Front Line Assembly (FLA) is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy.

The band's membership has rotated through the years, including Michael Balch, Rhys Fulber, and Chris Peterson, all of whom are associated with several other acts.

The albums Tactical Neural Implant and Hard Wired are two of the group's most successful records, the former being considered a classic among industrial music fans.

They have also produced soundtracks for video games such as Quake III: Team Arena (a collaboration with Sonic Mayhem) and AirMech.

[2] Leeb had no musical training, and learned to play synthesizer while contributing bass synth and backing vocals for the band.

[3] Having developed some instrumental skills and music industry experience,[6] and wanting to do more vocal work,[7] Leeb decided to take the risk of starting his own project.

Contacts in the music scene he had gathered while with Skinny Puppy led to contract offers from the first two labels that Leeb later approached with cassettes.

As an unofficial member at this time, Fulber partnered with Leeb during the production of Total Terror and was credited for the song "Black Fluid" on the demo.

Although the contact to Third Mind would later develop into a long-standing collaboration, the band debuted its first album The Initial Command with credited assistance by Fulber and Michael Balch on Belgian independent record label KK at the end of 1987.

[23] In support of their latest release, the band, together with Fulber as live metal percussionist, headed out to Europe and North America for their first tour.

Accompanied by the release of two singles in 1990, "Iceolate" and "Provision", the album raised Front Line Assembly's profile in the industrial music scene and in the media considerably.

[12] The tour in support of the album started in January 1991 in the United States[28] to be followed by a European leg in February which was accompanied by the release of stand-alone single Virus the same month.

[12] Chris Peterson, who would later become a full-time member of Front Line Assembly, gave his debut for the band on this tour, completing the live line-up as percussionist.

In 1992, Front Line Assembly reached a turning point in the band's musical style with the album Tactical Neural Implant.

Asked about this composing style by Industrial Nation, Leeb explained that the band continually experimented with new ways to use technology to make each recording different, and had focused on clarity and sustain in their instrumentation and structure in their songs.

[36][37] In 1993, the band contributed 5 remixes to Fear Factory's EP Fear Is the Mindkiller;[38] working on the EP would eventually influence the band's next album Millennium (1994),[14] which featured a combination of metal guitars, electronic music, and media sampling (much of which was taken from the Michael Douglas film Falling Down) which had become one of the characteristics of industrial rock and industrial metal during the 1990s.

Leeb has stated he was influenced to pursue this style of music after listening to Pantera's "Walk", which he later incorporated into the single "Surface Patterns".

The album was released in a 4-panel digipak and featured three previously unreleased tracks ("Electric Dreams," "Unconscious," and "Armageddon") and nine remixes by several other Industrial acts and names.

[59] Shortly after the release of Echogenetic the band started promoting the album with an extensive tour schedule in Europe and North America.

They continued their tour in Europe in June 2014, playing shows in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Finland and France, this time also in support of Echoes.

[67] October 2014 saw the return of former long-time band member Rhys Fulber, joining Front Line Assembly on their European tour.

[77] However, in September 2021, Ministry announced that they were once again postponing the industrial strength tour due to safety concerns related to the pandemic, this time with the Melvins and Corrosion of Conformity as support.

[78] In response to this, Front Line Assembly released a statement via social media, alleging that Ministry had never explained why they were dropping them from the tour or given them forewarning of this, and expressing disappointment with the way that the situation was handled.

[79][80] Coinciding with "The Machinists Reunited Tour" in August 2022, Cleopatra issued a remastered collection of Front Line Assembly's early works.

The band's early catalogue has been largely described as electronic body music, industrial and electro-industrial from Total Terror to Gashed Senses and Crossfire.

Rhys Fulber has featured as a prominent collaborator with Leeb across many FLA releases, as both found they have a shared interest in electronic music.

Tactical Neural Implant released soon after in 1992 and marked a major change in the band's sound, exploring more melodic and electronic styles throughout the album.

[FLA]vour of the Weak (1997) is similar to Tactical Neural Implant, though it has significant electronica and big beat influences and is possibly the band's most melodic and musically varied album in their entire catalogue.

Flavour' and the next two releases, Implode (1999) and Epitaph (2001), featured Chris Peterson as a collaborator (including future albums) before the return of Fulber on Civilization (2004).