Burton C. Bell recently spoke to MTV.com about his new band, ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS, which will release its debut full-length, "Numinosum", next month.

"I've never really considered myself a metal guy," Bell explained. "Yeah, I've been in a metal-industrial band, but the music I've always listened to has been much different, which is maybe why the vocals I did with FEAR FACTORY were different than those of other metal singers. But I definitely wanted to do something much different this time. The music is completely personal, and it lets me try techniques I haven't previously had the chance to explore. We used to always say we were expanding the boundaries in FEAR FACTORY. Well, now I'm really stepping out of the boundaries."

Regarding the current status of FEAR FACTORY, Bell said, "FEAR FACTORY is on hiatus. As far as I know, it's not over. I just wanted to work on some other stuff. I've been part of FEAR FACTORY since its inception, and 17 years later I need to do something else for a while. And FEAR FACTORY doesn't have a record deal, so there's no contractual obligation to move forward with that, so right now it's all about the WATCHERS."

"I've never really considered myself a metal guy," Bell explained.


Neither did we.

hopefully this doesn't go the way of "Transgressions", what a garbage album that was.

The only good song from that album is "540,000° Fahrenheit"

Soul of a New Machine to Obsolete are all great albums. The only weak track was that "edgecrusher" song. Too "everybody jump, jump!" metal for my liking.

i really enjoy Archetype as well, but you're right, Obsolete touched upon what they were to become, ie. Digimortal. that album blows so hard.

Demanufacture still amazes me every time i hear it

digimortal is unlistenable. i love cypress hill, but b-real, please back away from fear factory.

fear factory and deftones are still 2 of my favorite bands. thank you and goodnight.

deftones are infinitely better than FF.

Blue said:

That's a big 10-4, good buddy.

Deftones are the most overrated band. It's nu-metal that appeals to fans of underground music. Never quite understood the hype.

Blue said:
I hope you're joking...

dead fucking serious.

and you spell jimi hendrix with an I.

deftones are better than half the bands that get jocked on this board

I really dislike the deftones and i know im like one of the only people. I fucking hate the vocals. Hes cocky and not even good. The music is cool though. If their was a band that sounded like them but had better vocals id probly like it

Um...how exactly do you classify Deftones as Nu-Metal?

Adrenaline is one of the greatest albums to come out of the 90s.

brandon...nli said:

at least you're not like one of the morons thats all liek 'OMG TEH DEFTONEZ ARE TEWTALLY NU METAL CUZ LIEK TEHY WERE AROUND WHEN TEH NU METUL WUZ POPULURRRR'

Timma said:

AND its the only album of theres that i think even comes close to numetal

mOe said:

Agreed, and even at that...the similarities are pretty distant in my opinion.

Timma said:

How exactly do you not?

i_am_lazy said:

nuh-uh, he asked you first.

Deftones is shit....

all it is whispering and then every so often a scream.

and that song where it's all distorted screams for three minutes is the lamest song in the world.

y_ddraig_goch said:

y_ddraig_goch said:

i think its safe to say this guy has heard two deftones songs at the most

mOe said:

how about ever album they have? my coworker blasts it all the time, along with his other terrible music, mostly shit grunge, and that band that sings "crazy bitch"

I remember all their stuff from highschool too, even when I liked bad metal I disliked most of deftones.

i don't care what anyone says, Mudvayne's L.D. 50 kills. the guitars may not be very impressive but everything else is.

I admit I enjoy that cd a little bit too but everything else I have ever heard from Mudvayne was just plain mud. I can see why people like Deftones, but I can see why I would.

Two words for Fear Factory.


Red Harvest.


Damnit.

Nothing like the first 2 albums from FF, everything else is shit just like the deftones, and PLEASE, don't come to the rescue of that crappy band, next thing you're gonna say is that Korn was OK as well...Fuck That!!!

All opinions. Burt was wrong about not being metal though.

Deteriorot said:
Thank you!!!!!!!!!

If you are a fan of a band, they can do no wrong. With the exception of The Burning Red and Digimortal.

Machine head's burning red? another band that went south...

BURTON C. BELL IS A GOD-FEARING WHITE CHRISTIAN

THAT MEANS NO ONE NEED FEAR HIM

IN FACT, I'VE GOT HIS BIKE RIGHT HERE

BLACK POWER!

?

Deteriorot said:

Theyve always been pretty trendy

SW said:

i listened to a couple tracks from LD50 earlier today. that record was one of the albums that made me like playing bass in metal bands. that dude's tone is a little funny sometimes but he was definitely a solid and creative player. if they never had the make up and shit more people might have taken them seriously.

t2daeek said:

troof.

Deftones were a band I liked at first and still enjoy Adrenaline and a select few songs off of White Pony(?). If that's the one with Headup with Max. Not sure. But, just a band that, to me, got boring. Still like the old Fear Factory. Even Demanufacture had elements I didn't like. Obsolete sucked for the most part. After that, who cares.

yummy said:

headup was on Around The Fur, if i recall correctly.

I enjoy both The Deftones and Fear Factory

I liked Fear Factory during their real hayday. Obsolete didn't make my day and then Digimortal sucked. Archetype was a return to form. I haven't heard their last album though. The Deftones are overall a great band. They got lumped into the whole Nu-Metal scene, but even at the height of all that, they were always different and stood out from the other bands. Whereas most of those bands would namedrop their influences, The Deftones actually lived up to those bands namedropped.

Is nu metal still even around these days??

Aegathis said:

The majority of Nu-metal bands crossed over to metalcore or some variant of it around 2003-2005; though a few stayed behind to carry the nu-metal flag

neverpurified said:

The ones that stayed behind don't even know what the hell metalcore is, so they are usually living in a cloud of total ignorance to the music world around them.

for some reason, i enjoy seeing bands who never moved past the nu-metal thing, it's like time-traveling back to 1998

nu-metal is still around in the midwest and the backwoods rural towns where everyone is still behind on the times a bit

i'm still not really that clear on what exactly nu-metal is.

ctb0derpatrol said:

Speaking of, anybody remember Backwoods?

Had to sit through that shitfest not once, but TWICE. Ecch.