Soul Of A New Machine is the band’s debut album for Roadrunner Records, released on August 25, 1992. Although this record was Fear Factory’s first studio album to be released, it was actually their second album to be recorded, after Concrete, which was recorded in 1991 but not released until 11 years later.
Guitarist Dino Cazares has stated that this album is a concept album, concerning man’s creation of a machine that could be either technological or governmental. The sound of the record is different from the later albums, as it was influenced by many different extreme sub-genres of metal, such as death metal, thrash metal and grindcore, hence making the band an “anomaly” among others since it did not fit into any genre category at that time. The sound was also heavily influenced by Napalm Death and Godflesh.