Burton C. Bell

Burton Christopher Bell (born February 19, 1969) is an American musician and vocalist. Bell is best known as co-founder and frontman of the metal band Fear Factory.[1] His singing style mixes clean and shouted vocals with death growls.

Burton C. Bell
Bell performing with Fear Factory in 2013
Background information
Born (1969-02-19) February 19, 1969
Houston, Texas, U.S.
GenresIndustrial metal, thrash metal, death metal, groove metal, heavy metal, folk, nu metal, ambient, alternative metal
InstrumentsVocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, sampler
Associated actsFear Factory, Ascension of the Watchers, GZR, City of Fire, Ministry

Career

Fear Factory
Main article: Fear Factory

Prior to his role in Fear Factory, Bell was in the band Hate Face. In 1989 after Hateface disbanded, his housemate Dino Cazares invited him to meet a drummer (Raymond Herrera) to possibly work with. On October 31, 1990, Bell, Cazares, Herrera and Romero jammed for the first time in a studio in South Central L.A.. 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.

In 2012, Bell and Cazares received the Revolver Golden Gods Icon award.[2]

Ascension of the Watchers
Main article: 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. The Watchers released an online only selling EP entitled Iconoclast in 2005. On February 19, 2008, Ascension of the Watchers released their first full-length album Numinosum.

Guest appearances
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.[3] 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, both appeared on the Soulfly song, Eye for an Eye 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 has 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".[4]

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.

Discography

All appearances are as a vocalist, unless mentioned otherwise.

Band Release date Title
Fear Factory 1992 Soul of a New Machine
Fear Factory 1995 Demanufacture
Clay People 1995 The Iron Icon
G/Z/R 1995 Plastic Planet
Fear Factory 1998 Obsolete
Spineshank – guest 1998 Strictly Diesel
Kilgore – guest 1998 A Search for Reason
Soulfly – guest 1998 Soulfly
Static X – guest 2000 The Crow: Salvation
Apartment 26 - guest 2000 Hallucinating
Fear Factory 2001 Digimortal
Fear Factory 2004 Archetype
Fear Factory 2005 Transgression
Ascension of the Watchers 2005 Iconoclast (EP)
Soil – guest 2006 True Self
Ministry – guest 2007 The Last Sucker
Ministry – guest 2007 Cover Up
Ascension of the Watchers 2008 Numinosum
M.A.N – guest 2008 Peacenemy
City of Fire 2010 City of Fire
Fear Factory 2010 Mechanize
Delain – guest 2012 We Are The Others
Fear Factory 2012 The Industrialist
City of Fire 2013 Trial Through Fire
Fear Factory 2015 Genexus
Ministry – guest 2018 AmeriKKKant
Conflict – guest 2019 Decision Code
Pitchshifter– guest 2020 Un-United Kingdom 20th Anniversary Brexit Edition

References
  1. Huey, Steve. "Biography: Fear Factory". Allmusic. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 28, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Jeffries, Vincent. "Biography: GZR". Allmusic. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  4. "Discography". Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
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