Burton C. Bell, the iconic voice that defined futuristic anxiety, existential desperation, and steadfast resistance across the industrial metal world, is set to captivate Australian audiences this June 2025 with a special run of intimate shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Newcastle.
Fresh off his induction into the prestigious Metal Hall of Fame, Burton continues to solidify his legacy as a trailblazer of industrial metal. Renowned for his groundbreaking role in Fear Factory, the extreme music pioneer, multimedia talent, and iconoclastic provocateur resurrects his legacy and forward-thinking destiny, remade in a career-spanning incarnation as a singular solo artist.
“Well I want to start by saying just how excited I am to be back on stage,” Burton tells me as we sit down to talk about his tour and new solo tracks. “What makes this even more special is the fact that it is my first full-blown solo tour of Australia. It is a shame that I can’t get to the west coast but these east coast shows are going to be really special.”
Since his departure from Fear Factory life hasn’t been easy for Burton but that is something that he is now ready to talk about.
“It certainly has been an incredible path,” he says as we begin to talk about where he is at now. “Like many artists that have amazing peaks I have found that you also have incredibly deep valleys. I hit a deep valley at some point and it has taken a couple of years to really find myself again. Maybe, that isn’t the right word to use but I mean it as trying to find the right direction that I want to go in – I really had to fathom the idea of going solo and having a solo chapter in the next part of my career. It has been challenging, it has been heart-breaking, stressful, frustrating, everything you could ever imagine.”
“But I was determined to make something happen,” he continues. “I have got through it and I have to say that it has been rewarding at the same time. Over the last couple of years I have managed to curate a great group of guys that I like to call my band. They are excellent people to begin with. They are amazing to hang out with and to work with – and on top of all that they are fantastic musicians. These guys haven’t been on my last couple of tracks but they will be on some of the music that I hope will be out there before I land in Australia. These are songs that I have written with the band and I think that I have finally found a defining sound. This is part of my new chapter and fits my mantra – heavy, groovy, dark and moody.”
As we talk more on the obstacles that Burton has had to overcome to launch his solo career we begin to talk about how difficult it is to overcome negativity and take that step into a new chapter.
“It is called conviction,” he says forthrightly. “You have to ask yourself how much do you believe in yourself – how much do you believe in your art – whether it be music, words, painting, photography. Whatever you are doing you have to ask yourself how much you believe in it and how much do you want to make it happen. You also have to work out how much you are willing to suffer in order to make it happen. Even for me – it is still challenging to get by day by day and to make ends meet but if it is in your heart and in your soul and you don’t want to do anything else then you will make it happen. And yes it is a serious choice but you shouldn’t let things like age hold you back – you can be 18, you can be 70 but if you want to go for it you have to go for it and go all in. If you just put your foot into that fire you will feel the pain and pull out but if you jump in so far there is no way out then you will make it work.”
From there we begin a discussion on how Burton found his new sound and again he is brutally honest.
“There was a lot of experimentation,” he explains. “And this has been a long time coming. I experimented with Fear Factory, I also experimented with Ascension Of The Watchers, a long time ago I experimented with GZR and City Of Fire and I have also experimented with a lot of different independent artists. Finding that sound has been something that has been inside me for a long time. I am a music lover – I love listening to music and I love playing music and as I have been doing all that I have been looking for the sound that resonates with me. And I have that say that it came to me one day with the mantra that I mentioned before – heavy, groovy, dark and moody – and I realised yes that is exactly what I want to do – if I can combine all of those concepts and put it into one space than that is what I am trying to create. And that concept defines the next chapter of my career.”
You can be part of that next chapter for Burton by seeing him live as he hits Australia in June.
