Editing Fear Factory (section)

===''Digimortal'' and demise (2001–2002)===
{{More citations needed section|date=December 2014}}
{{Main|Digimortal (album)}}

In early 2001, Fear Factory was asked to headline [[SnoCore Tour|SnoCore Rock]]. The success of ''Obsolete'' and "Cars" was a turning point for the band; Roadrunner Records was now keen on capitalizing on the band's sales potential and pressured the band to record more accessible material for the follow-up album, titled ''Digimortal'', which was released in April 2001. Few weeks before its release, they were touring in Europe with [[One Minute Silence]].

They went on a long headlining North American tour during 2001, then played in much larger European festivals like Bizarre Festival, [[Pukkelpop]], [[Lowlands Festival]] and Leeds & Reading Festival. They then went on the first Roadrunner Roadrage tour in North America, toured Europe with [[Devin Townsend]] and [[Godflesh]] and played in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

''Digimortal'' made the Top 40 on the Billboard album charts, the Top 20 in Canada and the Top 10 of the Australian album charts. The track "[[Linchpin (song)|Linchpin]]" reached the Mainstream Rock Top 40. A remix of "Invisible Wounds" was included on the ''[[Resident Evil (2002 film)|Resident Evil]]'' film soundtrack, and an instrumental digipak bonus track called "Full Metal Contact" was originally written for the video game, ''[[Demolition Racer]]''. A VHS/DVD release called ''[[Digital Connectivity]]'', which documents each of the four album periods of the band via interviews, live clips, music videos and tour/studio footage, was released in January 2002.

Although ''Digimortal'' had a successful start, the sales did not reach the levels of ''Obsolete'' and the band received little tour support. The direction of the album coupled with strong personal differences between some of the band members created a rift that escalated to the point where Bell announced his exit in March 2002. The band disbanded immediately thereafter; its publicists said this was "largely because vocalist Burton C. Bell is tired of playing angry, aggressive music and wants to form a band that's more indie-rock-oriented". In a final collaboration, the group recorded two songs for the video game ''[[The Terminator: Dawn of Fate]]'' that month.<ref name="shuttingdown">{{cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1452793/fear-factory-shutting-down.jhtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107134950/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1452793/fear-factory-shutting-down.jhtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 7, 2012 |title=Fear Factory Shutting Down |publisher=MTV |access-date=September 26, 2015}}</ref> Fear Factory's contractual obligations remained unfulfilled, however, and Roadrunner did not release them without controversially issuing the ''Concrete'' album in 2002 and the [[B-side]]s and rarities compilation, ''[[Hatefiles]]'', in 2003. During his time away from Fear Factory, Bell with John Bechdel started a side project called [[Ascension of the Watchers]], which released its first EP, ''Iconoclast'', independently via their online store in 2005.