Ex-FEAR FACTORY Singer BURTON C. BELL Announces 'Obsolete By Word Of Mouth' October 2026 U.S. Spoken-Word Dates

Former FEAR FACTORY singer Burton C. Bell has announced "Obsolete By Word Of Mouth", a rare and deeply personal spoken-word experience celebrating the 30th anniversary of the band's "Obsolete" album and offering audiences the opportunity to hear the story behind the landmark LP directly from the artist whose voice, lyrics and vision helped define it.

Three exclusive October events announced for San Diego, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

This is not a concert. "Obsolete By Word Of Mouth" is a small-scale social experiment built around both the story of "Obsolete" and the way that story will be experienced and carried forward.

The concept of "By Word Of Mouth" extends beyond the presentation itself. The experience is designed as a return to a time before the proliferation of the Internet, cell phones and social media when people were fully present for a moment and the stories of what they witnessed traveled from person to person.

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.

What happens inside the room stays with the 50 people who experienced it. Much like in the past, those guests will then carry the story forward by word of mouth, sharing what they experienced with their friends and comrades in their own words. It is a personal experience that social media cannot duplicate.

Limited to only 50 guests per event, "Obsolete By Word Of Mouth" removes the traditional barriers between artist and audience, creating an intimate environment in which Bell can revisit the ideas, stories and creative process surrounding one of the most significant albums of his career.

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.

Thirty years after "Obsolete", Burton C. Bell is opening the story again in an entirely different way.

Three cities. Fifty guests per room. One voice. One shared experience. No filming. No recording. No scrolling. Just the story of "Obsolete", told by the man who lived it — and carried forward by the people who were there.

For tickets and more information, visit www.burtoncbell.com.

During a February 2026 appearance on the Scandalous podcast, Bell touched upon FEAR FACTORY's latest album, "Aggression Continuum", which was released in June 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP, which was recorded primarily in 2017, features Bell and fellow original FF member Dino Cazares (guitar) alongside drummer Mike Heller.

"We finished that record in 2017 and it was titled 'Monolith'," Bell said. "So to me that was the last record, 'Monolith'. To me it was the tombstone and 'Monolith' was the epitaph."

Asked if he had any "bad feelings" about the fact that FEAR FACTORY went ahead and released "Aggression Continuum" with his vocals on it even though he had been officially out of the band for almost a year at that point, Bell said: "No, I didn't feel that way. But I was really disappointed that they changed everything. They kept my vocals. I mean, the album was done in 2017. It was mixed, mastered. It had an album cover, had a title, and then after three years, I departed and shit happened. They went and changed everything. So, that's the one record I won't sign."

Bell previously talked about "Aggression Continuum" during an April 2022 appearance on "The Ex-Man" podcast. The singer said at the time: "I was just happy that record finally came out. We finished that record in 2017. By the time it came out, I'd forgotten all about it. 'Oh, yeah, I remember that song. Oh yeah.'

"There's some good songs on that record. The song 'Collapse' is a good song. The title track 'Monolith' is a good song," he added, referencing the LP's original working title, before it was changed by Cazares.

When podcast host Doc Coyle noted that the mix on "Aggression Continuum" is "great," Bell hesitated for a couple of seconds before reluctantly agreeing. "I guess," he said. "When I finished the record [in 2017], the record was done and agreed upon and then further work was done without my say."

Elsewhere in "The Ex-Man" chat, Burton admitted that "it was difficult" for him to leave FEAR FACTORY. "Stepping away from FEAR FACTORY was not an easy decision by [any] means," he said. "But what I experienced for the 10 years before that, the lawsuits, the acrimony, that was the one that killed me. And I just had to step away to realize, you know, they can take all this stuff from me — they can take the money, they can take the royalties, they can take the trademark away from me — and I realized that didn't define me. They can take that, but I'm still Burton C. Bell, motherfucker, and whatever I have they can't take. So I'm just kind of moving forward and doing new things."

According to Bell, hardship is par for the course for most musicians, who often find themselves victims of bad contracts, unscrupulous management and, all too often, what appears to be a penchant for self-destruction.

"I knew a long time ago I wanted to be an artist — way before I was in FEAR FACTORY," he said. "When I was in high school, I was, like, 'I wanna be an artist.' To be an artist, you've gotta suffer. You've gotta understand that people wanna take from you the entire time — what you create they wanna make money off of and take it away from you and just give you a pittance. But being bitter is not my style — never has been.

"Whatever negativity has happened in the past with FEAR FACTORY doesn't even hold up to the amount of positivity that has happened," he continued. "If you think about the negative, it can weigh you down so much, but it's not really that much in comparison to what the band achieved, what we created, what we provided to the music world, and for that I'm proud and very happy.

"No one likes to talk to a bitter person at all," Burton added. "Me for one. It's, like, 'Man, just get over it and just move on.' 'Cause holding on to the past doesn't serve me anything, it doesn't serve anybody else anything. Move on and show 'em what you can do from that point forward."

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's exit from FEAR FACTORY came more than two weeks after Cazares launched a GoFundMe campaign to assist him with the production costs associated with the release of FEAR FACTORY's latest LP.

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 April 2022, Cazares discussed Bell's departure from FEAR FACTORY during an appearance on "The Garza Podcast", hosted by SUICIDE SILENCE guitarist Chris Garza. Pressed about what happened to cause Burton to leave, Dino said: "Good question. I don't know. I think he just lost interest in… I can only assume, because we went through some really heavy lawsuits for four years, and it financially crippled us — personally as well — and I just believe that he lost interest. I think that possibly all the stuff that we went through in FEAR FACTORY was just, like… He's one of those guys, 'Fuck it. I'm out. I quit. Fuck it.' He doesn't come across as a fighter — as somebody who's gonna be, like, 'Fuck it. We went through it. Let's go through it and let's just continue.' I mean, I left the door open for him for a while to come back into the band, but he pretty much said fuck me, Raymond [Herrera, former FEAR FACTORY drummer] and Christian [Olde Wolbers, former FEAR FACTORY bassist] — everybody. Fuck everybody.

"I'm not gonna push it," Dino added. "I'm not gonna push him or nothing like that. Fans ask me all the time: 'Hey, call him up. Just call him up.' Well, if you saw the stuff he said when he left, he's not exactly a phone call away… He left pretty bitter, and that's pretty much where… It looks like he's having a good time being free. So I'm not gonna force anybody to come back or [any] stuff like that.

"Some people want change in their life, but sometimes fans just can't accept that. Fans are, like, 'He was the singer for 30 years. Come back.' That was his decision. No one pushed him out; no one forced him to leave — none of that stuff. That was his decision."

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.

Photo credit: Hannah Verbeuren Photography