During a recent appearance on the Scandalous podcast, former Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell reflected on the band’s 2021 album Aggression Continuum and the circumstances surrounding its release. The album, which arrived in June 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records, was primarily recorded in 2017 and featured Bell alongside founding guitarist Dino Cazares and drummer Mike Heller.
According to Bell, the record was originally completed years earlier under a different title. “We finished that record in 2017 and it was titled Monolith,” Bell said. “So to me that was the last record, Monolith. To me it was the tombstone and Monolith was the epitaph.”
When asked whether he harbored resentment over the band releasing Aggression Continuum after his official departure, Bell clarified that his disappointment centered more on the changes made to the project rather than its release itself.
“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.”
Bell officially exited Fear Factory in 2020, marking the end of a decades-long tenure that helped define the band’s industrial metal sound. While Aggression Continuum stands as his final released work with the group, Bell appears to view the unreleased Monolith version as his true creative closing chapter with the band.
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