New Fear Factory Music Coming in 2021

Fear Factory have been in limbo for years, with frontman Burton Seabell embroiled in a lawsuit with former members Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde-Wolbers over the rights to the band’s name as of spring 2019. Bell had previously claimed that a new album was complete, turned into the label, and slated for a 2019 release after being delayed for legal reasons… and then it just kept on being delayed.

Now guitarist Dino Cazares, who was not directly involved with that lawsuit but has been Fear Factory’s guitarist since returning in 2009, has tweeted that the band expects to release new music in 2021, for really real this time.

You’ll also notice that Dino says he “won” lawsuits, although it’s not clear exactly which lawsuits he’s referring to given his lack of direct involvement in the above. While he could simply be expressing cheer by proxy for Seabell’s victory in the above given it was very much holding back his own forward progress, too, we don’t know if that’s case. Indeed, a subsequent series of tweets shed some clarity on this matter, indicating Dino is only speaking for lawsuits in which he was directly involved.

Which lawsuits would those be? Unfortunately it’s not as simple as “Google search[ing] all the legal documents,” as searching for legal documents online requires knowing the jurisdiction of the case (location, to start, as well as whether the suit was filed in city, state or federal court). Suffice it to say, it’s very unlikely that Fear Factory would continue without Burton, so it’s a safe assumption whatever is coming in 2021 will include both of them, and whatever differences they needed to work out (legal or otherwise) have been mended.

Hopefully Dino’s tweet means Burton has moved past his own legal issues as well and the road is truly clear this time for a Fear Factory release. We’ll see.