Arkaea

T

he act was formed by Raymond Herrera (drums) and Christian Olde Wolbers (guitar), who each had just left Fear Factory and decided to take this side project a little more seriously. They recorded a demo, sent it to Threat Signal (and later IMonolith) vocalist Jon Howard and Arkaea was born. They attempted to recruit Sam Rivers for bass, but he declined due to location. Ryan Martinie of Mudvayne then stepped up to offer his services but could not tour due to commitments with Mudvayne. Finally, fellow Threat Signal member, Pat Kavanagh took the bass.

Their debut 13 track album, Years in the Darkness (2009), featured tracks originally destined for a new Fear Factory album. In its first week, the album sold 980 copies, but remained panned by critics.

Beginning in January 2009, Arkaea toured heavily through the US Europe, continuing to tour through November 2010; the highlight of the tour being their appearance at 2009's Germany Wacken Open Air.

Despite releasing a short pre-production demo in 2012 and promising a new album later that year, the band has not been publicly active since. In 2011, Olde Wolbers moved on to Beowülf; Herrera took up entrepreneurial ventures. In December 2019, Wolbers stated in an Instagram post that he had started working on a new Arkaea album, but also noted that Herrera would be "too busy" to contribute.