Dino Cazares Says “Door Is Open” for Burton C. Bell to Rejoin Fear Factory, Clears Up History of Band Members’ Trademark Disputes

Burton C. Bell announced that he quit Fear Factory yesterday on social media, which came soon after the announcement that the group’s guitarist Dino Cazares announced that he received the rights to the band’s name. Cazares spoke on this latest development during an interview on the “No Fucking Regrets With Robb Flynn” podcast yesterday, which is hosted by the Machine Head frontman Robby Flynn.

Cazares told Flynn that the “door is open” for Bell to rejoin the group, but explained that he “can’t wait too long,” on his possible decision to rejoin. He also went into detail regarding how he acquired the name, following the legal disputes between the band’s former members Raymond Hererra and Christian Olde Wolbers.

Herrera and Wolbers sued Cazares and Bell separately over their 25 percent royalties, which they had over the band’s name. These disputes were eventually settled, and were reportedly intended to leave Cazares and Bell with 50 percent ownership of the group’s name, but Cazares alleges that numerous court proceedings caused Bell to lose his half of the ownership. This led Cazares to purchase Bell’s half, which left him as the sole the owner of the band’s name. Cazares and Bell were never involved in litigation with each other and were both reportedly sued separately by Herrera and Wolbers in different states.

“So 2002, I was out of the band and then fast-forward to 2011, I came back in the band in 2009 and then 2011 we did a contract with each other that after we pay Raymond and Christian x amount of dollars, that Burton and I would own the [Fear Factory] name. So the trademark became two halves, my half and Burt‘s half,” Cazares explained. “And so then all these others court proceedings happened over the years and Burt lost the other half and so I purchased it. That’s basically the gist of it.”

While Bell is no longer a part of Fear Factory, Cazares is still planning on moving forward with a future project, which is set to feature Bell’s vocals that were recorded in 2017. Cazares launched a GoFundMe in support of the new Fear Factory album that is expected to be used on the drums, mixing and mastering for the record. The guitarist is planning on a March release date for the project, which is set to come out via Nuclear Blast.