Burton Christopher Bell (born February 19, 1969) is an American musician and vocalist. He is best known as the co-founder and former frontman of the metal band
Fear Factory. Until 2021 he was the only member to perform on all of the band's albums. His singing style mixes clean and shouted vocals with
death growls.
Career
Fear Factory
Prior to his role in Fear Factory, Bell was in the band Hateface. In 1989, after Hateface disbanded, his housemate
Dino Cazares invited him to meet a drummer (
Raymond Herrera
Raymond Herrera is an American musician and entrepreneur, best known as the former drummer and founding member of the heavy metal band Fear Factory. He is the former drummer for his previous band Brujeria and for industrial metal band Arkaea. He ...
) to possibly work with. On October 31, 1990, Bell, Cazares, Herrera and Romero jammed for the first time in a studio in
South Los Angeles. The group recorded four studio albums before Fear Factory disbanded temporarily in 2002. The band reformed in 2004 with
Christian Olde Wolbers switching from bass to guitar and
Byron Stroud on bass. This line-up recorded two albums. During the following period of inactivity within the band, Cazares and Bell patched up their differences, and in 2009 decided to have Fear Factory return to form.
Bell is the only member to have appeared on every Fear Factory release from their first demo in 1991 to their tenth studio album ''Aggression Continuum'' (2021).
In 2012, Bell and Cazares received the Revolver Golden Gods Icon award.
After 31 years as the singer of Fear Factory, Bell announced on September 28, 2020 that he had left the band, citing "consistent series of dishonest representations and unfounded accusations from past and present band members" and a bitter feud between himself and Cazares. However, his vocals appear on their tenth studio album ''
Aggression Continuum
''Aggression Continuum'' is the tenth studio album by American heavy metal band Fear Factory, released on June 18, 2021. It is the band's first studio album since ''Genexus'' (2015), marking the longest gap between two albums in their entire car ...
'', which had been completed in 2017 but not released until 2021.
On June 16 2021, Bell performed the Fear Factory song "Replica" with a group of Australian musicians in Sydney. This happened after he'd done a DJ set at a local venue.
Ascension of the Watchers
After
Fear Factory's hiatus in 2002, Bell went on to form
Ascension of the Watchers with John Bechdel at Bechdel's studio in
Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania
Mifflinburg is a borough in Union County, located in Central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Valley. Mifflinburg was first settled in 1792 by Elias and Catharina Jungman (Youngman) and their two children. They divided the land into 60’ by ...
. The Watchers released an online-only EP titled ''Iconoclast'' in 2005. On February 19, 2008, Ascension of the Watchers released their first full-length album ''Numinosum'' through
Ministry frontman
Al Jourgensen's record label 13th Planet.
In February 2017, Bell rebooted Ascension of the Watchers and began recording at Northstone Studios, South Wales, collaborating with Welsh solo artist
Jayce Lewis. With Bell regarding Lewis as a ''Musical Soulmate'', the pair recorded a new album titled ''Apocrypha'' and released it via Dissonance Productions.
Guest appearances
left, Bell performing
Bell has performed guest vocals on many records in addition to taking lead vocal duties for
G/Z/R's ''
Plastic Planet'' album released in 1995. Due to commitments with Fear Factory, Bell was not the vocalist for G/Z/R's second album, ''
Black Science''.
Bell, alongside fellow bandmate,
Dino Cazares, appeared on the
Soulfly song "
Eye for an Eye
"An eye for an eye" ( hbo, עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן, ) is a commandment found in the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 expressing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure. The principle exists also in Babylonian law.
In Roman c ...
" in 1998. Bell featured as guest vocalist on the
Apartment 26 song "Void", a bonus track from their debut album ''Hallucinating'' in 2000.
Bell recorded a track for UK metal band
This Is Menace; the track was then cut out of the final edit from the album ''No End in Sight''. Bell performed live in the encore segments of the Ministry 2008 Tour, singing songs such as "Stigmata", "Thieves" and "So What", taking over vocal duties from Al Jourgensen.
Bell joined with Byron Stroud to form
City of Fire who released
their debut album in August 2009.
Bell featured on
Delain's 2012 album ''
We Are the Others'', providing vocals for the track "Where Is the Blood".
Bell was featured on
Chris Vrenna's project
Tweaker on the song "I Am the One", intended to appear on the album ''
The Attraction to All Things Uncertain''. When Vrenna reedited the album, Bell's song was cut only to be included in a DVD instead.
Bell provided backing vocals on the 20th anniversary re-recording of
Pitchshifter's "Un-United Kingdom".
Bell from 2017-2018 did guest vocals on
Amerikkkant by Ministry
Personal life
Bell has three children
and is married.
Discography
''All appearances are as a vocalist, unless mentioned otherwise''.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Burton C.
1969 births
Living people
American male singers
American heavy metal singers
American industrial musicians
Fear Factory members
GZR members
Musicians from Houston
Nu metal singers
Industrial metal musicians
