City of Fire is a Canadian

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band formed in 2008. Members include vocalist

Burton C. Bell Burton Christopher Bell (born February 19, 1969) is an American musician and vocalist. He is best known as the co-founder and former frontman of the metal band Fear Factory. Until 2021 he was the only member to perform on all of the band's album ...

Fear Factory Fear Factory is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1989. Throughout the band's career, they have released ten full-length albums and have evolved through a succession of sounds, all in their main style of industrial metal. ...

, bassist

Byron Stroud Byron Stroud (born February 12, 1969) is a Canadian bassist. He is the former bassist for metal bands Fear Factory, Imonolith and Strapping Young Lad, current bassist for metal bands City of Fire and Zimmers Hole, and studio bassist for 3 Inc ...

from

Strapping Young Lad Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, ''Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing' ...

and

Zimmers Hole Zimmers Hole is a Canadian heavy metal band from Vancouver. The band formed in 1991, and features former Strapping Young Lad members Byron Stroud, Jed Simon and Gene Hoglan, along with vocalist Chris Valagao. History ''Bound by Fire'' Zi ...

, and drummer Bob Wagner of

Econoline Crush Econoline Crush is a Canadian rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia, formed in 1992. They have released five studio albums and are known for their charting singles such as "You Don't Know What It's Like", "Home", "Surefire (Never Enough)", " ...

. So far, the band has released two studio albums.

History

The band grew from the one-off reformation in 2008 of Caustic Thought, an early-1990s group featuring Stroud, guitarist Ian White, and drummer Bob Wagner (and, briefly,

Devin Townsend Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

, who replaced

Jed Simon Jedson Louis Simon (born February 27, 1964) is a Canadian musician. He was a member of supergroup Scar the Martyr and has been a member of numerous metal bands, including Front Line Assembly, Strapping Young Lad, Zimmers Hole, and TENET. He is ...

). As both Stroud's other main bands Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad were disbanded or inactive at the time, thought was given to continuing with Caustic Thought and Sho Murray was added to the line-up as a second guitarist. White turned down the vocalist role so Stroud contacted Bell, who accepted. In 2010, the band's self-titled debut album was released. The second pressing of the album contained additional bonus tracks, one of which was a cover of the T. Rex song "Children of the Revolution". Several poorly recorded sample portions of their songs were uploaded on the band's MySpace page throughout 2009, often accompanied with video (consisting mostly of studio footage). In September 2010, City of Fire did its first international tour, supporting

Soulfly Soulfly is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1997, and later based out of Phoenix, Arizona. Soulfly is led by former Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera, who formed the band after he left the Brazilian group in 199 ...

on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, with Jed Simon (

) filling in for White on guitar. Two days after that tour ended, Fear Factory played a week of shows as the major support to

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

. A video for the single "Rising" was uploaded by Stomp Entertainment in May 2010 but has since been taken down. Breaking from the music-video conventions to be expected of typically dark metal fare, "Rising" uses a bright color scheme with kaleidoscopic imagery. In January 2012, City of Fire released a new single through

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form ...

magazine titled "Bad Motivator". On February 25, 2012, the band provided an update on new their upcoming album ''

Trial Through Fire ''Trial Through Fire'' is the second album by City of Fire, the side project of Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell alongside bassist Byron Stroud (Zimmers Hole, ex-3 Inches of Blood, ex-Fear Factory, ex-Strapping Young Lad), drummer Bob Wagner a ...

''. The album was eventually released on April 9, 2013.

Discography

Studio albums

* '' City of Fire'' (2010) * ''

'' (2013)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 2008 Groove metal musical groups