BIOGRAPHY – Christian Olde Wolbers

Christian Olde Wolbers is the current guitarist of the band Arkaea. Christian has also played bass and guitar in the industrial metal band Fear Factory.

Born in Belgium in 1973, Christian Olde Wolbers is Dutch by citizenship. He left Belgium to study in the USA between 1991 and 1992. He returned to the US in 1993 for a holiday and met the band Fear Factory. Fear Factory asked him to join the band to replace original bass player Andrew Shives.

Christian Olde Wolbers worked on the “Demanufacture” album in 1995, said to be the band’s best work receiving five Ks from Kerrang magazine. The band then toured extensively throughout the US with other metal acts such as Megadeth, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. The song Zero Signal was featured as part of the soundtrack for the Mortal Kombat computer game.

Christian Olde Wolbers recorded five albums with the band until they broke up in 2002. However a year later Fear Factory reformed with Christian Olde Wolbers changing to lead guitar second time around. This all came to a halt in 2009 when the band split again. This time Christian Olde Wolbers and original Fear factory drummer Raymond Herrera got together to work on Arkaea and released their debut album “Years in the Darkness” in 2009.

Christian Olde Wolbers has worked with many other metal artists, including standing in as a guitarist for Korn on their European tour. Equally talented on bass as lead guitar, Christian Olde Wolbers also plays the cello and is a producer. He has produced several albums including the End of the Ropes album “Let it Bleed” as well as Arkaea’s Year in the darkness album.

Christian Olde Wolbers plays a number of guitars, including Jackson customs and seven string guitars made especially for him by Jacksons’s master guitar builder Mike Shannon. For bass, he favours a Japanese Ibanez Soundgear SR-885.