Former Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell has spoken on why he refuses to sign copies of “Aggression Continuum“, his final studio album with the gold-certified industrial metal outfit. Up until 2020, Bell served as the face of the influential band, however years of bitter legal infighting, among other disputes, ultimately saw Bell resign ahead of the release of “Aggression Continuum“.
With guitarist Dino Cazares winding up getting the legal rights to the band’s trademarks, he vowed to push on with the group, having since replaced Bell with newcomer Milo Silvestro. While bitterness between Bell and Cazares would frequently spill over into the press in the immediate wake of his departure, it’s not that apparent acrimony that finds him frowning upon that release these days. Rather it is the nature of how it was repackaged and released without his personal blessing.
Back in 2018, Bell announced the completion of that record and that it was on course for a 2019 release. Bell even went so far as announcing that outing as being titled “Monolith“, while showcasing some early album art for it around the time.
As history has shown though, when that record did finally arrive, it was not under Bell‘s apparent preferred title, nor artwork, among other things. Speaking recently with Scandalous Podcast, Bell relayed:
“We finished that record in 2017 and it was titled ‘Monolith‘. So to me that was the last record, ‘Monolith‘. To me it was the tombstone and ‘Monolith‘ was the epitaph.”
Bell was then asked if he had any hard feelings about the record being released after his exit, to which he replied:
“No, I didn’t feel that way. But I was really disappointed that they changed everything. They kept my vocals. I mean, the album was done in 2017. It was mixed, mastered. It had an album cover, had a title, and then after three years, I departed and shit happened. They went and changed everything. So, that’s the one record I won’t sign.”
[via Blabbermouth.net]