Thing’ came out. I saw the transition with Faith No More – they got rid of Chuck Mosley and they got Mike Patton, I was right there. I think ‘The Real Thing’ came late ’89, so then at that time me and Jim Martin had become really good friends. And he kind of took me to other places that I’ve never gone to. From there Faith no More went on tour, but I also had a project band called Brujeria with Billy Gould from Faith No More. So during all that time, I ended up starting Fear Factory in 1990.”

Dino Cazares on what he loved from Metallica

“But when we go back, ’88, ‘…And Justice for All,’ there was one riff that helped me develop my style for Fear Factory. And it was the riff in the middle of ‘One.’ It’s the one part when the kick drums and the guitar are doing the same thing. I always told myself, ‘Why can’t Metallica do more of that? That’s so badass.’ I was like, ‘Man, they need to do more,’ because you could just hear all James Hetfield’s riffs with those kick patterns.”

Fear Factory guitarist Cazares on Led Zeppelin

“If you go back to Led Zeppelin, they took a lot of blues stuff, early blues stuff, Mississippi and Louisiana and all that stuff – and they just made it into rock ‘n’ roll, distorted guitars instead of acoustic guitars, even similar lyrics. So people had been doing that for a long time. And that’s OK. That’s just your influences and how it progresses and how you can create something new, a new genre or new style.”