In a brand new interview with Sonic Views collaborator Rodrigo Altaf, FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares confirmed that he and his bandmates have commenced work on the follow-up to 2021’s “Aggression Continuum” album. He stated (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We began pre-production a few week in the past. So proper now we’re simply demoing every part. After which we’ll be recording most likely early subsequent yr. However then I’ve gotta go on tour… We have gotta go on tour beginning in late February, and we’re gonna be on tour until a minimum of June. So we most likely be capable of end the manufacturing someday till July, after which shortly after that hopefully get the document out as shortly as doable.”
Cazares additionally addressed the truth that FEAR FACTORY‘s upcoming album would be the band’s first to characteristic the group’s new vocalist, the identification of whom has not but been revealed.
“You wanna take your time [working with the new singer],” he defined. “You wanna be sure you discover somebody that most closely fits the job. It is not something new for me; I’ve began many different bands with different singers, and I’ve needed to change singers earlier than. However not in a band like FEAR FACTORY. So, yeah, it is positively very difficult, and I am positively up for the problem. I perceive there’s most likely gonna be some kind of backlash, however there is a backlash with every part. So, yeah, I am up for the problem. I am not planning on altering something. I am gonna just about maintain what FEAR FACTORY is understood for and attempt to honor the legacy of who we’re.”
Requested if musical chemistry, stage presence and character had been all elements in his choice when choosing the brand new vocalist of FEAR FACTORY, Dino stated: “All the above, particularly once you’re working with those that you do not know. Particularly somebody just like the singer, who I do not know that effectively. After I employed him, I did not know him that effectively. After all we have spent a while collectively and we acquired to know one another. You wanna be sure you’re not making a foul choice, ‘trigger that is gonna be one thing that is gonna final some time. Plus, relationships are relationships. You’ll be able to’t all the time management how issues are gonna prove. You attempt your greatest. And you place your proper foot ahead and also you simply maintain shifting.”
Cazares additionally confirmed that FEAR FACTORY is at the moment “label-less” after working with Nuclear Blast for the band’s final two albums. “We haven’t any document firm. FEAR FACTORY does not have any new document firm proper now,” he stated. “We’ve not signed any new offers. And we’re within the course of additionally of negotiating and evaluating completely different gives that we now have. That is one other factor too. I did not understand that this yr that our document contract had expired with Nuclear Blast. However they nonetheless have the duty to advertise this document, ‘Recoded’ [the recently released collection of remixes of the songs from ‘Aggression Continuum’]. However now, shifting ahead, we’re exploring our choices and it is wanting actually good. So hopefully we’ll get some kind of deal completed and be capable of get this music out to you as quickly as doable.”
In September, Cazares instructed “The Jasta Present” that FEAR FACTORY followers should wait just a few extra months to search out out the identification of his band’s new singer.
“FEAR FACTORY singer and music shall be coming simply earlier than the [group’s North American] tour with STATIC-X,” he stated. “Finish of February is the primary present, so simply earlier than that we’ll be releasing the only and the singer. After which growth — proper on the street.”
Based on Dino, he has been working with the brand new FEAR FACTORY vocalist for a yr. “It is simply a whole lot of growing,” he stated. “You realize, FEAR FACTORY is treasured to lots of people, and so I’ve gotta ensure that it is proper.
“I wished to launch some tracks some time in the past with the singer, however then I had nothing behind it — no tour or something like that — so the hype was gonna die down fast,” he defined. “So I wanna do it round a tour; that approach you’ve got acquired one thing to work. And I simply did not wanna launch his identify too fast, as a result of nobody’s gonna care by the point I launch a observe a yr later. So I would like all of it to be completed collectively.”
This previous February, former NIGHTRAGE singer Antony Hämäläinen, who unsuccessfully auditioned for the vocalist slot in FEAR FACTORY, claimed in an interview that the brand new FF frontman is “an individual from Italy.”
In April, Dino instructed “The Garza Podcast” that the brand new FEAR FACTORY singer is emotionally able to deal with the inevitable pushback from some followers that he’ll get as soon as his identification has been revealed. “I believe that they are prepared,” he stated. “In terms of expertise, they’re very prepared. However ‘tour prepared’ is totally completely different. Let’s hope that… Effectively, the individual that we now have has completed some touring, however not touring like we do touring. Like, a full U.S. tour might be wherever from 4 weeks to 6 weeks to no matter, then you definately fly over to Europe and do one other 4 to 5 weeks, come again to the States, do one other tour, then you definately go to South America and do one other few weeks there, then you definately go to Australia and do one other few weeks there, and then you definately plan for subsequent yr. I believe one of many different issues, too, is when this particular person is introduced, they’re gonna have to have the ability to deal with all of the criticism. That is gonna be the exhausting half. ‘Effectively, it did not sound like Burt [former singer Burton C. Bell].’ Effectively, in fact not. I would like this particular person… They do truly sound like Burt — they’ll deal with all of the previous stuff like Burt — however so far as shifting ahead, I would really like them to have their very own identification. We’re nonetheless gonna have the system of what makes FEAR FACTORY — for certain — however I would like this particular person to considerably have his personal identification as effectively.”
