Front Line Assembly - Killing Grounds (Live At Terminal 5 NYC 03.19.24)

Front Line Assembly (FLA) is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. FLA has developed its own sound incorporating elements of electronic body music and electro-industrial. The band's membership has rotated through the years, including Michael Balch, Rhys Fulber, and Chris Peterson, all of whom are associated with several other acts.

Since their inception, the group have produced over a dozen studio albums and EPs, several of which have charted on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Album chart. The albums Tactical Neural Implant and Hard Wired are two of the group's most successful records, the former being considered a classic among industrial music fans. They have also produced soundtracks for video games such as Quake III: Team Arena (a collaboration with Sonic Mayhem) and AirMech.

Over the years, the band's name has sometimes been published as "Front Line Assembly", and sometimes as "Frontline Assembly". The former spelling is the most common, and the band's members have stated that the version with three separate words is preferred.

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 was meant as a joke. Leeb had no musical training, and learned to play synthesizer while contributing bass synth and backing vocals for the band. He also supported their 1985 tour. Not prepared for another tour, Leeb left Skinny Puppy in early 1986.

Having developed some instrumental skills and music industry experience, and wanting to do more vocal work, Leeb decided to take the risk of starting his own project. Leeb decided to call the project Front Line Assembly to reflect his belief that strength lies in working together.

Leeb started by producing a demo tape, Nerve War, which was distributed on a limited basis. Contacts in the music scene he had gathered while with Skinny Puppy led to contract offers from the first two labels that Leeb later approached with cassettes.

Around this time, Leeb and Rhys Fulber became friends when they discovered they both had a similar interest in underground music. As an unofficial member at this time, Fulber partnered with Leeb during the production of Total Terror and was credited for the song "Black Fluid" on the demo. Both demo releases were limited to 100 and mostly distributed amongst friends.

The band members were influenced by early electronic and industrial acts such as Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, D.A.F., Test Dept, SPK, and Severed Heads, but mainly by the electronic body music style of Front 242.

In March 2018 the band announced a joint European tour with German electro-industrial band Die Krupps under the moniker of "The Machinists United Tour 2018". The tour will be preceded by the release of the soundtrack album WarMech, successor of 2015's AirMech, in June. Also, the band completed work on their 17th studio album, Wake Up the Coma, which was released in February 2019.

In October 2020, the band announced a brand new album, called Mechanical Soul is due out on January 15, 2021. It will reportedly feature guest appearances from Jean-Luc De Meyer of Front 242 and Dino Cazares of Fear Factory.

The band were set to perform as a part of the industrial strength tour, alongside bands Ministry and Helmet, scheduled for late 2021. KMFDM were originally planned to be a part of the tour, but were later replaced with Helmet. The 25-date tour was originally slated for July 2020, but was pushed to March 2021 due to COVID-19. This was pushed back again to October 2021, because of the ongoing uncertainty with the development of the pandemic. However, in September 2021, Ministry announced that they were once again postponing the industrial strength tour due to safety concerns related to the pandemic, this time with the Melvins and Corrosion of Conformity as support. In response to this, Front Line Assembly released a statement via social media, alleging that Ministry had never explained why they were dropping them from the tour or given them forewarning of this, and expressing disappointment with the way that the situation was handled. The band proceeded to announce a headlining US tour for Spring 2022 and a second European co-headline tour with Die Krupps scheduled for August 2022.

Coinciding with "The Machinists Reunited Tour" in August 2022, Cleopatra issued a remastered collection of Front Line Assembly's early works. "Permanent Data 1986-1989" comprises the demo compilations Total Terror I and Total Terror II, the regular releases State of Mind, Corrosion and Disorder as well as the band's first live album. At the same time, Cleopatra re-released the band's remastered first demo Nerve War.

Original Video https://youtu.be/Xc9POla-hIg

Website: https://www.frontlineassembly.com/