FEAR FACTORY Singer BURTON C. BELL Blasts Anti-Maskers: Wearing A Mask Is 'Easier Than Putting On Shoes'

FEAR FACTORY singer Burton C. Bell has blasted people who are defiantly skeptical of mask wearing, saying they are delaying a return to normalcy for the rest of us.

"I hope that this pandemic nonsense gets finished quickly, and I hope everyone does the smart thing and helps everyone so everyone can get back to work properly," Bell told The Underground Australia in a new interview (hear audio below). "Because these fools who are going around not trying to stay safe, musicians are the ones they'll hurt the most. The music industry was the first industry closed, and it's gonna be the last one open."

He continued: "It's not hard to wear a mask — easier than putting on shoes."

During the same chat, Bell also confirmed that there are plans for him to hit the road with his ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS project, which will release its second full-length album, "Apocrypha", on October 9 via Dissonance Productions.

"We are scheduling shows as early as we can," he explained. "Everyone is talking now that September of next year is a good time to actually start booking again. So my question is all those bands that had tours booked and rescheduled them for spring, are those gonna happen now? I don't know. If things change in the next couple of months, whatever we book can be moved up, depending on what the climate of the pandemic is. But, yeah, we are planning to tour it and make things happen. We are in the process of coming up with a plan to do a live stream from the [250-year-old] Court Colman Manor in Wales, so I'm just trying to figure out how to make that happen. But I'm gonna make it happen. We're just in the early planning stages."

"Apocrypha" was recorded at Northstone Studios, based in the countryside of South Wales, connected to the Court Colman Manor, the studio built by renowned U.K. solo artist Jayce Lewis's own hands using the ancient stones of the monastery that once stood there.

The making of "Apocrypha" has been a decade-long journey of writing and recording, from California, Pennsylvania, New York and Wales. In 2018 the band decided to utilize the crowdfunding platform PledgeMusic to jumpstart the project. After a very successful campaign, raising 124% of their goal, PledgeMusic went into administration, eventually declaring bankruptcy. and in turn, would never release any of the funds dedicated to ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS. Nevertheless, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS persevered to complete the album.

Earlier this month, Bell distanced himself from the upcoming release of the long-awaited new FEAR FACTORY album, saying that his priority is ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS.