Assembly Front Line ( FLA ) is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. Influenced by early electronics and (post-) industrial actions such as Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, D.A.F., Test Dept., SPK, and Severed Heads, the FLA has developed its own sound while incorporating elements of electronic body music (EBM). Membership of the band has been rotated through several members over the years, including Rhys Fulber and Michael Balch who are both associated with several other acts.
Since its inception, the group has produced over a dozen studio albums and EPs, some of which have been mapped on Billboard '' s Top Dance/Album Electronic Albums. The tactical albums of Neural Implant and Hard Wired are two of the group's most successful recordings, the first of which is considered a classic among music industry fans. They have also produced soundtracks for video games such as Quake III: Team Arena (collaboration with Sonic Mayhem) and AirMech . Their latest studio album is Echogenetic , released in 2013 for good reviews from critics.
Video Front Line Assembly
Histori
Formasi (1985-1986)
Between 1985 and 1986, Bill Leeb performed with Skinny Puppy under the name Wilhelm Schroeder, a combination of his first name and the name of the Peanuts character and intended as a joke. Leeb did not have any music training, and learned to play synthesizers while donating bass synth and backing vocals for the band, He also supported their 1985 tour. Not ready for another tour, Leeb left Skinny Puppy in early 1986.
After developing some of the instrumental skills and experience of the music industry, and wanting to do more vocal work, Leeb decided to risk starting his own project. Leeb decided to call the Front Line Assembly project to reflect his belief that strength lies in cooperation.
Leeb started by producing demo tape, Nerve War , which was distributed on a limited basis. Contacts in the music world he collected while with Skinny Puppy led to an offer contract from the first two labels that Leeb then approached with a tape.
Around this time, Leeb and Rhys Fulber became friends when they discovered they both had the same interest in underground music. As an unofficial member at the moment, Fulber partnered with Leeb during the production of Total Terror and was credited for the song "Black Fluid" on the demo. Both demo releases are limited to 100 and are mostly distributed among friends.
Initial release and working with Balch (1987-1989)
The first appearance of the Front Line Assembly is the song "Aggression", which is included in the compilation For Your Ears Only , released in 1987 by the independent British record label Third Mind that showcased the label's repertoire at the time. The song will be re-released the following year at Disorder EP. Though contact with Third Mind then developed into a long-term collaboration, the band debuted their first album Initial Command with the help credited by Fulber and Michael Balch on the independent record label Belgian KK at the end of 1987. The album was produced with a tight budget that will determine whether the cuts will be made with an eight-lane system or split into two four tracks that are cut. With the subsequent album State of Mind , released in January 1988, the band switched to the independent German label, Dossier. They changed the label because Leeb did not want to be tied to a single label, so his release was only issued on a European label.
In 1988, Balch became an official band member and began writing songs with Leeb for the next few albums. Balch largely contributes by providing keyboard and programming. This partnership resulted in the release of Corrosion and Disorder . The planned release on the Canadian label Nettwerk failed, and two masters finished being released by Third Mind in 1988. Through Levermore Corrosion licensed to Wax Trax !. Both recordings were re-released along with three unreleased songs at the end-of-year compilation of Convergence
Hold on to Third Thoughts for Europe and Wax Trax! for North America resulted in better album availability in both places, and signing with Third Mind attracted the attention of established music magazines including Melody Maker or NME and underground magazines Music From the Empty Quarter .
Front Line Assembly produced their next album Gashed Senses & amp; Crossfire in 1989. The album introduced their first single Digital Tension Dementia which became their first chart success and reached position 45 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. To support their latest release, the band, along with Fulber as a live metal percussion, headed to Europe and North America for their first tour. However, during a show in London in July 1989, their first live album Live was recorded in unfavorable circumstances. Presumably not attended, the audience's reaction on the show had to be reworked. For Balch it was also the last Assembly Line tour since he parted company to join the Ministry and Revolting Cocks.
