In an interview with Steel Magnitude ultimately month’s Steel Corridor Of Fame in Anaheim, California, former FEAR FACTORY frontman Burton C. Bell spoke about his plans for the approaching months. He stated (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’ve launched three singles prior to now 12 months and a half. I am doing one tune at a time with movies, simply pushing it that means. And I’ve bought some new music. I am mastering a brand new tune proper now and dealing on vocals, recording vocals for one more tune proper now. I’ve some plans, however I’ve bought some new music on the horizon very quickly.”
Requested if he has assembled a band for studio work and for touring functions, Burton stated: “I’ve a band put collectively — an awesome bunch of fellows, all native to [Los Angeles]. They’re in — I would not say well-known bands, however they’re in very nicely revered bands in L.A. And I really like these guys. I curated these guys for the previous two years.
“So I’ve bought some new music, engaged on at present,” he added. “And that is the way it’s working. I am very blissful. It is simply shifting ahead.”
In a separate interview with Actuality Verify TV performed on January 24 at this 12 months’s NAMM conference in Anaheim, Bell acknowledged about his future plans: “I’ve bought new music approaching the horizon beneath my very own identify, Burton C. Bell. I’ve bought an awesome band behind me. I’ve bought a brand new grasp at present that I authorised of. So I’ve simply been releasing singles as a substitute of an album — so I am simply releasing singles. And the subsequent tune is a banger, dude. It is a banger. Persons are gonna be stoked.”
Requested about doable reside exhibits in assist of his new music, Burton stated: “I am engaged on some excursions. I do have a tour I will be saying in February — not within the States, sadly. However I am gonna announce a tour in February.”
Relating to why there hasn’t been a U.S. tour introduced but, Burton stated: “I’ve gotta do it proper. It must be the precise bundle to current myself correctly the way in which I wanna be offered. ‘Trigger now that I’m in management, I am gonna do it the way in which it ought to be completed.”
Video of Bell‘s December 13, 2024 live performance at The Regent in Los Angeles, California because the assist act for GOD FORBID might be seen under.
Bell performed the primary live performance together with his solo band on June 13, 2024 at 1720 in Los Angeles, California.
Backing Bell on the 1720 gig have been guitarist Henrik Linde (THE VITALS, DREN),drummer Ryan “Junior” Kittlitz (ALL HAIL THE YETI, THE ACID HELPS),bassist Tony Baumeister (ÆGES) and multi-instrumentalist Stewart Cararas.
When the 1720 live performance was first introduced, Burton referred to as the gig a “historic occasion” and vowed to carry out “new songs and classics spanning my profession.”
In August 2024, Bell launched a brand new solo single, “Technical Exorcism”, together with the official Don Pancho Movies-directed music video for the observe.
In March 2024, Bell, who launched his debut solo single that very same month, “Anti-Droid”, was requested by Knotfest‘s “Nu Pod” podcast if he has a whole album’s value of fabric prepared to come back out. He responded: “No. I am engaged on particular person singles at a time. I do have a document’s value of music. However I am adopting the hip-hop technique the place as a substitute of arising, releasing a single after which the entire album comes out a few weeks later, after which a few weeks later, when that album is out, the momentum of the one and the entire document simply sort of slows and turns into sluggish and simply virtually crashes. So I discovered watching hip-hop artists and different artists as nicely, [where] they’d simply launch a single at a time, hold that momentum, hold that highlight on them and simply launch a single each few weeks and simply hold that momentum going.”
He continued: “At the present time, the quick consideration span of the plenty could be very obvious. There’s this outdated saying in economics, much less is extra — provide and demand, much less is extra. So in case you simply feed ’em just a bit bit at a time, they wanna hear extra. And that is the place the curiosity stays. They’re compelled to maintain listening. ‘Oh, he is bought one thing else popping out. Oh, he is bought one thing else popping out.'”
Bell went on to tease his subsequent single, which he described as “heavy”, “groovy” and “darkish. It is extra uptempo. It is bought extra guitar in it,” he revealed. “And it is gonna be superior. I’ve bought a few visitor artists on this subsequent observe that it is gonna be sick. I recruited Paul Ferguson once more, and I’ve additionally recruited Norman Westberg, guitar participant from SWANS. SWANS is certainly one of my favourite bands of all time and it is a band that influenced not simply me however NEUROSIS — a number of bands — GODFLESH.”
