Is This Fear Factory’s New Album Artwork?

Fear Factory’s next album, now 100% run by guitarist Dino Cazares, appears to be nearing final completion (pardon the oxymoron — it’s appropriate here). The crowd-funding campaign Cazares launched a few weeks back to put some finishing touches on the album he and vocalist Burton Seabell recorded together in 2017 was successfully funded, and the resulting studio work was underway as of September 14 at the latest. And now Cazares has begun teasing what we can only assume is the cover artwork for the next album (or perhaps a single from it).

Speaking on Twitter, Cazares’ recent favorite medium for communication, the guitarist teased, “Something is coming can u guys guess what it is?” along with the following crop full of very Fear Factory-like imagery:

Later, responding to a fan who asked if the artwork was for a remixed album, Dino said, “A newly mixed album but that’s not what I’m advertising in this photo.”

“Newly mixed album” certainly jives with the timeline of the studio activities we know he was already involved in, so all signs point to the above being a piece of the next Fear Factory album cover.

Will it be called Monolith, as vocalist Burton Seabell announced in 2018? That remains to be seen, especially in light of his exit from the band. But we won’t be surprised if it is: his vocals will still appear on the album.

More, of course, as we get it.

Seabell abruptly quit the band in late September following a series of events that saw guitarist Dino Cazares acquire 100% rights to the band’s name after a years-long legal battle. Cazares launched a crowd-funding campaign to finish the band’s next album, which Burton then called a “scam,” distancing himself from the effort, before eventually quitting entirely. Burton then issued a longer statement that accompanied his decision to leave Fear Factory, and Cazares put out a statement of his own that left the door open for Burton to rejoin while also calling out Burton’s “lies, the negativity and the blame.”