Christian Olde Wolbers is a Belgian musician, songwriter, and producer who is the guitarist and backing vocalist of the heavy metal bandPowerflo. He is the former bassist, guitarist and backing vocalist of the heavy metal band Fear Factory, and was also in the hardcore punk/crossover thrash band Beowülf.
Early life & career
Olde Wolbers was born in Antwerp, Belgium and moved to the United States in 1993. He was asked to join Fear Factory in December 1993 as a bass player. He recorded five albums with them. The group disbanded in 2002 and when it reformed in 2003, Olde Wolbers had switched to guitar, replacing Dino Cazares. Olde Wolbers is the only bassist that played on a Fear Factory album, as the other bassists only played live. In 2003, he was offered a position of bassist in Ozzy Osbourne's solo band after he jammed with Ozzy, guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Mike Bordin few weeks. He eventually turned down this offer in order to fully concentrate on Fear Factory. In 2006, he played three shows with Korn on their European tour. In 2008, he formed a new band "BURN IT ALL" which also feature Raymond Herrera and former Damageplan singer\HALFORD guitarist Patrick Lachman. They have posted a demo sampler on its MySpace page. In 2009, Olde Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera parted ways with Fear Factory when vocalist Burton C. Bell chose to reform Fear Factory with Dino Cazares, bassist Byron Stroud, and drummer Gene Hoglan. Olde Wolbers has a project Arkaea with fellow ex-Fear Factory drummer Raymond Herrera and Jon Howard and Pat Kavanagh of the bandThreat Signal. On 14 July 2009, Arkaea's debut album, Years in the Darkness was released. Also in Beowülf, where he co-produced their 2011 album Jesus Freak. In early 2014, Olde Wolbers was in a serious motorcycle accident in which he sustained severe injuries, including broken arms, legs and ribs. He is currently close to being recovered. He is also doing skype lessons to help cover his medical bills. In his Skype sessions, he's doing guitar/bass lessons, consulting on the bands/business/production/writing in the Los Angeles Area, entire country or world as well as via Skype. In July 2016, Olde Wolbers joined Threat Signal as their bass player on the Under Reprisal Anniversary tour and is expected to move on as their permanent bass player.
Powerflo
In 2017, Olde Wolbers formed a new band called Powerflo with Senen Reyes, Roy Lozano, Billy Graziadei Fernando Schaefer. The band released their self-titled debut album the same year. Olde Wolbers is the band's bassist and backing vocalist.
Contributions
He contributed upright bass to Devin Townsend's second albumInfinity in 1998. In 2006, he helped produce and mix Mnemic's third album, Passenger, and also produced Bleed the Sky's Murder the Dance and Threat Signal's debut album, Under Reprisal. In 2008, he produced End of the Rope's new album, Till It Bleeds and in 2009, Wolbers produced Years in the Darkness for Arkaea. He filled in as live guitarist for Korn for the first three shows of their European tour. He appears as a guest guitar player on the EP This World by breakbeat production group The Autobots. He produced the vocals for God Forbid's Earthsblood, co-wrote and played bass on Snoop Dogg's album Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss. He helped Cypress Hill with their rock outfit and wrote songs for their Stoned Raiders and Skull & Bones albums. He also played on two songs on Soulfly's debut in 1998. In 2017 he played bass for Isolated Antagonist for their album Oblivion.