Fear Factory: Ministry made us the band we are today

“I’ve known the guys from Godlfesh and Ministry for years”, says Fear Factory singer Burton C. Bell, “So I went down to their show last night, did the lighting designer job for Godflesh and then got up with Ministry to play Just One Fix, it was awesome.”

Burton C. Bell and his band go back a long way with bands like Godflesh and Ministry, though ostensibly an LA band in 1990 when glam metal and hairspray still held away on the Sunset Strip, Fear Factory were buoyed along on an underground scene that was a million metaphorical miles away from Hollywood’s bar scene.

“You think about it, we saw Godflesh and Napalm Death in California and that was in 1990, the first time I saw that band”, he tells Alexander Milas on the Metal Hammer Magazine Show backstage at Australia’s Soundwave Festival.

“There was all this big hair and glam rock, but there was an underground scene of other really eclectic music, bands like Slug, Skinny Puppy and Steel Pole Bath Tub were coming through LA, some industrial, some punk that was fascinating to us, it’s where Fear Factory came from.

“It’s like Ministry, they were a huge influence on us, I don’t know if people know that, but if it hadn’t been for them I’m not sure there would have been a Fear Factory…”

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To read the full story of the making of Fear Factory’s pivotal Demanufacture record then click the link below.

Fear Factory: The Story Behind Demanufacture

Philip Wilding

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.