Last July, former Fear Factory singer Burton C. Bell released his first music since splitting acrimoniously with the beloved industrial-metal band: a crushing cover of Rammstein's "Du Hast" that also featured drumming by Killing Joke'sPaul Ferguson. Now, Bell has offered up his first bona fide solo song, the synth-heavy, sci-fi death-march "Anti-Droid."
Lyrically, it includes some notably barbed lines including: "I severed the machine that no longer served me" and "I'd rather be dead than a slave to the factory."
According to Bell, "Anti-Droid" is "a statement about breaking free. Breaking the bonds of what I felt was a prison in many ways. Not just financially or contractually but creatively, as well.
He continued: "I felt constrained to this format we'd written ourselves into. The 'factory' doesn't have a capital F. It's the factory of the music industry, a certain form of business, and priorities. Being a slave to an established way of thinking is not really freedom. I am moving forward."
To that point, fans can definitely expect more original music from Bell. "I'm starting my solo career," he stated. "I'm working with different producers and co-songwriters, making music that I love, with full control of the music and creative direction."