The boys from Fear Factory have seen “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” a few too many times.

The band’s third album, titled “Obsolete,” continues to explore the band’s fantasy of man vs. the machine.

The album is a continuous story line from beginning to end, telling the band’s apocalyptic story of the organic vs. the digital. Frontman/lyricist Burton C. Bell explained the album in a recent press release.

“The concept of this record is that man is obsolete,” Bell said. “The idea is still man vs. the machine and man vs. the government machine.”

The album traces the life and actions of a man named Edgecrusher, who is serving a prison sentence for public disorder and infrastructure sabotage in a rebel-against-the-machine-run society.

After escaping prison, Edgecrusher is pursued by a law-enforcing machine called the Smasher Devourer, a robot that enforces the nationwide police service called Securitron.

After fleeing the machines, the story ends with Edgecrusher getting caught and burning himself to death in a final act of defiance against the machine-run government.

“Obsolete” is the third chapter in Fear Factory’s ongoing cataclysmic story line.

The story began with the band’s second album titled “Demanufacture” in 1995, which set the grounds for its next release titled “Remanufacture.”

Produced by Rhys Fulber, formerly of Front Line Assembly, “Obsolete” is Fear Factory’s fifth album.

“‘Demanufacture’ told a story,” Bell said. “‘Remanufacture’ was another chapter in the story and ‘Obsolete’ is another part of the Fear Factory concept.

“We’re to the point in the story where man is obsolete. Man has created these machines to make his life easier, but in the long run, it made him obsolete. The machines he created are now destroying him. Man is not the primary citizen on earth.”

After forming in 1992, the band released “Soul of a New Machine” and followed that release with an EP titled “Fear is the Mindkiller (Remix).”

Fear Factory dabbled in the elements of techno with the “Remanufacture” EP. The album was a deviation from the band’s heavy style, upsetting loyal metal fans.

“I have the feeling that people are expecting another techno record and that’s where they’re wrong,” Bell said of Factory’s most recent release. “We made the mistake of making the ‘Remanufacture’ EP album length. People thought it was a full record.”

Fear Factory’s music is self-described as metal angst. The band calls itself extremely alternative, with an industrial rock sound based on a blend of metal and dance. The group’s sound was originally formed because there was a need for something different in Los Angeles.

For nearly a decade, the Los Angeles metal scene had been nothing but glam rock. On Halloween of 1990, three musicians came together aiming to change that.

Fear Factory was formed.

The group was a fresh new addition for metal fans in California. It wasn’t long before people started noticing the group’s hard-hitting riffs and lyrics.

In 1992, RoadRunner Records signed Fear Factory and the band immediately hit the studios. After hiring live bassist Andrew Shives, drummer Raymond Herrera, guitarist Dino Cazares and Bell released “Soul of a New Machine” and the band quickly began to build a following.

In 1993, the band hired Front Line Assembly’s Fulber to remix some songs to create “Fear is the Mindkiller.”

In 1994, Shives left the band. Not long after that, a vacationing Christian Olde Wolbers visited Los Angeles from his home country of Belgium.

While hanging out with Biohazard, Olde met the boys from Fear Factory.

After finding out Christian played bass, the band hired him on as the full-time bassist and went on to record “Demanufacture.”

Drawing more attention than “Soul of A New Machine,” Fear Factory began touring with the likes of Ozzy, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Slayer, and Rammstein, among others.

In 1997, Fear Factory was one of the headlining acts in Australia for The Big Day Out. The band is currently in Cancun filming for MTV’s spring break special.

Still with RoadRunner Records and the same four-man line-up, Fear Factory is taking its angst-filled apocalyptic message on tour to promote “Obsolete.”

“We’ve not changed over time, but we have matured,” Bell said. “We’ve found our niche on this record. We’ve brought it back into Fear Factory so it’s ripping riffs and killer grooves. Our fans know to expect something big.”

Iowa metal fans can expect something big when Fear Factory comes to Super Toad next Wednesday at 7 p.m. with System of a Down, Hed(pe), and Static X.

Tickets are $12.50 in advance, $15 at the door, and are available through TicketMaster.