New Fear Factory vocalist Milo Silvestro has admitted that he intentionally tried to sound like former singer Burton C. Bell on the band’s upcoming album. He made the comments in a recent interview with Impact Metal Channel, where he also discussed what fans can expect from the new record.
Silvestro first addressed the album’s length and the challenge of joining the band with a new lineup.
“New album should be 10 songs,” Silvestro said. “And having a new singer, let alone a new lineup… I mean, Tony’s [Campos, Fear Factory bassist] been in the band for quite a few years now, even though they had a gap, because of the legal suit, but he’s still been in the band since 2015, 2014. But Pete is also a new drummer. I’m the new vocalist.”
He then explained how fans may react to the change.
“So, it’s not always easy for fans, especially the most skeptical ones, to accept a new lineup, especially with a new vocalist, because for some reason people always think that a vocalist, particularly, it’s like the soul of the band,” he continued. “So it’s not always easy for fans to digest it. This change was already a pretty significant and huge change, so we purposely tried to stay on the Fear Factory realm sound-wise, stay on that sound.”
Silvestro then spoke about his vocal approach and his admiration for Bell.
“Of course, as a lot of people noticed [while listening to ‘Roboticist’ and seeing Fear Factory live], both haters and fans and supporting fans, I tried to sound as much as possible like the original vocalist, Burton C. Bell,” he said. “I think that this band… To me, as a fan of the band also, it couldn’t sound any different, because Burt has been such an iconic vocalist. I don’t think that any other vocalist in the world sounds like him or ever sounded like him, both in harsh vocals and clean vocals.”
“He was the pioneer of the combined style of harsh vocals and melodic vocals,” Silvestro added. “And his harsh tone and his clean tone were so identifiable. So me and Dino [Cazares, Fear Factory’s founding guitarist] never felt like chang[ing] that.”
He went on to describe how his influences led to his place in the band.
“One of the reason why Dino got interested in me as a vocalist, it’s because I was so influenced by Burton C. Bell vocally that it already came natural to me to sound like him,” Silvestro said. “It’s not even that I tried to sound like him; it just comes natural. But when I got hired in Fear Factory, I studied his style, his sound, his nuances even more to pay homage to his sound even more and provide the fans the real Fear Factory vocal sound, as close as possible.”
Silvestro also described the direction of the new music.
“I’m saying this just to say that the record, vocal-wise, and guitar-wise and everything-wise is gonna sound like classic modern Fear Factory,” he explained. “So I definitely say that, to me, it has a lot of ‘Mechanize’, ‘Genexus’, ‘The Industrialist’ kind of vibe. But there is some modern and innovative or fresh elements as well here and there.”
“We tried to put these elements in a way that you’re not gonna change… It’s kind of like a dish,” he said. “I’m Italian, so I’m always gonna do a comparison with pasta. It’s the same pasta recipe, but there is a little sprinkle of a different cheese.”
Finally, he spoke about his background in electronic music and his use of vocoders.
“So, I brought my influence not only as a vocalist, but also as an effects nerd and tweaker, because I also come from electronic music and turntablism,” Silvestro said. “I mean, there’s no turntables, but I’m just saying I come from that realm — synthesizers, vocoders. In my other small band that I have in Rome, Dead Channel, that I founded years ago, I’d always done live vocoder, kind of like Kraftwerk. Vocoders, for those who don’t know, it’s like a process of a synthesizer that makes your voice a filter for the synth.”
“So the sound comes out of the synth, but your voice acts like a filter, so you make a synth talk,” he continued. “You can do harmonies and stuff. I’ve always been in love with that. And so I brought some of that. There were some vocoder parts in the new album. And, also the new song ‘Roboticist’ has vocoder parts, so I’m, like, ‘Why not play it live?’ Because, as fans know by now, I love to reproduce live all the vocal effects, and most of them doing myself.”
Silvestro’s comments come as Fear Factory enters a new chapter. Lineup changes and years of legal turmoil have shaped it.
“Roboticist” was released on August 29 through Nuclear Blast. It is the first recording from the band’s current lineup of Silvestro, drummer Pete Webber and bassist Tony Campos, alongside founding guitarist Dino Cazares. The single premiered on Sirius XM Liquid Metal and arrived with a music video.
The upcoming record will be Fear Factory’s eleventh studio album. Cazares has confirmed that it is the first time Campos has handled all of the studio bass duties. The album is expected in the early months of 2027.
The lineup change followed a long period of legal conflict. Former members Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera filed lawsuits over unpaid monies. These led to bankruptcy proceedings, and Bell lost his share of the Fear Factory trademark in them. Cazares has since described how the dispute played out.
“I ended up beating my lawsuit against those guys, but Burton ended up losing his lawsuit against those guys and has to pay them a million dollars,” Cazares said.
Cazares has also made clear that a reunion with Bell will not happen. That leaves Silvestro to carry the band’s vocal legacy forward. It also helps explain why he and Cazares chose to stay so close to the sound Bell established.
