In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares directly laid out how he won control of the Fear Factory trademark. He hinted about the situation on April 11 in a tweet that is now deleted, saying, “The people who talk shit about me don’t realize what I went through to put this record together, all the $ that I spent for FF to still exist, to keep it alive for the fans, and just for one asshole to shit all over it, because he lied in court and lost everything. I ❤️FF,” but now he is unveiling all of the details.

When asked about the decision to become the sole owner of the Fear Factory trademark, Cazares had this to say: “It wasn’t a decision, it was a must. If I wanted this record to come out, if I wanted Fear Factory to live on, there was an urgency that I had to fight to get it. I don’t mean fight Burt, I mean fight the courts to get it – fight Raymond and Christian to get it. When you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you have to list all your assets – your computer is an asset, your car, your house, your businesses, your trademarks. If you fail to list anything there, they’ll take it from you. That’s what happened to Burton. They took the trademark from him because Raymond and Christian’s attorneys discovered that he never listed the Fear Factory trademark as an asset. So boom, the court put it up for auction. People think I took it from Burt or sued Burt. But the court put the trademark up for auction, meaning anybody could bid for it – it’s like eBay. People bid on it, but I wasn’t gonna let it go. Because Burt failed to list it in his bankruptcy, he was not able to own it again. And if I bought it, I couldn’t gift it to him, because the courts would think I was defrauding them and we were in collusion to give it right back to him. So it was up for auction and I was trying to outbid the highest bidder – and those people were Raymond and Christian as well. It was intense. I was sweaty.”

Cazares is also unsure if owning the Fear Factory trademark drove a wedge between him and ex-lead singer Burton C Bell because Bell never spoke to him about it. Cazares feels that Bell ran away and talked to the media instead. “If you have an issue with me, just tell me. Why take it out there in the media? That’s just old school.”

In the aftermath of all the legal drama, the band is close to choosing a new lead singer and will be releasing a new album this upcoming June.