“My new music is an amalgamation of every part I’ve ever completed, and I am gonna mainly put all of it collectively into this bundle and simply see what occurs,” he defined. “And the reside present, it is gonna be heavy, it is gonna be groovy. And I wanna create a vibe. I actually do.”
When “Anti-Droid” was first launched in March 2024, Bell stated in a press release: “I am beginning my solo profession. I am working with totally different producers and co-songwriters, making music that I really like, with full management of the music and inventive route.”
Bell‘s discography consists of a number of reside and recorded collaborations with BLACK SABBATH icon Geezer Butler and JOURNEY‘s Deen Castronovo (as G/Z/R); industrial maverick Al Jourgensen and MINISTRY; and visitor vocal appearances with PITCHSHIFTER, CONFLICT, SOIL, STATIC-X, SOULFLY and DELAIN, amongst others. He is the vocalist of ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS and CITY OF FIRE and, in fact, the co-creator of FEAR FACTORY and the one musician to look on each FEAR FACTORY launch from 1992 by way of 2024.
FEAR FACTORY created a sound that revolutionized excessive metallic, outlined in no small half by Bell‘s revolutionary scream/sing dichotomy and the influences he introduced from post-punk and industrial. Songs like “Reproduction”, “Linchpin”, “Edgecrusher”, “Worry Marketing campaign”, “Archetype”, “Cyber Waste” and “Zero Sign” are fashionable metallic anthems. “Demanufacture” (1995) and the RIAA gold-certified “Out of date” (1998) are genre-redefining works heralded by followers and critics as important albums. Orwell, Bradbury, “Blade Runner”, and complex sci-fi and fantasy works fed Bell‘s lyrics and ideas.
The band toured the world with METALLICA, SLIPKNOT, KORN, MEGADETH and OZZY OSBOURNE, taking bands like SYSTEM OF A DOWN and STATIC-X out as assist acts of their early phases. After years of behind-the-scenes band member turmoil and authorized points, Bell left FEAR FACTORY within the fall of 2020.
Bell stated “Anti-Droid” is “a press release about breaking free. Breaking the bonds of what I felt was a jail in some ways. Not simply financially or contractually however creatively, as nicely. I felt constrained to this format we would written ourselves into. The ‘manufacturing facility’ would not have a capital F. It is the manufacturing facility of the music business, a sure type of enterprise, and priorities. Being a slave to a longtime mind-set will not be actually freedom. I’m shifting ahead.”
The 55-year-old Bell had been largely inactive on the musical entrance since formally saying his departure from FEAR FACTORY in September 2020. On the time he stated that he couldn’t “align” himself with somebody whom he didn’t belief or respect, an obvious reference to FEAR FACTORY founding guitarist Dino Cazares.
Throughout an look on a Could 2023 episode of the “Residence Is The place The Darkish Is” podcast, Bell mirrored on his musical journey to this point, saying: “I’ve had a number of unbelievable ups in my profession, a number of unbelievable excessive factors. I’ve had some devastatingly low factors. However for me, that is all I wanna do.
“I contemplate myself an artist — multifaceted, however at the beginning I am a musician; I am a singer. So I wanna hold persevering with that,” he defined.
“I really like acting on stage. I really like being out in entrance of the gang. I really like the vitality of the viewers, and I miss it utterly.”
“I’m planning — I am making steps to get again onstage.”
In March 2023, Bell was requested by Joshua Toomey of the “Discuss Toomey” podcast the way it felt to see FEAR FACTORY going out on tour with another person singing the components he initially wrote and recorded with the band. He responded: “It would not have an effect on me in any respect. To be trustworthy, I have never been this blissful in a very long time. Extra energy to them, however I am simply shifting ahead in my very own life, my very own profession, and I am simply making an attempt to make a reputation for myself.”
Requested if he has checked out any of the movies on YouTube of FEAR FACTORY performing together with his alternative, the Italian-born singer Milo Silvestro, Bell stated: “No, I do not. I do not care to.”
Burton went on to say that he would not thoughts being requested about FEAR FACTORY even supposing he’s not within the band. “FEAR FACTORY, it is what I am recognized for,” he defined. “And the 30 years I had with FEAR FACTORY have been a few of the proudest moments of my profession. And every part I’ve ever completed in FEAR FACTORY I am very happy with. Even a few of the questionable issues I’ve completed in FEAR FACTORY I am nonetheless happy with. It was an awesome legacy.”
