FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares has uploaded a 10-minute video in which a number of other notable musicians and music industry personalities congratulate the band on its 30th anniversary. Among the people featured in the clip are Robb Flynn (MACHINE HEAD), Devin Townsend, Tony Campos (STATIC-X), Mark Hunter (CHIMAIRA), Shaun Glass (REPENTANCE), Hernan “Eddie” Hermida (SUICIDE SILENCE), Monte Conner (Nuclear Blast Records, ex-Roadrunner Records) and Jose Mangin (SiriusXM).
In a message accompanying the YouTube release of the video, Cazares wrote: “Wow can you believe it’s been 30 years of the birth of FEAR FACTORY. Thank you to all the fans that have supported FF for the last 30 years and everyone who’s been involved with band.
“In 1990 my roommate Robert Murray came up with the name FEAR FACTORY and he sold it to me for two 2 liters of Pepsi and 5 snicker bars lol…..”
This past August, singer Burton C. Bell issued a statement officially announcing his departure from FEAR FACTORY, saying that he “cannot align” himself with someone whom he does not trust or respect.
Bell‘s exit from FEAR FACTORY came more than two weeks after Cazares launched a GoFundMe campaign to assist him with the production costs associated with the release of FEAR FACTORY‘s long-awaited new album.
Last month, Dino issued a statement in which he said that the door for Burton to come back to FEAR FACTORY wouldn’t “stay open forever.” He also explained that Burton “lost his legal rights” to the FEAR FACTORY name “after a long court battle” with former drummer Raymond Herrera and bassist Christian Olde Wolbers. “I had the opportunity to do something right, and I felt that obtaining the name in full was the right thing to do for the both of us, so after nearly four years we can continue as FEAR FACTORY, to make more records and to tour,” he said. “That is why it is sad to hear that he decided to quit and, in my opinion, for whatever issues he has it seems like it could’ve been worked out.”
In explaining his reasons for starting a fundraising campaign, Cazares said that all donations will go toward covering newly incurred production costs involved with the making of the new FEAR FACTORY LP, including re-recording the drums, guitars, bass and keyboards, as well as mixing and mastering by Andy Sneap. Burton‘s original lead vocals, which were recorded in full in 2017, will remain on the new version of the album.
FEAR FACTORY‘s fundraising campaign marks the first public activity from the band since it completed a 2016 U.S. headlining tour on which it performed its classic second album, “Demanufacture”, in its entirety.