Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares recently addressed fan speculation about former bandmate Raymond Herrera after news broke of Herrera joining a new band, according to a post shared on X.
The discussion began after Cazares clarified his own role in recording bass tracks on several Fear Factory albums, seemingly to correct assumptions that a return to the drum kit meant a lineup change.
“Besides recently getting behind the drum kit again after many years, and before anyone assumes otherwise, I’ve also recorded all the bass tracks on Soul of a New Machine, Demanufacture, Mechanize, The Industrialist, Genexus, and Aggression Continuum,” Cazares wrote. “In fact, I’ve recorded bass on more Fear Factory albums than any of our previous bassists. On the new Fear Factory record, Tony Campos handled all the bass tracks, marking the first time he’s recorded bass on a Fear Factory album.”
A fan then asked Cazares directly, “So Raymond Herrera is back in Fear Factory or did I read that wrong?” Cazares responded to clear up the confusion.
“You read it wrong,” Cazares said. “A lot has changed in 16 years, and the drumming in FF has progressed significantly since then. I don’t even know if that’s a challenge he’d want to take on.”
Pressed further, another fan asked, “Would you consider him rejoining?” Cazares gave a more pointed answer.
“No, because the drumming in Fear Factory has changed significantly since his last recorded FF album Transgression,” Cazares said.
The exchange followed an announcement from Christian Olde Wolbers, Fear Factory’s former bassist, guitarist and backing vocalist, revealing that Herrera had joined his new band, Angst Fabrik.
“After 16 years away from the kit, the machine woke back up,” Olde Wolbers wrote. “Still runs.”
Cazares’ comments suggest he does not view Herrera as a candidate to return to Fear Factory, pointing instead to the band’s evolving drumming style since Herrera’s departure.
This latest exchange fits into a much larger picture of shifting lineups on both sides of the Fear Factory split.
Angst Fabrik, whose name translates to “Fear Factory” in German, has spent months building out its roster before confirming Herrera’s involvement. Christian Olde Wolbers had kept fans largely in the dark about the project’s status. Speculation swirled that the band was effectively his own answer to the Fear Factory he helped build decades ago. The confirmation of Herrera’s return to the kit, after 16 years away from drumming, marks his first documented studio work since leaving Fear Factory.
Fear Factory, meanwhile, has moved forward with its own reshaped lineup. The band released “Roboticist,” its first new single in roughly five years. The track marked the first recorded output from its current configuration of Cazares, bassist Tony Campos, singer Milo Silvestro and drummer Pete Webber. Silvestro and Webber had already logged nearly three and a half years together in Fear Factory’s touring lineup before this track became their first collaboration in the studio.
The current tension between the camps traces back to legal battles that consumed much of the 2010s. Cazares and former singer Burton C. Bell were locked in lawsuits with Herrera and Olde Wolbers for years. The dispute was serious enough that it eventually pushed Cazares into bankruptcy as he fought to retain rights to the Fear Factory name. Bell himself exited the band officially in 2020, adding another layer to the fractured history between the founding members.
That history has clearly not faded. Bell recently addressed the rift directly while promoting his own spoken-word tour dates. His comments made clear the wounds from that era remain unresolved. “I mean, I left the door open for him for a while to come back into the band, but he pretty much said fuck me, Raymond and Christian — everybody. Fuck everybody,” Bell said. His words underscored just how deep the divisions run among Fear Factory’s former members, even as both camps pursue separate musical paths.
