Burton C. Bell
Encyclopedia
Burton Christopher Bell is an American musician. Bell is best known as the frontman of the metal band Fear Factory
Fear Factory
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...

 where he is the only consistent member. His singing style mixes clean vocals with death growl
Death growl
A death growl, also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, and harsh vocals among other names, is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal and black metal music genre, but also used in a variety of heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres.Death...

s.

Fear Factory

Prior to his role in Fear Factory, Bell performed with Hate Face. In 1989, he joined guitarist Dino Cazares
Dino Cazares
Dino Cazares, born in El Centro, California, is a Mexican-American musician and the guitarist for Los Angeles-based industrial metal group Fear Factory. He also plays in the metal bands Divine Heresy and Asesino.-Biography:...

 and drummer Raymond Herrera
Raymond Herrera
Raymond Herrera is the drummer for industrial metal band Arkaea. He is a former member of the industrial metal band Fear Factory and Mexican death metal band Brujeria.-Biography:Herrera has been an avid gamer all his life...

 to form the band Ulceration, which later changed its name to Fear Factory during the 1990s. The group recorded four studio albums before Fear Factory disbanded temporarily in 2002 due to infighting between Bell and Cazares. The band reformed later that year with Christian Olde Wolbers
Christian Olde Wolbers
Christian Olde Wolbers , is the guitarist of the metal band Arkaea. He is the former bassist and guitarist of the industrial metal band Fear Factory, and is now in Beowülf.-Biography:...

 switching from bass to guitar and Byron Stroud
Byron Stroud
Byron Stroud is the bassist for metal bands Fear Factory, City of Fire and Zimmers Hole and the defunct band Strapping Young Lad.-Biography:...

 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 re-form Fear Factory excluding Herrera and Olde Wolbers, whom had since formed the band Arkaea
Arkaea
Arkaea is an industrial metal supergroup formed in 2008 featuring members from Threat Signal and Fear Factory.-Formation:The band was formed by Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera who had recorded a demo for a new band. They sent the demo to Threat Signal vocalist Jon Howard and Arkaea was...

. Drummer Gene Hoglan
Gene Hoglan
Eugene "Gene" Victor Hoglan II is an American drummer. He is acclaimed for his creativity in drum arrangements, including usage of odd devices for percussion effects and his trademark lengthy double-kick drum rhythms...

 was recruited to complete the new line-up.

Burton C. Bell is the only member to have appeared on every Fear Factory release.

Ascension of the Watchers

After Fear Factory
Fear Factory
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...

's hiatus in 2005, Bell went on to form Ascension of the Watchers
Ascension of the Watchers
Ascension of the Watchers is a band that was started by Burton C. Bell and John Bechdel . They wrote and recorded their first release, Iconoclast at Bechdel's home in rural Pennsylvania...

 with John Bechdel
John Bechdel
John Bechdel is a keyboardist, and has been a part of many bands over the years including Ministry, Fear Factory, Abstinence, Prong, Killing Joke, Murder, Inc. and Brian Brain to name a few...

 at Bechdel's studio in Mifflinburg, PA. The Watchers released an online only selling EP entitled Iconoclast in 2005. In October 2006, Burton announced via the Ascension of the Watchers
Ascension of the Watchers
Ascension of the Watchers is a band that was started by Burton C. Bell and John Bechdel . They wrote and recorded their first release, Iconoclast at Bechdel's home in rural Pennsylvania...

 website, "I have had to focus on Fear Factory for a while, but 2007 is all about Ascension of The Watchers." On February 19, Ascension of the Watchers released their first full length album Numinosum
Numinosum (album)
Numinosum is the 2008 full-length album by the band Ascension of the Watchers.- Track listing :# "Ascendant" - 5:48# "Evading" - 7:50# "Residual Presence" - 5:51# "Canon For My Beloved" - 8:22# "Moonshine" - 5:32# "Mars Becoming" - 6:14...