Throughout an April 2022 look on an episode of “The Ex-Man” podcast hosted by Doc Coyle (BAD WOLVES),Bell touched upon FEAR FACTORY‘s newest album, “Aggression Continuum”, which was launched in June 2021 through Nuclear Blast Information. The LP, which was recorded primarily in 2017, options Bell and fellow authentic FF member Dino Cazares (guitar) alongside drummer Mike Heller.
“I used to be simply blissful that document lastly got here out,” Burton stated. “We completed that document in 2017. By the point it got here out, I might forgotten all about it. ‘Oh, yeah, I do not forget that tune. Oh yeah.’
“There’s some good songs on that document. The tune ‘Collapse’ is an efficient tune. The title observe ‘Monolith’ is an efficient tune,” he added, referencing the LP’s authentic working title, earlier than it was modified by Cazares.
When Coyle famous that the combo on “Aggression Continuum” is “nice,” Bell hesitated for a few seconds earlier than reluctantly agreeing. “I suppose,” he stated. “Once I completed the document [in 2017], the document was completed and agreed upon after which additional work was completed with out my say.”
Elsewhere within the chat, Burton admitted that “it was tough” for him to depart FEAR FACTORY. “Stepping away from FEAR FACTORY was not a simple choice by [any] means,” he stated. “However what I skilled for the ten years earlier than that, the lawsuits, the acrimony, that was the one which killed me. And I simply needed to step away to comprehend, , they will take all these items from me — they will take the cash, they will take the royalties, they will take the trademark away from me — and I spotted that did not outline me. They’ll take that, however I am nonetheless Burton C. Bell, motherfucker, and no matter I have they cannot take. So I am simply sort of shifting ahead and doing new issues.”
Based on Bell, hardship is par for the course for many musicians, who typically discover themselves victims of unhealthy contracts, unscrupulous administration and, all too typically, what seems to be a penchant for self-destruction.
“I knew a very long time in the past I needed to be an artist — means earlier than I used to be in FEAR FACTORY,” he stated. “Once I was in highschool, I used to be, like, ‘I wanna be an artist.’ To be an artist, you’ve got gotta endure. You’ve got gotta perceive that folks wanna take from you the complete time — what you create they wanna become profitable off of and take it away from you and simply offer you a pittance. However being bitter will not be my type — by no means has been.
“No matter negativity has occurred prior to now with FEAR FACTORY would not even maintain as much as the quantity of positivity that has occurred,” he continued. “If you consider the destructive, it could possibly weigh you down a lot, however it’s not likely that a lot compared to what the band achieved, what we created, what we supplied to the music world, and for that I am proud and really blissful.
“Nobody likes to speak to a bitter individual in any respect,” Burton added. “Me for one. It is, like, ‘Man, simply recover from it and simply transfer on.’ ‘Trigger holding on to the previous would not serve me something, it would not serve anyone else something. Transfer on and present ’em what you can do from that time ahead.”
Bell‘s exit from FEAR FACTORY got here greater than two weeks after Cazares launched a GoFundMe marketing campaign to help him with the manufacturing prices related to the discharge of FEAR FACTORY‘s newest LP.
Bell later advised Kerrang! journal that his cut up with FEAR FACTORY was a very long time coming. “It has been on my thoughts for some time,” he stated. “These lawsuits [over the rights to the FEAR FACTORY name] simply drained me. The egos. The greed. Not simply from bandmembers, however from the attorneys concerned. I simply misplaced my love for it.
“With FEAR FACTORY, it is simply always been, like, ‘What?!’ You’ll be able to solely take a lot. I felt like 30 years was an excellent run. These albums I’ve completed with FEAR FACTORY will all the time be on the market. I am going to all the time be a part of that. I simply felt prefer it was time to maneuver ahead.”
In 2023, Bell unveiled “Paradise Discovered”, his debut exhibition of photographic works, on the Vincent Castiglia Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The images Bell offered have been representational of his industrial and science-fiction aesthetic.
“Paradise Discovered” consisted of 20 authentic full-color pictures of deserted industrial buildings taken in darkness and fog from 2002 to 2003. Bell‘s photos are printed on aluminum utilizing the dye sublimation course of — an method Bell calls “celluloid impressionism.”
Bell‘s ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS venture launched its second full-length album, “Apocrypha”, in October 2020 through Dissonance Productions.
