Ex-FEAR FACTORY Frontman BURTON C. BELL: 'Obsolete' Had 'Warm And Organic' Sound, 'Opposite' Of 'Demanufacture'

Burton C. Bell has reflected on the creation of FEAR FACTORY's landmark 1998 album "Obsolete", describing it as a deliberate departure from the cold, mechanical sound of its predecessor, "Demanufacture".

Bell made his comments while talking to Eonmusic about his forthcoming "Obsolete By Word Of Mouth" events, which take place in October.

"Where 'Demanufacture' has a cold, very technical, mechanical and precise sound, 'Obsolete' is the opposite," Bell explains. "It's warm and organic sounding, but still maintaining that metal industrial sound."

Following the success of "Demanufacture", FEAR FACTORY faced considerable pressure to repeat the formula. Instead, Bell and the band chose to move forward, both musically and conceptually.

"We did not want to reiterate or reinvent 'Demanufacture'," Bell says. "We had to move forward, not just in sound but in concept as well."

"Obsolete" ultimately became a fully realized concept album, with Bell using the track listing as the framework for its narrative. While much of the record explores a dystopian future and humanity's relationship with technology, some of its most emotional moments came from Bell's own experiences.

The album also saw FEAR FACTORY embracing hip-hop in a more pronounced way. Bell says the band were "all fans of hip-hop" and deliberately wanted to bring that influence into the music, particularly on "Edgecrusher". The track featured contributions from members of Canadian hip-hop group SWOLLEN MEMBERS, while rapper Madchild worked with Bell on his vocal delivery.

"Madchild and I really got high in the studio and started writing lyrics," Bell recalls. "He was helping me, almost like a tutorial in hip-hop. He was saying, 'This would be cool. Try and deliver it like this. Deliver it like this.' And it fucking clicked."

Bell also reveals that hip-hop influenced "Descent", with the vocalist drawing inspiration from BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY when developing his vocal approach.

"Hip-hop played an essential role in a couple of the songs — 'Edgecrusher' and 'Descent'," he says.

The song "Resurrection", meanwhile, was inspired by his breakup with musician Tairrie B (MANHOLE, TURA SANTANA, MY RUIN) with whom he was in a relationship during the mid-1990s. Although Bell transformed the personal experience into a broader story about humanity "reviving its own soul", the song remained deeply personal.

"A lot of the lyrics are very personal," Bell says. "What I did to them, I made them ambiguous, maybe in a third-person sense, but they were very personal from personal experiences."

Read the entire interview at Eonmusic.

Three exclusive "Obsolete By Word Of Mouth" October events announced for San Diego, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

For the duration of the presentation, the audience will be asked to put away their phones and remain present, allowing them to absorb the meaning, history and emotion of the story without the distraction of screens, filming, posting or documenting the experience.

During the hour-long presentation, Bell will share stories from the creation of "Obsolete", read his original synopsis written during the album's development, and read the story of "Obsolete" as a performative movement without a microphone. The result is deliberately different from a conventional live performance: part storytelling, part oral history, part personal reflection and part social experiment — told by the artist who was there, created it and lived it. Bell will also spend time with every guest before and after the presentation, making each evening a uniquely personal experience. With attendance capped at only 50 people, there is no traditional divide between artist and audience making this a truly VIP experience.

Each guest will also receive an exclusive, personally autographed commemorative program, created specifically for "Obsolete By Word Of Mouth", featuring original handwritten and typed manuscripts from Bell's collection giving attendees a tangible piece of "Obsolete" history.

"Obsolete By Word Of Mouth" October 2026 dates:

October 6 - San Diego, California
Scorpion Percussion
Guest arrival: 7:00 p.m.
Spoken-word presentation: 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

October 7 - Los Angeles, California
The Crooked Path
Guest arrival: 7:00 p.m.
Spoken-word presentation: 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

October 9 - Las Vegas, Nevada
The Space
Guest arrival: 7:00 p.m.
Spoken-word presentation: 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Tickets: $50.00
Limited to 50 guests per event.

Guests will be asked to silence and put away their cell phones during the presentation. No filming or recording will be permitted.

There will be no screen between the audience and the experience, and no social media feed capable of recreating what happened in the room. The only way the experience travels beyond those 50 people is the way stories once traveled — from one person to another, by word of mouth.

In September 2020, Bell issued a statement officially announcing his departure from FEAR FACTORY, saying that he "cannot align" himself with someone whom he does not trust or respect.

Bell later told Kerrang! magazine that his split with FEAR FACTORY was a long time coming. "It's been on my mind for a while," he said. "These lawsuits [over the rights to the FEAR FACTORY name] just drained me. The egos. The greed. Not just from bandmembers, but from the attorneys involved. I just lost my love for it.

"With FEAR FACTORY, it's just constantly been, like, 'What?!' You can only take so much. I felt like 30 years was a good run. Those albums I've done with FEAR FACTORY will always be out there. I'll always be part of that. I just felt like it was time to move forward."

In May 2025, Burton released the lyric video for his latest solo single "Savages".

Bell previously issued two singles in 2024 — "Anti-Droid" and "Technical Exorcism" — and a cover of RAMMSTEIN's "Du Hast" in 2023.

In June 2025, Bell headed to Australia for a solo run.

Bell played the first concert with his solo band on June 13, 2024 at 1720 in Los Angeles, California.

Backing Bell at his recent gigs 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.

Bell's discography includes multiple live 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 guest vocal appearances with PITCHSHIFTER, CONFLICT, SOIL, STATIC-X, SOULFLY and DELAIN, among others. He's the vocalist of ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS and CITY OF FIRE and, of course, the co-creator of FEAR FACTORY and the only musician to appear on every FEAR FACTORY release from 1992 through 2024.

FEAR FACTORY created a sound that revolutionized extreme metal, defined in no small part by Bell's innovative scream/sing dichotomy and the influences he brought from post-punk and industrial. Songs like "Replica", "Linchpin", "Edgecrusher", "Fear Campaign", "Archetype", "Cyber Waste" and "Zero Signal" are modern metal anthems. "Demanufacture" (1995) and the RIAA gold-certified "Obsolete" (1998) are genre-redefining works heralded by fans and critics as essential albums. Orwell, Bradbury, "Blade Runner", and sophisticated sci-fi and fantasy works fed Bell's lyrics and concepts.

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 support acts in their early stages.