Burton C Bell - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 13th June @ Factory Theatre, Sydney NSW

Burton C Bell
Factory Theatre, Sydney NSW
June 13, 2025
Support: Mortality

Burton C Bell is starting over.

After 30 odd years fronting the genre defining industrial metal band Fear Factory, the legendary vocalist has finally embarked on his first ever solo tour as an independent artist, and he’s chosen Australia as the place to do it.

Tonight, the third show on this historic tour, sees Burton returning to Sydney, the city he visited after his departure from Fear Factory, the same city he was locked down in for five months during the height of the pandemic - we touch on this further in our interview below. It’s a homecoming of sorts, and a very welcomed one at that. We're at the (don’t say it, don’t say it…fear) Factory Theatre, a few miles south of where he lived during Covid and it’s gotta be snowing somewhere because its bloody freezing. I don’t have to fight for room for a heater at the outside bar though, because there's not that many people here and it’s 15 minutes before the supports band kicks off proceedings.

I head inside in the vain hope that it’s warmer and the legend himself, Burton C Bell, walks out onto the theatre floor and gets amongst the punters. Maybe because he’s a cool motherfucker. Maybe its to check out a room that should have way more people in it. 

Sole openers Mortality wander out, kick into gear and no noise is coming out. The sound guy snaps into action, turns shit up but never gets the balance even close to correct. Now, Mortality released their only album Structure back in 1997, a recording that still holds up to this day. It’s an absolute belter of a record that ticks boxes for fans of early Meshuggah and Fear Factory. I was dead keen on hearing it live after all this time but the sound coming out the front of house sucks. It’s like they’re playing in a tin shed and I’m outside having a beer by the fire. Punters look to the sound guy to sort it out but he’s not touching shit on the soundboard. As a result, this whole set goes down like a lead balloon. A few diehards are going berserk up the front, the band are playing their arses off and they are having a ball. But it sounds muddy, there’s no clarity to the mix and this fine opportunity goes down the drain. It’s not a complete waste though. They get a few new Spotify followers and it has me and a few others listening to their old album again. After 28 years it might be time to put together a new Mortality LP lads. Just don’t hire tonight's sound guy to record it.

A few more souls start to straggle in as the music of my youth (now called classic rock) plays over the speakers and by the time BCB’s walk on song ‘Hells Bells’ plays, the joint is about half full. The lights go down, the band strap up, and the man we’re here to see bursts forward.

‍“I am Burton C Bell. I told you I’d be fucking back.”‍

A loud cheer erupts from the crowd as the band chugs out a couple of notes and already the sound is a million times better. After a delayed burst of white noise they launch into his first ever single as a solo artist, last year's ‘Anti-Droid’. It’s slow burn introduction to tonight's festivities, that when followed by ‘Dog Day Sunrise’, the Head Of David song that Fear Factory famously covered on their seminal album, you can feel the energy start to rise even more in this room. Not even when some flog turns the house lights on for no reason (maybe Mortality’s sound guy) could the mood be swayed. When they launch into ‘Drive By Shooting’, the song he did with iconic Black Sabbath bass player Geezer Butler, BCB really sets the tone for tonight. His mantra is “HEAVY, GROOVY, DARK and MOODY”. He said so in the lead up to this, it even says so on his tour shirt, and now he’s living up to it on stage.

As they dig into ‘Technical Exorcism’, the first song he wrote with this band on stage, I look around and there's a few young souls littered amongst this veteran crowd but at 47 years old, I’m about mid range for this mob. It’s not a young mans game tonight, but you try telling BCB that. He sounds amazing, every inch the bloke this crowd grew up listening to, plus he has all the grace and presence he’s always been known for. While crouching down at the edge of the stage singing the City Of Fire tune ‘Hanya’, I can’t help but think he wouldn’t love being down on the floor with us. He dedicates the song to “the five girls in the crowd”. The new band sounds incredible as well. They match BCB’s energy and diversity, complimenting his vast catalogue beautifully. A feat exemplified in the top shelf delivery of FF song ‘Descent’, Ascension of The Watchers tune ‘Ghost Heart’ (that he lovingly dedicated to his wife who danced amongst us in the crowd), and the famous Rammstein banger ‘Du Hast’. They keep the energy pumping with the always epic ‘Scumgrief’ as BCB quotes Chuck Dukowski something about “playing new shit and old shit”. It goes over well with this tight hamstring, largely Gen X crowd and a few punters have even managed to dodge senility enough to remember the words. Something in me says that BCB loves this song as well. Despite his well documented departure from Fear Factory, his love for, at least some of, the music, is made obvious on stage tonight.

Out with the old and in with the brand spanking new as they play ‘Savages’, only released last week, followed by the as yet unreleased ‘Cold Lazarus (Molotov H-Bomb)’, a song written just last week that was debuted in Brisbane. Judging by these two songs alone, I think the band are really getting into the groove of playing with BCB because this fits the mould of his “Heavy Groovy Dark and Moody” mantra. Plus ‘Cold Lazarus (Molotov H-Bomb)’ lends itself more to that dark, industrial, tech-doom aesthetic that BCB is so well known for.  

To completely counter the last two very new entries, BCB goes back thirty years to close out this very special show. The band continues to earn their pay with their inch perfect delivery of fan favourite ‘Replica’. Every fibre of every hamstring fires up in the crowd as they surge forward yelling, “I DON’T WANT TO LIVE THAT WAY’, to which BCB replies with “It’s true. I didn’t want to live that way”. ‘Scapegoat’ is the finisher and doesn’t it go down a treat. For many in the crowd, this song is how we met this iconic frontman and for him to close the curtains on this night with one of the songs he’s most renowned for is something special.

‍Burton C Bell has put on an excellent, career spanning showcase that gives us a glimpse of where he’s going to from here. A performance that lets his fanbase know that he’s not even close to being done yet. This man is just getting started, all over again as an independent artist and it’s a welcomed sight. I might be a little selfish in saying it felt a little short to me. I would have loved a few more songs tacked on the end though and for him to tell us a couple of quick stories amongst it all. He is, after all, a hell of a story teller. I’m not saying that he should deconstruct every song, but I would’ve loved to hear him tell a quick tale about his time with Geezer Butler, or perhaps some memories he has of the cities he’s been revisiting. At the end of the day, Burton C Bell is a stone cold legend. The very long line at the merch table to meet him after the show suggests others feel the same. It was an absolute belter of a set from a very giving performer and I for one am honoured that I was fortunate enough to witness it.

Review by Duane James @duanejamestattoo

Setlist

Anti-Droid
Dog Day Sunrise (Head of David cover)
Drive Boy, Shooting (G//Z/R song)
Technical Exorcism
Hanya (City of Fire cover)
Descent (Fear Factory song)
Ghost Heart (Ascension of the Watchers song)
Du Hast (Rammstein cover)
Scumgrief (Fear Factory song)
Savages
Cold Lazarus
Replica (Fear Factory song)
Scapegoat (Fear Factory song)

Photo Gallery by Jackson Saunders @jsaundersfilm. Please credit Wall Of Sound and Jackson Saunders if you repost photos.