Hard Wired#Singles

The album was produced during the course of roughly five months. Singer Bill Leeb wrote the lyrics after the music was completed. The usual procedure for the band, as Leeb explained: "We write [...] the music and then once we've got it finished, then I sit at home and start on the lyrics. I can't imagine writing any other way. [...] I think with our music it's usually the sounds that inspire us."{{cite interview |last=Leeb |first=Bill |subject-link=Bill Leeb |title=Front Line Assembly |work=Terra Industria |date=1996 |publisher=NWBT Publishing |location=Fairfax, Virginia |issue=3 |page=6 |url=https://archive.org/details/terraindustria3/page/n6/mode/2up}} Lyrics-wise, the album addresses topics such as materialism and environmental issues, with an emphasis on the influence of technology: "I think most of the lyrics are basically about man versus technology. Basically, we’re destroying our planet with technology. At the same time, technology is the only thing that can save us. It's this constant struggle between these two forces that is making us go in whatever direction we're all going."

Hard Wired was the band's first release for Off Beat.{{cite magazine |author=deadhead |title=eyeshot |url=https://archive.org/details/musicfromtheemptyquarter12/page/n3 |magazine=Music From the Empty Quarter |location=Ilford |publisher=The Empty Quarter |date=August 1995 |issue=12 |page=4 |issn=0964-542X |oclc=1057117763}} It has sold at least 50,000 copies worldwide.{{cite web | url=http://offbeatassault.com/offhome.htm | title=Off Beat Records – Brief News | publisher=Off Beat | date=June 1, 1997 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19970703161159/http://offbeatassault.com/offhome.htm | archivedate=July 3, 1997 | accessdate=July 22, 2014}} The limited edition with 5,000 copies was sold out in two weeks.

Coinciding with Front Line Assembly's tour through Europe in support of Improvised Electronic Device,{{cite news |date=September 22, 2011 |title=Front Line Assembly on vinyl |url=http://www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be/en/news/2011/front-line-assembly-on-vinyl/ |newspaper=Peek-A-Boo |location=Belgium |accessdate=August 6, 2014 }} Hard Wired was re-released in August 2011 by German label Black Rain Records as limited edition picture vinyl with a circulation of 500.{{cite web | url=http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=46686_0_2_0_C | title=Mega limited picture vinyl release for Frontline Assembly's 'Hard Wired' | work=Side-Line | date=August 4, 2011 | last=Van Isacker | first=Bernard | accessdate=May 2, 2014}} It contains only seven songs and lacks the tracks "Mortal", "Modus Operandi" and "Transparent Species".

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Hard Wired in 2015, Canadian label Artoffact released a limited box set vinyl edition of the album with a circulation of 300 that included the Live Wired live album and the Circuitry single, all of which were remastered by Greg Reely.{{cite news |author=Noisey Staff |date=March 14, 2015 |title=Premiere: Listen to the remastered 'Circuitry' EP from Front Line Assembly's massive new boxset |url=http://noisey.vice.com/blog/front-line-assembly-circuitry |work=Vice |location=New York City |access-date=March 22, 2015}}

Circuitry is the only single taken from Hard Wired. The limited edition came as a two CD Digipak packaging with different artwork that didn't include the second CD.{{cite web | url=http://www.mindphaser.com/index.php?page_id=271 | title=Front line Assembly > Circuitry | work=Mindphaser.com | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531124920/http://www.mindphaser.com/index.php?page_id=271 | archivedate=May 31, 2012 | accessdate=April 22, 2014}} This CD, titled Circuitry Disc 2, was part of the limited edition box of Hard Wired and packed in a slipcase.{{cite web | url=http://www.mindphaser.com/index.php?page_id=643 | title=Front Line Assembly > Hard Wired Limited Edition Box Set (Bonus Disc: Circuitry Disc 2) | work=Mindphaser.com | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516015846/http://www.mindphaser.com/index.php?page_id=643 | archivedate=May 16, 2012 | accessdate=April 22, 2014}} The first disc is a Mixed Mode CD and contains interactive content. It includes the official video for the track "Millennium" from the 1994 album of the same name and photo galleries. The data track is listed as first track titled "CD-ROM File" on the back cover. The track is only playable on computers running Windows and requires at least Windows 3.1.{{Cite AV media | people=Front Line Assembly | title=Circuitry | year=1995 | type=Back cover | publisher=Off Beat, Metropolis, Energy}} Disc 1 includes three remixes of "Circuitry" two of which are from Biosphere and Haujobb. The song "Epidemic" is a non-album track. The second disc includes another remix of "Circuitry" as well as non-album tracks "Destructive Transformation" and "Hydrogen". The idea to involve other artists in remixing originated from the label Off Beat.