Fulber Era: instant classic and increasing popularity (1990-1996)
Filling the void left by Balch's departure, Fulber officially joins. Both musicians have the same tastes, both of them enthusiastic with electronic music. The duo recorded their next album, Caustic Grip , in the first half of 1990. Accompanied by the release of two singles in 1990, Iceolate and Provision , this album raising the Front Line Assembly profile in the music industry and in the media. Melody Maker chose both single album singles while promotional videos for Iceolate received multiple plays on MTV.
At the Caustic Grip the band began working with Greg Reely who would develop into a long-term partnership. The tour supports the album starting in January 1991 in the United States to be followed by European legs in February accompanied by a single stand-alone single Virus in the same month. Chris Peterson, who later became a full member of Front Line Assembly, gave his debut for the band on this tour, completing the live line-up as a percussionist.
In 1992, Front Line Assembly reached a turning point in the band's musical style with the album Tactical Neural Implant . The media, including Melody Maker, Siren Magazine and Fanzine Industrial Strength all commented mainly on the more melodic approaches featured on the album and noted the multi-layered voice usage that would become the band's trademark. Asked about the style of writing by Nation Industries, Leeb explained that the band continued to experiment with new ways to use technology to create every recording differently, and had focused on clarity and maintain in their instrumentation and structure in their songs.
The video for the first single from the album, Mindphaser , was awarded "Best Alternative Video" at Much Music's 1992 Canadian Music Video Awards. In August 1992, Front Line Assembly embarked on a tour covering North America and Europe. The album continues to be played in the dance clubs of industrial and electronic music and is considered a classic among music industry listeners and musicians.
Subsequent albums Millennium (1994) featured a combination of metal guitar, electronic music, and media sampling (much of which was taken from the Michael Douglas Falling Down film) which has become one of the industry's characteristics rocks and industrial metals during the 1990s.
Hard Wired (1995) and world tour after release is the most successful commercial and critical FLA period.
Era Peterson: back to electronic sound (1997 - 2002)
In 1997, Fulber left the band to concentrate on producing Fear Factory with other bands. Chris Peterson, who has supported the band's live performances, replaced Fulber. Immediately after Fulber's departure, the album [FLA] vour of the Weak was released. But again, the album is stylistically different from previous releases. The metal effect found in Millennium gives way to a more electronics sound in the new release.
Front Line Assembly returned somewhat to their former voices with the album Implode (1999), followed by Epitaph (2001). Peterson left FLA in 2002. Front Line Assembly composed a soundtrack for the video game, Quake III Team Arena .
In October 1999 it was announced that the band had left their label, Metropolis.
From the classical arrangement to the full band (2003-2008)
Fulber rejoined the band in 2003. The duo reunited released their single Maniacal in October of that year. The following year, they released the studio album Civilization . Peterson then rejoined the band to release Artificial Soldier in 2006. After a problem with the tour bus company, the US tour of that year was cut short, and the band returned to Vancouver after playing about half of their scheduled dates ; shows in New York and Canada were canceled. The band toured in Europe in August 2006 playing in 18 cities.
In April 2007, Front Line Assembly released a remix album titled Fallout . The album was released in 4-panel digipak and featured three previously unreleased songs ("Electric Dreams," "Unconscious," and "Armageddon") and nine remixes by some other industry actions and names. After releasing the remix album, the band went on a tour to North America and Europe.
New writing style and new success (2009-2011)
In 2010, Front Line Assembly, with new members Jeremy Inkel and Jared Slingerland, released two new singles, "Shifting Through the Lens" and "Angriff", and a more accompanyable album, Improvised Electronic Device .
Return to electronic roots and new influences (2012 -)
After guitars integrated into their sounds since the late 1980s, either sampled or as a live guitar, the FLA came back in 2012 to make electronic music exclusively. This change is heard on the soundtrack album AirMech for a video game of the same name at the end of 2012. Consisting of an instrumental track, AirMech laid some of the foundations for the full 2013- long album Echogenetic Echogenetic is widely praised by critics, who also noted the influence of dubstep on the record, and hit the charts in the United States and in Germany. Entering the official German charts was the first in the band's history. At the launching of Echogenetic Front Line Assembly announced a remix album released in May 2014 under the Echoes moniker .
