Front Line Assembly’s ‘Hard Wired’ turns 31 on 25 September
Front Line Assembly released their eighth studio album, “Hard Wired,” through Off Beat on 25 September 1995, with Metropolis Records handling North America and Energy Rekords issuing the record in Sweden. It was the Canadian electro-industrial band’s first release for the German label. The album turns 31 this year.
Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber produced the record and wrote all ten tracks, which run 62 minutes: “Neologic Spasm,” “Paralyzed,” “Re-Birth,” “Circuitry,” “Mortal” (instrumental), “Modus Operandi,” “Transparent Species,” “Barcode,” “Condemned” and “Infra Red Combat.” Greg Reely engineered and mixed, with Delwyn Brooks assisting, continuing a working partnership that began on “Caustic Grip” in 1990. Devin Townsend played electric guitar, returning after his session work on the previous year’s “Millennium.” Dave McKean produced the illustration, design and photography. The sessions ran roughly five months at the Warehouse.
Leeb wrote the lyrics only once the music was finished, and described that order as the band’s normal method rather than a choice made for this record: “We write […] the music and then once we’ve got it finished, then I sit at home and start on the lyrics. I can’t imagine writing any other way. […] I think with our music it’s usually the sounds that inspire us.” On what those lyrics deal with, he set materialism and environmental collapse against the technology driving both: “I think most of the lyrics are basically about man versus technology. Basically, we’re destroying our planet with technology. At the same time, technology is the only thing that can save us. It’s this constant struggle between these two forces that is making us go in whatever direction we’re all going.”
That reading runs through the sampling as well. The album draws audio from “True Romance,” “In the Mouth of Madness,” “Lifeforce,” “Stargate,” “Speed,” “The Puppet Masters,” “No Escape,” “Romeo Is Bleeding,” “The Crow,” “Lethal Weapon” and “Alien 3,” alongside sound effects from the 1993 video game “Doom” and passages from three Aphex Twin recordings.
“Circuitry” was the album’s only single, released on 31 October 1995. Its limited edition came as a two-CD digipak with remixes by Haujobb and Biosphere, a mixed-mode first disc carrying the “Millennium” video and photo galleries, and a second disc with the non-album tracks “Destructive Transformation” and “Hydrogen.” The album reached number 47 on the Swedish albums chart and the single number 32 on the Swedish singles chart. “Hard Wired” has sold at least 50,000 copies worldwide, and its 5,000-copy limited edition sold out in two weeks. A further track from the same sessions, “Plasticity,” was held back and issued separately; Fulber explained the decision in commercial terms: “We kept it off the album to release later […] It gives people a reason to check it out because if you release it as a single that is already on album no one is really going to care.” The “Plasticity” video won Best Alternative Video at the MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto in 1996.
The album has returned to shelves twice since. Black Rain Records pressed a 500-copy picture vinyl in August 2011, cut to seven songs, dropping “Mortal,” “Modus Operandi” and “Transparent Species.” For the record’s twentieth year, Artoffact Records issued a 300-copy vinyl box in 2015 pairing the album with the “Live Wired” live record and the “Circuitry” single, all remastered by Reely; Side-Line reported that The Front Line Assembly 6LP boxset ‘Hard Wired’ is almost sold out that May, and covered the same year’s news that Front Line Assembly finally see ‘Plasticity’ released on a 10 inch vinyl (3 formats). “Hard Wired” streams on Spotify.
About Front Line Assembly
Bill Leeb formed Front Line Assembly in Vancouver, Canada, in 1986, shortly after leaving Skinny Puppy, where he had contributed bass synth and backing vocals between 1985 and 1986 under the name Wilhelm Schroeder. He picked the band name to reflect his view that strength lies in working together. The demo tapes “Nerve War” and “Total Terror” were limited to 100 copies each and mostly passed around among friends, with Rhys Fulber contributing as an unofficial member. The project’s first appearance on record was “Aggression,” on the 1987 Third Mind compilation “For Your Ears Only.” Belgian label KK issued the debut album “The Initial Command” at the end of 1987, with Fulber and Michael Balch assisting, and German label Dossier released “State of Mind” in January 1988. When a planned Nettwerk release fell through, Third Mind put out “Corrosion” and the “Disorder” EP later that year, then signed the band to a three-album deal and licensed “Corrosion” to Wax Trax! for North America.
Balch became an official member in 1988 and left after the 1989 “Gashed Senses & Crossfire” tour to join Ministry and Revolting Cocks. Fulber replaced him and appeared on “Caustic Grip” (1990), the album that started the band’s long partnership with engineer Greg Reely and introduced guitar on “Provision” and “Resist.” Chris Peterson debuted as live percussionist on the tour that followed in early 1991. “Tactical Neural Implant” (1992) turned toward more melodic, multi-layered arrangements and the heavy film sampling that became a fixture of the sound. Five remixes for Fear Factory’s “Fear Is the Mindkiller” EP in 1993 fed directly into “Millennium” (1994), the band’s first industrial metal record, built on metal guitar samples and Devin Townsend’s session work. “Hard Wired” arrived the following September.
Fulber left in 1997 to concentrate on production, and Peterson took his place for “FLAvour of the Weak” (1997), “Implode” (1999) and “Epitaph” (2001), a run that traded the metal influences for breakbeat and big beat. Fulber returned for “Civilization” (2004), and Peterson rejoined for “Artificial Soldier” (2006), the first album to feature Jeremy Inkel and Jared Slingerland. “Improvised Electronic Device” (2010), “Echogenetic” (2013), “Wake Up the Coma” (2019) and “Mechanical Soul” (2021) followed, the last on Metropolis. The band also composed soundtracks for the games “Quake III: Team Arena,” “AirMech” and “WarMech.” Inkel died on 23 January 2018 at the age of 34, from complications of an asthma condition. Leeb has run Delerium since 1987 and Noise Unit since the late 1980s, while Fulber started Conjure One after his 1997 departure and has worked with Fear Factory for decades; Side-Line published a Front Line Assembly interview – Catching up with Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber in 2024. “Hard Wired” turns 31 this year, the record that closed out the guitar-driven stretch the band opened with “Millennium” before the electronics took over again.
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