Your name is Dino Cazares, your band is Fear Factory and you want to relaunch the band after a number of inactive years. Who are you going to call when your drummer is unavailable? The answer is simple: the man who is on everyone’s minds when it comes to Metal drumming, Gene Hoglan.
Gene has spent over 25 years cementing himself as a first-call player on the Metal scene. Having toured with some of the biggest names, he has also toured as a clinician or with sponsor companies Pearl, Sabian and Pro-Mark, and has appeared in nearly every drum magazine on the planet.
As one of his many projects, Gene was asked to fill the chair for Fear Factory in October 2008. Meeting again in April 2009, the band got straight to work writing, recording and releasing their latest studio album, Mechanize, which is arguably Fear Factory’s most powerful and vicious studio offering to date. Mechanize benefits not only from Gene’s metronomic, precise and powerful drumming, which has made him a staple within the drumming community, but also from his song-writing expertise. Gene has, in fact, co-written a number of songs on the album.
While Fear Factory was on tour here in September - with Metal Gods, Metallica - I was privileged to sit down with one of the friendliest drumming personalities I have had the pleasure of meeting!
Read the complete interview in DRUMscene Issue 63