Although the following single Plasticity did not appear on Hard Wired it evolved from the album's production process. "It is part of the same sessions", said Rhys Fulber in an interview with Sonic Boom Magazine.{{cite web | url=http://www.sonic-boom.com/interview/front.line.assembly-1.interview.html | title=Interview: Front Line Assembly - 2/29/96 | publisher=Sonic Boom | author=Jester | date=February 29, 1996 | accessdate=April 1, 2014}} According to Fulber this was intentional and was already done with the Virus single: "We kept it off the album to release later [...] It gives people a reason to check it out because if you release it as a single that is already on album no one is really going to care." Along with the original version and a Haujobb remix the single features non-album track "Replicant". A video clip was shot in Vancouver for the track "Plasticity" which also received airplay on Much Music. Vocalist Bill Leeb described the video as "very techno-orientated and hard-driving" with "a lot of computer images" and being "virtual reality-related".{{cite interview |last=Leeb |first=Bill |subject-link=Front Line Assembly |interviewer=Linda Maddocks |title=Linda Maddocks With Frontline Assembly |work=Videowave Episode 191 |date=April 16, 1996 |publisher=Videowave |location=New York}} The video won the award for Best Alternative Video at the 7th annual MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto in 1996.{{cite magazine |last=LaRose |first=Sean |date=September 30, 1996 |title=Morissette, MacIsaac take three at MuchMusic Awards |magazine=RPM |location=Toronto |publisher=RPM Music Publications |volume=64 |issue=7 |page=8 |issn=0315-5994 |oclc=1080361200}}

The track "Plasticity" is featured in the article series 101 Greatest Industrial Songs of All Time in COMA Music Magazine where it holds rank 70.{{cite web | url=http://coma-online.com/feature-101-greatest-industrial-songs-80-61/ | title=101 Greatest Industrial Songs of All Time' | last=Schock | first=David | publisher=COMA | date=March 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105212247/http://coma-online.com/feature-101-greatest-industrial-songs-80-61/ |archive-date=November 5, 2014 | accessdate=April 22, 2014}}

Most tracks of the singles were re-released in 1999 through Off Beat on the compilation album Explosion, together with tracks from the "Colombian Necktie" and "Comatose" singles. The timing of its release to coincide with the release of Implode was met with Bill Leeb's disapproval.{{cite web | url=http://www.mindphaser.com/index.php?page_id=289 | title=Front Line Assembly > Explosion | work=Mindphaser.com | date=April 30, 2005 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531125715/http://www.mindphaser.com/index.php?page_id=289 | archivedate=May 31, 2012 | accessdate=July 15, 2014}} Plasticity was re-released in 2012 by German record label Infacted Recordings,{{cite web | url=http://www.infacted-recordings.de/releases-infacted-recordings/ | title=Infacted Recordings Releases | publisher=Infacted Recordings | accessdate=April 1, 2014}} limited to 1,000 copies.{{cite news |date=January 27, 2012 |title=Plasticity by Front Line Assembly re-released |url=http://www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be/en/news/2012/plasticity-by-front-line-assembly-re-released/ |newspaper=Peek-A-Boo |location=Belgium |accessdate=August 6, 2014 }} The rereleased version contains the "Fatalist" single and the "Prophecy" single as additional tracks. A remastered vinyl version of the single was issued in July 2015 by Artoffact. Among the tracks already found on the original single it features another hitherto unpublished remix by Haujobb called "Plasticity (Dope Experience)".{{cite news |last=Barkan |first=Jonathan |date=May 15, 2015 |title=Front Line Assembly 'Plasticity' Remaster Stream |url=http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3345179/front-line-assembly-plasticity-remaster-stream-exclusive/ |work=Bloody Disgusting |location=Beverly Hills |access-date=August 26, 2015}}

Hard Wired makes extensive use of audio clips from a number of films.{{cite web | url=http://www.mindphaser.com/archive/samples/ | title=Front Line Assembly samples | work=Mindphaser.com | accessdate=August 6, 2014 | archive-date=June 25, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140625164409/http://www.mindphaser.com/archive/samples/ | url-status=dead }}

• True Romance
• In the Mouth of Madness
• Lifeforce
• Stargate
• Speed
• The Puppet Masters
• No Escape
• Romeo Is Bleeding
• The Crow
• Lethal Weapon
• Alien 3

Some tracks use samples from Richard D. James songs, namely "Isopropanol" and "Dodeccaheedron" from his 1994 album Classics as well as "Isopropophlex" from his 1991 EP Analogue Bubblebath Vol I. Also sound effects of the video game Doom can be heard on Hard Wired.

{{Track listing

| all_writing = Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber

| extra_column = Sample(s)

| title1 = Neologic Spasm

| extra1 = {{Collapsible list|title=Contains samples of:|titlestyle=font-weight:normal;background:transparent;text-align:left|

• True Romance (1993)
• In the Mouth of Madness (1994)}}

| length1 = 5:51

| title2 = Paralyzed

| length2 = 5:30

| title3 = Re-Birth

| length3 = 5:19

| title4 = Circuitry

| length4 = 5:55

| title5 = Mortal

| note5 = Instrumental

| length5 = 5:42

| title6 = Modus Operandi

| length6 = 5:47

| title7 = Transparent Species

| length7 = 7:15

| title8 = Barcode

| length8 = 6:11

| title9 = Condemned

| length9 = 5:51

| title10 = Infra Red Combat

| length10 = 8:49

}}

• Bill Leeb – production, keyboards, vocals
• Rhys Fulber – production, programming, keyboards

• Devin Townsend – electric guitar

• Greg Reely – engineering, mixing
• Delwyn Brooks – assistant engineering
• Dave McKean – design, illustration, photography

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Category:Front Line Assembly albums

Category:1995 albums

Category:Albums with cover art by Dave McKean

Category:Metropolis Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Rhys Fulber