. This has kept Bell's hiatus with Fear Factory, allowing him to explore other veins of music.

Guest appearances

Bell has performed guest vocals on many records in addition to taking lead vocal duties for G/Z/R
GZR
GZR is a band led by Black Sabbath bassist/lyricist Geezer Butler. The band has actually been marketed with three different names on the three releases they've had. In 1995, the band was marketed as G//Z/R. In 1997, it was merely Geezer, and in 2005, it was GZR...

's Plastic Planet
Plastic Planet
Plastic Planet is an album by GZR , a Heavy metal band featuring Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath. The album features Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell.-Album information:...

 album released in 1995. Due to commitments with Fear Factory, Bell was not the vocalist for G/Z/R's second album, Black Science.

Burton recorded a track for UK metal band This Is Menace
This Is Menace
This Is Menace was a British metalcore supergroup formed in 2004.-History:The band was formed by bassist Mark Clayden and drummer Jason Bowld during the hiatus of their previous band, Pitchshifter. The group released their limited EP, Collusion in 2005...

, the track was then cut out of the final edit from the album No End In Sight. Burton 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. Burton has joined with Byron Stroud to form City of Fire
City of Fire (band)
City of Fire is a hard rock band from Canada, formed in 2008. Members include vocalist Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory and bassist Byron Stroud from Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad and Zimmers Hole. City of Fire has so far released a self-titled album, issued in Australia in April 2010 and...

 who released their debut album in August 2009.

Personal life

Bell and his wife have two daughters and a son. He has a fraternal twin
Twin
A twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...

 brother, Ben, who is the singer of his own country band "Ben Bell and the Stardust Boy's". Ben is also a librarian. Burton is a photographer and writer when not on tour.

Bell was one of the young audience members in Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...

's music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for "Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smells Like Teen Spirit
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind , released on DGC Records...

." Although there are only a few snippets of him in this video, Bell is most visible at 2:12 in the song. His favorite Fear Factory songs are "Shock
Shock (Fear Factory song)
"Shock" is a song by American metal band Fear Factory. It was the lead single from their 1998 album Obsolete and the first track on the album. Its music was composed by guitarist Dino Cazares and drummer Raymond Herrera. The lyrics were written by vocalist Burton C. Bell...

" and "Resurrection".

Discography

All appearances are as a vocalist, unless mentioned otherwise.
Band Release date Title
Fear Factory
Fear Factory
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...

1992 Soul of a New Machine
Soul of a New Machine
Soul of a New Machine is the debut studio album by the Los Angeles, California metal band Fear Factory. It was released on August 25, 1992...

Fear Factory 1995 Demanufacture
Demanufacture
Demanufacture is the second studio album by the Los Angeles industrial metal band Fear Factory. This is the band's first album with their classic line-up adding new bassist Christian Olde Wolbers. Many regard it as the band's best album and a heavy metal classic...

G/Z/R 1995 Plastic Planet
Plastic Planet
Plastic Planet is an album by GZR , a Heavy metal band featuring Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath. The album features Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell.-Album information:...

Fear Factory 1998 Obsolete
Obsolete (album)
Obsolete is the third studio album by American industrial metal band Fear Factory, released on July 28, 1998. Conceptually, it is a sequel to 1995's Demanufacture...

Spineshank
Spineshank
Spineshank is an American Grammy-nominated alternative metal band. The band has sold over 540,000 records, and has released 3 studio albums.-Formation, Roadrunner Records years :...

 - guest
1998 Strictly Diesel
Strictly Diesel
Strictly Diesel is the debut album by the American industrial metal band Spineshank. It was released on September 22, 1998 by Roadrunner Records, it sold 75,000 units in the U.S.-Track listing:# "Intake" – 2:47# "Stovebolt" – 3:02...

Kilgore
Kilgore (Smudge)
Kilgore was an American heavy metal band formed in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1991. The band is named after the character Kilgore Trout in the Kurt Vonnegut classic Breakfast of Champions. Through a number of band name and line-up changes, Kilgore released two albums, Blue Collar Solitude and A...

