FEAR FACTORY Frontman Says Band Is 'Close To A Resolution' With Ex-Members Over Use Of Name

George Pacheco of Examiner.com recently conducted an interview with vocalist Burton C. Bell of FEAR FACTORY. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Examiner.com: Do you think this album ["Mechanize"] possesses enough to serve as a starting point for new fans — if they've been hiding under a rock and haven't heard of FEAR FACTORY — as an encapsulation of your career, in a sense?

Burton: I think so. I think if there are new fans, this is an album true to our sound, and I'm not afraid to compare it. It definitely sounds like records of our past, without repeating itself, so if a new fan were to get this album? Yeah, I think it would be a good start — if they like this, they're gonna LOVE "Demanufacture" or "Obsolete".

Examiner.com: On the other hand, it's also the most involved FEAR FACTORY album yet: everything seems to be on ten. What do you feel "Mechanize" offers that maybe previous albums didn't?

Burton: Maturity. It has a focus. It's not all over the place; it's direct and to the point. It's not too long. When it ends, you feel like it has taken you on a journey, and I think musically it's just direct musically and lyrically.

Examiner.com: Regarding being focused on lyrical themes, on a song such as "Industrial Discipline" — which I think is one of the best songs you've ever written — there's this theme of man versus machine and losing the soul; this sort of alienation. Do you think this has been a connecting theme with your lyrics throughout the years, and if you were to describe your thought process, how would you do so?

Burton: This album does stick with the theme OF an actual "fear factory" — this concept of "man versus machine." The machine isn't necessarily a mechanical machine, however; it's more of a metaphor for society or government. "Industrial Discipline" IS that: it's a term I got from Alvin Toffler's book "The Third Wave", and "industrial discipline" is what society has been programmed to do by the industrial complex. It's the system which the industrial complex set up for its workers: be at work for nine, clock in, do this job, take a ten minute break. We're disciplined as a society into it, and that's the concept I took for the song. It's fighting that machine, and breaking free of that.

Examiner.com: Do you care to comment on the controversy brewing on both sides, with regards to the "old" FEAR FACTORY versus the "new" FEAR FACTORY?

Burton: Well, we're close to a resolution. Yes, Dino [Cazares, guitar] and I are legally using the name "FEAR FACTORY." We have not been stopped, and we are touring with the album coming out in February. I feel we're close to a resolution, and the fans don't need to worry about it: we're out, about and on the attack.

Examiner.com: How did you settle any sort of beef or animosity you've had with Dino in the past, and start working with him again?

Burton: It's just time. Dino and I didn't speak for seven years, and it was just time. We were friends before we were in a band together; we were roommates, and we created FEAR FACTORY together, pretty much growing up together within it. That led to a breakdown in communication, but time brought it back together, to the point where you just miss your friend. We started talking again when I was touring MINISTRY from April 2008 to late November 2008, just reconnecting, hashing things out and getting past things. Once I felt we were comfortable and talking all the time, I just offered out for him to be a part of this again, and I'm glad he did it.

Examiner.com: So how soon afterwards did the actual songwriting begin?

Burton: It all happened afterwards. We didn't have any ideas at all before we headed to the studio, other than ideas of what we felt the album should sound like, and the direction it should take. Other than that, we didn't have any songs written until March and April of this year. Once we sat down, though, the ball started rolling, and the energy and creative consciousness was great. We wrote and recorded this album in record time — faster than any other album. It just shows the spark which is going on in this band right now.

Examiner.com: Whether fans like it or not, Dino's guitar style is sort of intertwined with your vocals as part of what FEAR FACTORY is: you can't imitate it.

Burton: Right. It's the chemistry of Dino and I working together which really created the sound of FEAR FACTORY in the past. The fact that this sound is back again, I think you can really tell, "yes, that is FEAR FACTORY right there."

Read the entire interview from Examiner.com.

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