Fear Factory announced back in August 2021 that they'd found a "kind of known" new vocalist to replace Burton C. Bell. The original plan was to unveil the new vocalist with a new song sometime before the band kicked off their tour with Static-X and Dope on February of this year. Then that tour got cancelled, the new song didn't surface, and that was that for the time being.
Now in a recent interview The Garza Podcast, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares explained why the new song didn't come out and the vocalist has yet to be named. Cazares said it doesn't make any logical sense to announce a new vocalist with a new song if there's nothing behind it, which in this case would be a tour. Cazares also added that "everybody's gonna attack" if he announced the person now, so we're all just going to have to wait.
"[They're saying] 'What's up? You were gonna announce a new singer? What happened?' What I was gonna do is announce the new singer just before the Static-X tour that was supposed to happen right now. So I was gonna announce it, I was gonna release a track just before the tour, just to get some hype for the tour [and] introduce the person. But the tour got postponed, and I went on tour with Soulfly and then all this other stuff.
"The thing is if I announce his name right now, everybody's gonna attack — boom! They haven't even heard him yet, and they're gonna attack him. So I wanna do where I release a track. Everybody's, like, 'Release a track right now.' Well, there's planning involved. I don't wanna put a song out just to put it out and nothing behind it. So, in other words, what I'm trying to say is what most fans don't understand is you wanna create hype for something.
"In other words, just before a tour, I would release a song with the new singer, and people would get excited — boom! — you've got something to tour on. It would hopefully help generate more ticket sales, generate more interest for the band, blah blah blah blah. But if I release a track now, there's nothing behind it and it's just whatever. That's what most fans don't understand — there's planning and there's timing involved. So I'm withholding who this person is till the time is right… So that's my thing that I'm saying to everybody right now, is that."
Fear Factory parted ways with Bell in 2020 and released their final album with his vocals Aggression Continuum in 2021.
