Ex-FEAR FACTORY Singer BURTON C. BELL To Release 'Savages' Solo Single Next Week

In a new interview with the Post-Punk.TV podcast, Burton C. Bell reflected on his decision to leave FEAR FACTORY in September 2020 after a 31-year run as the band's singer and pursue a solo career. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "It was time for me to do other things. And here I am. Venturing out on my own is scary. Doing something solo is frightening. I'm, like, 'Am I doing the right thing?' As artists, we always question ourselves. [We hear] voices in our head. There's voices in my head that are, like, 'Oh my God. What the fuck are you doing?' But I've gotta follow my heart because my heart is directing me towards a path that I truly wanna be in, and that's the artistic path."

Bell continued: "Failure is something that, as artists, we experience on a daily basis. But you just can't let that failure dictate your life. You have to learn from it. And once you learn from that, it's, like, 'Okay, I did that wrong. This time I'll try it this way. And so I am moving forward with my solo career, writing music that, for me, fits my mantra.

"I came up with a mantra maybe a couple years ago," Burton added. "Now that I have a [solo] band that I'm working with on a daily basis, they have grown to understand me as well. And so this next [solo] song I'm about to release called 'Savages' on May 30th, we wrote together as a band. And it fits my mantra, which is 'heavy, groovy, dark and moody'. And I think that fits every aspect that I wanna do. It fits the criteria of every band that I've ever liked. I think it fits the criteria of every band I've been a part of. So what I'm doing now is an amalgamation of everything I've ever done. I'm taking it all, creating this nice little piece, and I'm releasing it, making something new for myself. And I think when people hear this new song 'Savages', and the next song, which is called 'Cold Lazarus', they [will be], like, 'Wow, that sounds familiar, but it's kind of new.' So it's, like, there you go. That's what we're doing."

Burton went on to say: "So I'm super excited about the future. I'm super excited about my tour coming up in June, going to Australia, and just very excited for what the future holds. I'm just staying creative. That's what it's all about. Being an artist is being creative, and creating art, whether it's writing music or photography, you're expressing yourself through your visions and from what you see and how the world affects you."

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

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. After years of behind-the-scenes band member turmoil and legal issues, Bell left FEAR FACTORY in the fall of 2020.

The 56-year-old Bell had been largely inactive on the musical front since officially announcing his departure from FEAR FACTORY in September 2020. At the time he said that he could not "align" himself with someone whom he did not trust or respect, an apparent reference to FEAR FACTORY founding guitarist Dino Cazares. Bell has since been replaced in the band by the Italian-born singer Milo Silvestro.