 - guest
1998 Search for Reason
Soulfly
Soulfly
Soulfly is a heavy metal band formed in 1997 based in Phoenix, Arizona. The original lyrical content revolved around spirituality and religious themes, with later albums encompassing other themes including war, violence, aggression, hatred and anger. Soulfly is led by former Sepultura frontman Max...

 - guest
1998 Soulfly
Soulfly (album)
-Digipak Edition released on October 19, 1999 bonus disc track listing:-Roadrunner Records 25th Anniversary Reissue bonus disc track listing:The album was also released on August 30, 2005 as part of the Roadrunner Records 25th Anniversary Reissues with the Limited Edition bonus tracks and a new one...

Static X - guest 2000 The Crow: Salvation
The Crow: Salvation (album)
The soundtrack to the third in the Crow film series, The Crow: Salvation album is once again compiled and produced by Jeff Most. As with the soundtrack to The Crow: City of Angels, Salvation includes an otherwise unavailable cover version by Hole: this time of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby...

Fear Factory 2001 Digimortal
Fear Factory 2002 Concrete
Fear Factory 2004 Archetype
Fear Factory 2005 Transgression
Transgression (album)
-Credits:*Burton C. Bell – vocals, engineer, assistant, supervisor*Christian Olde Wolbers – guitar, bass, arranger*Raymond Herrera – drums, arranger, engineer*Byron Stroud - bass*Reggie Boyd – assistant*Tom Jermann – visual design...

Ascension of the Watchers
Ascension of the Watchers
Ascension of the Watchers is a band that was started by Burton C. Bell and John Bechdel . They wrote and recorded their first release, Iconoclast at Bechdel's home in rural Pennsylvania...

2005 Iconoclast EP
Soil - guest 2006 True Self
True Self
True Self is fourth album by the Chicago-based music group Soil. It was released in the US on May 2, 2006 via DRT Entertainment. This is the band's first album with new vocalist AJ Cavalier. True Self leaked onto P2P and BitTorrent sites on March 4, almost two months before its official release...

Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...

 - guest
2007 The Last Sucker
The Last Sucker
The Last Sucker is the eleventh studio album by industrial metal band Ministry, released in 2007 through 13th Planet Records. For three years until their reformation in 2011, it was band's last studio album featuring new material....

Ministry - guest 2007 Cover Up
Cover Up (Ministry album)
Cover Up is an album of cover versions by Ministry & Co-Conspirators released on April 1, 2008. The album includes previously released covers "Roadhouse Blues", "Lay Lady Lay" and "Supernaut". Cover Up was supposedly Ministry's final release before their three year break up from 2008 to 2011...

Ascension of the Watchers
Ascension of the Watchers
Ascension of the Watchers is a band that was started by Burton C. Bell and John Bechdel . They wrote and recorded their first release, Iconoclast at Bechdel's home in rural Pennsylvania...

2008 Numinosum
Numinosum (album)
Numinosum is the 2008 full-length album by the band Ascension of the Watchers.- Track listing :# "Ascendant" - 5:48# "Evading" - 7:50# "Residual Presence" - 5:51# "Canon For My Beloved" - 8:22# "Moonshine" - 5:32# "Mars Becoming" - 6:14...

M.A.N - guest 2008 Peacenemy
City of Fire
City of Fire (band)
City of Fire is a hard rock band from Canada, formed in 2008. Members include vocalist Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory and bassist Byron Stroud from Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad and Zimmers Hole. City of Fire has so far released a self-titled album, issued in Australia in April 2010 and...

2010 City of Fire
Fear Factory 2010 Mechanize
Mechanize
Mechanize is the seventh studio album by Fear Factory. It is the first album to feature Gene Hoglan on drums and the first since 2001's Digimortal to include original guitarist and founding member Dino Cazares who rejoined the band after a reconciliation with vocalist Burton C. Bell in April 2009...

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