We've gotten two very different stories about Fear Factory's follow-up to their 2015 album Genexus. Vocalist Burton C. Bell said in December 2018 the album was done and on track for a 2019 release, and then revealed the artwork alongside its title Monolith a few months later. In that very same story, guitarist Dino Cazares said he had no idea what Bell was talking about. Later, Cazares added in a post on Twitter that "I've got nothing [regarding Monolith]. I was wondering when somebody was gonna ask me a question about that, but I have nothing… People ask me every day. I have no information about that."
Now in what shouldn't be much a surprise given his previous statements, Cazares recently told a fan on Twitter that there is no new Fear Factory record. Cazares has been seemingly out of the loop with Fear Factory since at least January 2018 when he mentioned he was working on a solo record in regards to a question about the hypothetical Monolith.
This all started back in November 2016, when Fear Factory said they would like to have a new album out by summer 2017. Then in early 2017, there were rumors brewing of a classic-era Fear Factory lineup reunion, but that also never happened. The band dropped off Blackest Of The Black in March 2017, and ex-member Christian Olde Wolbers said the band broke up and then retracted his statement.
My guess is this – Cazares is out of the band and there are legal issues preventing the release of the new album. That, or the band broke up and Bell is trying to carry it on.
https://twitter.com/DinoCazares/status/1179480996925730817
