Los Angeles metal band Fear Factory shared a snippet from one of the songs off their upcoming 2021 album, Monolith. It’s an album that caused a long legal battle between band members, but now it’s in the process of being completed for good.
The album was initially announced to be completed and delivered to Nuclear Blast by frontman Burton C. Bell in late 2018, with the aside that there were some “technical difficulties” to be worked out before it was released. In 2019, guitarist Dino Cazares denied that there was a new album and hinted that there was a lawsuit going on.
Last month, Cazares announced that there would be a new album after all, and that Bell and drummer Mike Heller had played on it. One tweet at a time, he revealed that he had won his lawsuits and that he needed money to complete the album since he had accumulated some legal debts.
Cazares then launched a GoFundMe with $25,000 crowdfunding campaign to finish the record, and Bell distanced himself from the fundraising, saying he wasn’t part of it. Midway through the month, Cazares clarified that previous band members Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera had sued him and Bell separately, and that he now owned the rights to Fear Factory’s name.
By the end of September, Bell had announced that he officially left the group, after 31 years of leading it. He will still appear on Monolith, but it’s set to be his last contribution to Fear Factory. There’s no news on the future of the band beyond Monolith yet.
Now, Cazares happily announced that the crowdfunding goal had been met, and shared an unmixed/unmastered clip from one of the tracks. In the video, the words “Regenerate/You have got the power to effect change” introduce the song, and then it shows Cazares playing along to the track on a red camouflage-patterned guitar. The music in the video seems to be an instrumental intro to the song, featuring a technical guitar riff from Cazares, fast drums and spacey keys.
The post was titled “Studio Update 3” and included a description thanking fans for helping him reach the GoFundMe goal, “A message to all the fans who contributed to the GoFundMe Campaign. You did it! We called and you delivered! You helped us reach our goal in just a mere few weeks and now, we can deliver the album that Fear Factory fans have come to expect and all truly deserve! The album is almost done being mixed + mastered and is sounding absolutely KILLER!”
In other recent news from Fear Factory, they announced that they’d be re-releasing their 2012 concept album The Industrialist with live drums from Mike Heller replacing the programmed drums from the original record.
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