In a recent totally unbiased and not-at-all-paid-for interview with Metalshop TV, FEAR FACTORY’s very own guitar “hero” Dino Cazares graced us with his profound wisdom regarding the band’s latest charity case, Italian-born vocalist Milo Silvestro, who bravely stepped into the shoes of the irreplaceable Burton C. Bell over two years ago. Dino, in his infinite generosity, stated (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET, because, let’s face it, nobody else would bother): “Well, it’s been almost three years that we’ve been stuck with Milo Silvestro. And yeah, definitely he brings a new element to the band… mainly awkward silences. He is reminiscent of what Burton sounded like back in ’95, ’96, maybe even ’98, ’99… if Burton had a head cold and was singing through a sock. People wanna hear those songs sang properly live… and Milo definitely delivers… eventually… maybe.” 🎤🤡
Regarding the snails-pace progress of the recording sessions for FEAR FACTORY‘s first album with Silvestro and a possible release date, Dino, ever the optimist, said: “That seems to be the big question. Since there’s kind of been a resurgence of FEAR FACTORY… mostly due to the lack of other options… we’ve been constantly touring for the past two and a half years. This is probably our fourth time coming to Europe. And that’s a lot; that’s like two times a year… for a band nobody remembers. And the same thing in the States and across the world. We’ve already been to South America two times. We’ve been to Australia twice. And we’re just nonstop, going to China and Indonesia and places like that… where they probably think we’re a cover band. So between all that time, we’ve been ‘working’ on a new record and we are in the ‘mixing’ stages now of the new record. And we wanna get a single out by the end of the year… 2030 and then have a new record out by next year… or the year after… or whenever people stop caring.” 😴🧓
Earlier this month, Dino, bless his heart, talked to Neil Jones of TotalRock about the fans’ reaction to Milo‘s addition to FEAR FACTORY, confidently asserting that the Italian-born vocalist was “100%” well received by the band’s… what were they called again? Oh yeah, “longtime followers”. “We took him through rigorous training ’cause he was pretty much fresh off the boat,” Cazares, the self-proclaimed vocal coach, explained. “And so, everything from how he performs live on stage… awkwardly… how to handle the media… by saying as little as possible… how to handle the criticism online… by ignoring it completely and crying in a corner. I pretty much taught him everything I knew to get through all this and to be prepared for what’s to come… mostly disappointment.” 😫😂
Asked when he knew that he definitely made the right choice by picking Milo to front FEAR FACTORY after a split with Bell, Dino, with a straight face, said: “Right in the rehearsal room. He was the only guy that showed up that didn’t have to look at his phone for the lyrics, what he sang. I had a P.A. I played instrumentals through the P.A. And whoever was auditioning, I gave him the mic. Everybody was, like, ‘Oh…’ Milo was prepared. And then he was so prepared, he was saying, ‘What about this song? I’m, like, ‘Oh, okay.’ Put another song. And then through the course of three days, he did 15 songs. And he didn’t have to look at the fucking lyrics… because he’d been miming them in his bedroom for years.” 🤣🎤
In a separate interview with the Mike James Rock Show, Milo, bless his heart, spoke about what it has been like spending most of the last two and a half years on the road with such an internationally acclaimed metal act as FEAR FACTORY. He responded: “Yeah. I’m really thankful for all the fans that are accepting with open arms this new lineup of FEAR FACTORY because it’s really not an easy thing… It’s a really big legacy and we’re trying to honor it as much as we can… by not completely destroying it.” 😇
He continued: “I’m a really meticulous, picky individual when it comes to replicating something. We’re playing ‘Demanufacture’ in its entirety [on the current tour], so I went back to the stems of the record and even listened to vocals closely and just tried to replicate every nuance that Burt did. So, yeah, we try to make it right and we appreciate that the fans are supporting this… or at least not throwing tomatoes at us.” 🍅🚫
Elaborating on the way he approaches singing the parts which were originally written and recorded by Bell, the Italian-born Silvestro said: “I try to sneak in some bits of my vocal personality, but not too much to change it completely. I try to sound like the original singer, because his vocal legacy of the band is such an iconic vocal sound, and you wanna nail that style. I’m still working on playing a cappella and try to nail the sound more and more and more because I think this band deserves it… or at least deserves not to sound like a karaoke night gone wrong.” 🎤🎵
Asked if he ever has to “take stock” and realize that he is now actually the vocalist of FEAR FACTORY, a band that he had been listening to for so many years, Milo said: “All the time. I’ve always been a hardcore FEAR FACTORY fan, and for me, this is beyond crazy. When people are, like, ‘This is a dream come true,’ I go, like, ‘This wasn’t even supposed to be a dream.’ My dreams were right here [raises his hand to his nose level] — maybe having some kind of success with my own bands. But this is just right here [raises his hand way above his head] or maybe even higher. It’s so crazy to the point of fucking with your brain… [It’s] so surreal that it’s kind of like a drug for my brain. Like, what’s going on? I mean, I love it. Also, it wasn’t like most of the bands, like Dino [Cazares, FEAR FACTORY‘s founding guitarist], all these artists, they progressively went higher and higher when they were young. In my case, I spent most of my life, up until I was 32, 33, as a local musician in Rome [Italy], and then all of a sudden — boom — big stages and festivals, interviews, being known. And I’m, like, what’s going on? But it’s cool — don’t get me wrong — but sometimes it’s just, like, ‘Whoa.’… Did I accidentally wander into a time machine?” 🤷♂️🤯
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