Pressed about what occurred to trigger Burton to depart FEAR FACTORY, Dino stated: “Good query. I do not know. I believe he simply misplaced curiosity in… I can solely assume, as a result of we went by means of some actually heavy lawsuits for 4 years, and it financially crippled us — personally as effectively — and I simply consider that he misplaced curiosity. I believe that presumably all of the stuff that we went by means of in FEAR FACTORY was simply, like… He is a kind of guys, ‘Fuck it. I am out. I stop. Fuck it.’ He does not come throughout as a fighter — as any individual who’s gonna be, like, ‘Fuck it. We went by means of it. Let’s undergo it and let’s simply proceed.’ I imply, I left the door open for him for some time to come back again into the band, however he just about stated fuck me, Raymond [Herrera, former FEAR FACTORY drummer] and Christian [Olde Wolbers, former FEAR FACTORY bassist] — all people. Fuck all people.
“I am not gonna push it,” Dino added. “I am not gonna push him or nothing like that. Followers ask me on a regular basis: ‘Hey, name him up. Simply name him up.’ Effectively, for those who noticed the stuff he stated when he left, he isn’t precisely a cellphone name away… He left fairly bitter, and that is just about the place… It appears like he is having time being free. So I am not gonna pressure anyone to come back again or [any] stuff like that.
“Some individuals need change of their life, however generally followers simply cannot settle for that. Followers are, like, ‘He was the singer for 30 years. Come again.’ That was his choice. Nobody pushed him out; nobody compelled him to depart — none of that stuff. That was his choice.”
Requested about his earlier remark that he was open to hiring a feminine vocalist for FEAR FACTORY, Dino instructed Bucketlist TV: “That was true. I auditioned just a few ladies, sure. But it surely did not work out — not as a result of they had been feminine or something like that. As a result of I wished to choose whoever was greatest for the place, and it turned out to be a man.”
Dino additionally addressed his assertion from final yr that he wished to provide an “unknown man a shot” at fronting FEAR FACTORY. He stated: “Effectively, it wasn’t like I used to be solely in search of any individual that no one knew. I used to be in search of all completely different [types of singers]. Positive, if the man turned out to be, or the lady turned out to be, somebody that no one knew and I gave ’em that shot, yeah, nice. I used to be open to all of it, is what I am saying. Male, feminine, no matter, identified, unknown — I used to be open to all of that.”
In September 2020, Bell issued an announcement formally asserting his departure from FEAR FACTORY, saying that he “can’t align” himself with somebody whom he doesn’t belief or respect.
Bell‘s exit from FEAR FACTORY got here greater than two weeks after Cazares launched a GoFundMe marketing campaign to help him with the manufacturing prices related to the discharge of FEAR FACTORY‘s newest LP.
Bell later instructed Kerrang! journal that his break up with FEAR FACTORY was a very long time coming. “It has been on my thoughts for some time,” he stated. “These lawsuits [over the rights to the FEAR FACTORY name] simply drained me. The egos. The greed. Not simply from bandmembers, however from the attorneys concerned. I simply misplaced my love for it.
“With FEAR FACTORY, it is simply continually been, like, ‘What?!’ You’ll be able to solely take a lot. I felt like 30 years was run. These albums I’ve completed with FEAR FACTORY will all the time be on the market. I am going to all the time be a part of that. I simply felt prefer it was time to maneuver ahead.”
In October 2020, Dino issued an announcement during which he stated that the door for Burton to come back again to FEAR FACTORY would not “keep open eternally.” The guitarist additionally revealed that Burton “misplaced his authorized rights” to the FEAR FACTORY identify “after a protracted courtroom battle” with Herrera and Olde Wolbers. “I had the chance to do one thing proper, and I felt that getting the identify in full was the precise factor to do for the each of us, so after practically 4 years we are able to proceed as FEAR FACTORY, to make extra data and to tour,” he stated. “That’s the reason it’s unhappy to listen to that he determined to stop and, for my part, for no matter points he has it looks as if it may’ve been labored out.”
“Aggression Continuum” was launched in June 2021 by way of Nuclear Blast Data. The LP, which was recorded primarily in 2017, options Cazares and Bell alongside drummer Mike Heller.
