Dino Cazares was born in Baja California on September 2, 1967 and is best known as the lead guitarist in death metal band Fear Factory.
Prior to Fear Factory, Cazares was a member of the grindcore band Excruciating Terror. However, in 1989, Dino Cazares met drummer Raymond Herrera and they formed a new band called Ulceration, changing the name in 1990 to Fear Factory.
The band started working on their first album Concrete which was finally released in 1992 with a name change to “Soul of a New Machine” following a change of record label and eventual signing to Roadrunner.
The band released a further five albums and were influential in the genre of industrial death metal until they split up temporarily in 2002. Fear Factory reformed later that year without Dino Cazares instead replaced him with bassist Christian Olde Wolbers on guitar.
Dino Cazares released two albums, Corridos de Muerte in 2002 and Cristo Satanico in 2006 under the name Asesino (Assassin) his nickname. That band featured Static-X bassist Tony Campos on bass and vocals, and Raymond Herrera on drums.
In 2005, Dino Cazares was chosen as a team captain for the Roadrunner United album for which he wrote four songs and contributed with other Roadrunner Records artists.
Dino Cazares then created the group Divine Heresy signed to Roadrunner Records and Century Media Records.
The Divine Heresy debut album “Bleed the Fifth” was released in 2007 followed by a second album “Bringer of Plagues” released in 2009. During a live show, Dino Cazares described Divine Heresy as “similar to Fear Factory” but that the music “just isn’t as good as Fear Factory”.
Dino Cazares has also been involved in other musical side projects including Brujera a Mexican metal band that he played with between 1993 and 2000 and Nailbomb a short-lived project that produced only one album in 1994.
Dino Cazares is often identified by his fast alternate picking rhythm guitar technique; a distinctive “machine-gun” style easily identifiable in the music of Fear Factory. He did not play any guitar solos in Fear Factory, feeling that lengthy guitar solos did not suit the sound of the band. However, his work with Divine Heresy and other bands display his solo style.
Dino Cazares’ main guitars in Fear Factory were custom-made 7-string Ibanez models with Seymour Duncan Blackouts pickups installed, usually detuned a whole step [A,D,G,C,F,A,D] This gave Dino Cazares a more even tuning between the lower and higher strings.
Dino Cazares’ main guitar in Asesino is an Ibanez prototype 8-string guitar. With this guitar, he uses a standard tuning with two extra bass strings. (F#, B, E, A, D, G, B, E)