Interview By: Brian Cross

As the “Fear Campaign” tour wound down, Fear Factory hit the Worcester Palladium on June 4, 2010. Before the show, band co-founder and frontman Burton C. Bell took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about the new album “Mechanize,” the inspiration behind Fear Factory’s unique sound and lyrics, their choice of cover songs, and…macaroni and cheese? (Of course, in true Fear Factory man-versus-machine fashion, some technical difficulties corrupted the initial part of the interview recording. As such, the first few questions and responses have been paraphrased from memory.)

BURTON – I just had the most expensive mac and cheese ever.

MPJ – Was it any good?

BURTON – Yeah, it was good, just expensive. I think it’s because it was lobster mac and cheese. I didn’t even care about the lobster; I just wanted a mac and cheese fix! I ended up picking a lot of the lobster pieces out!

MPJ – You’re currently touring in support of “Mechanize.” How’s the tour been going so far?

BURTON – It’s been great, even with the poor economy. We’ve had a lot of big turnouts in spite of that. In fact, we were playing the House of Blues on a Saturday, and we were excited for the Gospel Brunch the next day. Unfortunately, the Brunch ended up getting canceled…because too few tickets were sold! That’s when we knew it wasn’t just us that the bad economy was hitting. Even the big stuff was taking a beating.

MPJ – “Mechanize” has been called your finest album since 1995’s “Demanufacture” by many fans and critics. What’s your reaction to that?

BURTON – Glad to hear it! Dino [Cazares, guitarist] and I really sat down to write a great record. We wanted to bring in more of the industrial sound, the mechanical stuff. Like on our earlier material.

MPJ – Each Fear Factory record seems to have its own specific tone. Were they designed that way?

BURTON – With any band, your sound is going to evolve. Unless you’re AC/DC! (laughs) We never set out for a specific tone for each record; it just flowed naturally.

MPJ – What brought about the initial mix of industrial and death metal?

BURTON – That came from myself and Dino’s biggest influences back then: Godflesh and Ministry.

MPJ – Most Fear Factory lyrics feature a dystopian, man-versus-machine theme. What brought that about?

BURTON – That comes from me. While Dino grew up as a metal kid, I grew up as a punk and hardcore kid. I wanted that anger and energy in our music. It’s my commentary on the world, and that’s where it comes from.

MPJ – How did dealing with multiple lineup changes and such affect Fear Factory?

BURTON – Hmmmm. When Dino left as our guitar player [after 2001’s “Digimortal”], and Christian [Olde Wolbers, former bassist and guitarist] became our guitar player, it affected the band in sound. Christian’s a different kind of guitar player, and he really had a different goal when it came to the sound of this band. “Archetype” was fine, but as time went on, his vision for the band was not what I envisioned, among other things. It affected the band in a lot of ways, because we’ve had to wait. I purposefully waited to do things so that the band could be reorganized.

MPJ – Fear Factory is known for doing random cover songs on many albums that range across the musical spectrum. I take it those bands influenced you personally?

BURTON – Absolutely! I’m a big fan of those bands. U2, Nirvana, Gary Numan, Agnostic Front, even Wiseblood, which was J. G. Thirlwell of Foetus…we’re fans of the music. We wouldn’t cover it if we didn’t like it. This shows that this is just the tip of the iceberg of what music has influenced us over our whole lives.

MPJ – Where do you see Fear Factory going in the future?

BURTON – On tour! (everyone laughs) For the next sound, it’s hard to say what’s going to happen. Like I said, when we sit down and really start writing, the energy’s different every time. It’s like how a band like Slayer could never rewrite a “Reign in Blood,” Metallica could never rewrite a “Master of Puppets”…those records are a part of history, a part of their time that was just very unique, and you can’t revisit it. You can emulate that sound, but you can’t emulate that energy, you can’t emulate what was going on. For the future, I’d just like to keep making good music. In my opinion!

MPJ – Any last words for your fans?

BURTON – If you don’t have “Mechanize” yet, check it out! I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and come see us! We’re a very good live band right now. We’re on fire!

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For more information on Fear Factory, visit :

www.fearfactory.com or