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Artist News
Burton C Bell leaves Fear Factory, citing long-running dispute over band name ownership
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 30 September 2020
Fear Factory frontman Burton C Bell has announced his departure from the band. He cites a long-running legal battle between members of the outfit’s classic line-up – himself, guitarist Dino Cazares, bassist Christian Olde Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera – over ownership of the Fear Factory name.
Bell’s departure leaves Cazares the only member of that classic line-up still actively in the group. He has now said that he still plans to release a new Fear Factory album next year, which will still feature vocals from Bell.
“The past several years have been profoundly agonising, with these members bleeding my passion with depraved deceit”, Bell says of Cazares, Wolbers and Herrera in a statement. “As a direct consequence of their greed, these three have dragged me through the unjust, judicial system, resulting in the legal attrition that has financially crippled me”.
“In the end, these three members have taken possession of my principal livelihood”, he goes on. “However, they will never take my 30 year legacy as the beating heart of the machine. A legacy that no other member, past or present, can ever claim. So, it is after considerable, contemplative soul searching that I have come to the realisation that I cannot align myself with someone whom I do not trust, nor respect”.
Saying that plans for the new album continued despite Bell’s departure – his vocals having been recorded in 2017 – Cazares posted on Twitter: “Regardless of him saying he has no respect for me, I’m going to respect him”. Though that respect didn’t stop Cazares stating that Bell “needs to really tell the truth” about their dispute.
The guitarist also noted that Bell’s version of the band continued without him for several years – mainly because for a time there were two bands called Fear Factory, that also being as a result of this long running spat. He wrote: “FF continued without me from 2002 to 2009, they released two records without me and it lasted about seven years before Burton didn’t want to play with Ray and Chris anymore. He asked me if I wanted rejoin with him in 2009”.
In a subsequent interview with Robb Flynn on the Machine Head frontman’s ‘No Fuckin Regrets’ podcast, Cazares went into more detail about the ongoing wrangling over the Fear Factory name.
He acknowledged that initially the dispute was between himself and Bell against Wolbers and Herrera. However, earlier this year it seems that Cazares bought Bell’s portion of the Fear Factory trademark. That makes him the sole owner of the name, he says. It also resulted in the new phase of this dispute, between him and Bell.
“Most people know that we were in a legal battle for the last three-plus years, trying to sort out this Fear Factory name situation”, he says. “And [Bell] and I were sued separately, in separate courts. The other two ex-members decided to take us to court, which led to me and Burton going bankrupt in separate states – I was in California; he was out there in Pennsylvania. [A few months ago] Burton’s [portion of the Fear Factory] trademark ownership became available, so I ended up purchasing it”.
“I don’t wanna get into the gory details”, he adds. “I don’t wanna have to throw anybody under the bus. But if anybody wants to see the truth, they can go and Google the paperwork. Google our names and you’ll find it. It’s all there. It’s all black and white. And you can see what happened and how it all transpired”.
Signs that Bell and Cazares’s relationship was somewhat strained again were apparent earlier this month, when Bell called a crowdfunding campaign set up purportedly to complete the new album “a scam”. He claimed that Cazares was actually raising money to cover his legal bills.
In the interview with Flynn, Cazares says that he hopes Bell will reconsider his decision and rejoin the band in order to promote the new album. Although since then he has been openly discussing on Twitter plans to audition new vocalists, saying that Bell’s departure would be “a really big opportunity to give someone else a chance”.
