Fear Factory Asked Sarah McLachlan to Sing on Obsolete Album Track

Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan is best known for her ’90s hits “Sweet Surrender” and “Building a Mystery.” If you were of music-fandom age in those years — or if you’ve simply got a penchant for soft rock radio stations to this day– you probably know one or both of them:

Around this time, Fear Factory were working on Obsolete, which would come out in 1998 and go on to become one of their most-popular and beloved albums. And if they’d had their way, McLachlan would’ve provided guest vocals to one of the album’s tracks, “Timelessness.”

Guitarist Dino Cazares revealeth that little factoid on Twitter early this morning, explaining:

“Fact #2: We asked the alternative singer Sarah McLachlan to sing on the song Timelessness but when she heard how heavy the band was she declined. If u don’t [know] who she is google her.”

If you’re wondering what Fact #1 was, he tweeted that earlier in the day, saying:

“Obsolete facts #1: We recorded the album in Vancouver Canada and a very talented artist by the name of @MadChild57 rewrote the verse lyrics to Edgecrusher, so the verse rhythm could sound harder and flow better.”

Very interesting! The Canadian connection also makes sense with regards to McLachlan, although her native Halifax, Nova Scotia, is about as far from Vancouver as one could get and still be in Canada (not sure where she was living in 1998, though).

Anyhoo, have a listen to “Timelessness” below and see if you can imagine McLachlan’s voice on it instead of Burton Seabell’s. I can most certainly understand why the band wanted McLachlan for the track, a far cry from the band’s usual heavy fare.