Shortly after the release of Echogenetic the band began promoting albums with extensive touring schedules in Europe and North America. In August 2013, Front Line Assembly covers dates in Russia, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the UK. They continued their European tour in June 2014, playing performances in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Finland and France, this time also supporting Echoes . The former Fulber members joined the band for their last European leg in October and November 2014 in Poland and Germany, where they performed with a philharmonic orchestra in Leipzig, the first for the band.
The same month Front Line Assembly returned from Europe, they were asked in a short time to join Leeb's former Skinny Puppy band on Eye vs. Spy their North American tour as a support band after VNV Nation, previously reserved for slots , has opted out. On several dates, Fulber joined them. At the Vancouver show, Leeb performed with Skinny Puppy in their encore song, Assimilate.
Continuing on the tour, the band held numerous concerts in September and November 2015. They started with performances in Vancouver and became the main title of the second day of the Cold Waves industry festival in Chicago. The accompanying festival CD, released in October, features an exclusive remix of the Next Wars of Slighter. In November the band followed up with their first show in Mexico City, backed by Mexican electro-industrial band Hocico, and a show in Guadalajara both of which were also supported by Canada's electro-industrial group Decoded Feedback.
March 2016 saw the return of former old band member Rhys Fulber, joining the Front Line Assembly on their European tour. Later that year, the band announced that a new album was being made, including a contribution by Rhys Fulber. A few months later in 2017, an announcement followed that the successor of the soundtrack album AirMech was ready to release. The band supported rock industry band Revolting Cocks on their North American tour of the same year.
Keyboarder Jeremy Inkel died January 23, 2018 due to complications due to asthma conditions, at the age of 34 years.
In March 2018 the band announced a joint European tour with German electro-industrial band Die Krupps under the moniker "The Machinists United Tour 2018". The tour will be preceded by the release of the soundtrack album WarMech , AirMech 2015's successor, in June. Also, the band is working on the next regular album.
Maps Front Line Assembly
Spelling names
Band names have sometimes been published as "Front Line Assembly" and sometimes as "Frontline Assembly". The former spelling is the most common, and the band members have stated that a version with three separate words is preferred.
Members â ⬠<â â¬
Current members
The official line-up of the Front Line Assembly currently consists of:
- Bill Leeb - vocals, synth, keyboard, percussion (1986-present)
- Jared Slingerland - guitar, synth, keyboard, programming, percussion (2005-present)
- Rhys Fulber - synth, keyboard, programming, percussion (1986-1987, 1989-1997, 2002-2006, 2014-present)
- Jason Bazinet - drums (2010, 2018-present)
Former member â ⬠<â â¬
- Michael Balch (synths, keyboard, programming, percussion) (1986-1990)
- Chris Peterson (synth, keyboard, programming, percussion) (1991-1993, 1997-2002, 2005-2010)
- Jeremy Inkel (synths, keyboard, programming, percussion) (2005-2018; died 2018)
Chronology of members â ⬠<â â¬
Discography
Studio album
- Initial Command (1987)
- State of Mind (1988)
- Corrosion (1988)
- Disorders (EP) (1988)
- Gash & amp; Sensor Crossfire (1989)
- Caustic Grip (1990)
- Tactical Neural Implants (1992)
- Millennium (1994)
- Hard Wired (1995)
- [FLA] vour of the Weak (1997)
- Implode (1999)
- Tombstone (2001)
- Civilization (2004)
- Artificial Soldiers (2006)
- Improvised Electronic Device (2010)
- AirMech (soundtrack) (2012)
- Echogenetic (2013)
- WarMech (soundtrack) (2018)
Project side and related actions
Source of the article : Wikipedia