The rise of Fear Factory’s new frontman: A story of passion and resilience

As you wrap up the final touches on a cover song and initiate the upload to YouTube, your mind wanders to how much the band means to you. The guitarist’s riffs echo through your thoughts, individual masterpieces crafted by a mechanised genius, infusing machine-like grooves into the music. You imagine stepping into the shoes of the lead singer, a raging automaton belting out fiery vocals with unstoppable intensity. The experience is more immersive than any VR headset could provide. You are transported to the band’s electrifying live shows, surrounded by legions of fans from every corner of the globe who worship and headbang at the altar of man vs machine. The music courses through your veins, evoking deep emotions and unleashing a primal energy within your being. You don’t even dare to dream about the idea of joining their ranks and becoming one with the metallic heartbeat of the band.

For Italian national Milo Silvestro who hails from Rome, this is now his enhanced reality. Like a reprogrammed T-800 sent back in time by John Connor, Silvestro is an augmented version of human, seamlessly melding man and machine to create a new form of musical consciousness. His addition as vocalist to Los Angeles industrial-metal trailblazers, Fear Factory, is a story of great passion and resilience, which has seen Silvestro transition from the audience to the stage, replacing frontman of over 30 years, Burton C. Bell who quit in 2020. That’s right, Silvestro is now singing in his favourite band of all time!

Fear Factory’s guitarist Dino Cazares, the only remaining original member and talisman, made a promise to audition new singers. His intention was to find a replacement for Bell who would respect and honour the band’s legacy. But, like a T-1000 thwarted by an autonomous combat system, COVID-19 restrictions impeded his plans. Cazares received video auditions from hundreds of applicants worldwide, before selecting Silvestro, whom he had previously approached years before to collaborate on an entirely different project. Silvestro was granted the vocalist position after enduring a gruelling in-person audition that stretched over many days.

As if battling a Skynet uprising, a fusillade of trademark usage lawsuits and pandemic delays have resulted in six and a half long years since Fear Factory have hit the stage. The band is currently on tour with Static-X, which sees Milo jumping in at the deep end, tackling 40 dates through North America and Canada. Although most people would feel like they’re being hunted by a relentless Terminator, the newly anointed Fear Factory singer comes from a resilient musical lineage, that affords him to keep a cool head.

Long-time Fear Factory fan, ANDY “ANDO” JONES caught up with Silvestro to hear more about how the last few years have panned out, and how the current tour is shaping up.

Hi Milo (pronounced Mee-Low), the band is currently on the road, but your RV has been caught up in a snowstorm and my understanding is that you’re unable to play your opening show in San Francisco tonight (February 25). Please tell us about that, like, what the hell! If it’s not lawsuits, if it’s not COVID, then it’s mother nature stopping Fear Factory from playing!

We’re making jokes with Dino, like it’s all my fault and I’m the Bringer of Plagues – pun intended. (Bringer of Plagues is a Divine Heresy album released by Fear Factory guitarist, Dino Cazares in 2009).

It’s been really crazy! I woke up this morning and I could feel that the RV wasn’t moving. I thought, “We’ve got San Francisco tonight but we’ve been stopped for a long time.” I looked through the window and could see we were stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between LA and San Francisco on the I-5.

We feel really sorry that we cannot make it to San Francisco. Hopefully everything is going to be fine and we’ll be ready for the next show on Monday Feb 27 in Portland, Oregon. Then we’ve got Seattle on Feb 28 and Vancouver on March 1.

The snow is melting out there, I can see a little bit of concrete so we’re hoping for the best.

*At the time of writing this article, the Vancouver show was cancelled after the Static-X tour bus broke down. Tony Campos of Static-X performs double duties, as a bassist for both Static-X and Fear Factory*

Has pre-production on the upcoming Fear Factory album ground to a halt while you’re on tour? Or are you still working on it in behind the scenes?

I brought my laptop, interface and studio mic. If we have spare time, we’ll work on some ideas. But we won’t be working on new material until the summer – it’s all theoretical at this point. Now, we’re all focused on touring. But if new music ideas do come up, we might lay down some tracks from scratch.

With the writing of new music, are you going to be involved in not just the lyrics and vocals but also the instrument side of things?

That would make me really happy! I’m not just a singer, I’m also a multi-instrumentalist and a composer. Fear Factory have arrangements in their songs, like strings and synthesisers. It’s not just about the kick ass riffs, drums and vocals. The last album, 2021’s Aggression Continuum has beautiful orchestral arrangements, and so do older songs like Resurrection off 1998’s Obsolete, there are real strings there. I have always loved that, so as a composer those albums influenced me. It would be like going full circle to be a part of the composing.

When Dino and I first started talking, I told him I was a composer and an arranger and he was like, “Okay so maybe you can contribute to the new album.” If we need an orchestral intro, a prelude, an interlude, or an outro with strings and cinematic stuff, I can step in.

I’m so humbled by that because I’m the new guy, and the youngest. I didn’t expect to be included like that, so I am really happy and thankful that Dino trusts me so much. I’m really going to work hard to do my best, because it’s such a great deal for me.

You do bring a hell of a lot of talent into the band, and not just from a vocal perspective. You’re an instrumental polymath, starting on the drums and then progressed from there through guitars, etc.

Yeah, I started at 12 years of age, playing drums and percussion. I was a lot into rock drums, Latin percussion like congas and timbales. Also Cuban and African percussion and djembe, all kinds of ethnic instruments. I was a freak on that stuff! Obviously I’m not in a position to play right now, but I still do gigs in Rome. I studied at The Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia doing a little bit of classic percussion.

The passion for metal was born at 14, and I started to become interested in metal drumming so that was another thing I added to my percussion background. My passion for music was so wild!

*At this stage of the conversation, the tour RV started moving again, onward towards Portland!*

My huge passion for music is thanks to my parents. They’re both professional musicians and they gave me a background in Blues, Jazz, finger picking acoustic American music and rock. But my tastes expanded more and more when friends introduced me to new music. I enjoy electronic music, I was into it a lot as a teenager – trance, hardcore, techno, drum & bass. I started messing around with synthesisers and electronic music production, including turntable scratching and different things.

From there the next instrument for me to learn was the guitar because of my passion for metal. I remember a friend of mine gave me a cheap guitar that I fitted bass strings to and tuned to Drop-A and started to play along with 2001’s Digimortal and Obsolete. I taught myself how to play basic chuggy riffs. When I first started, playing stuff like Fear Factory was a little bit too much for me, but I still had fun playing along to the records.

I was particularly taken aback with your vocal cover of Resurrection and Timelessness in The New Breed of Fear Factory Facebook group. Previous to that, you posted your medley of songs from 1992’s Soul of a New Machine. From the moment I saw these videos, I said to myself “Wow! This man can fucken sing!”

I was telling you in our Messenger chat that I will always be thankful to people like you who were the very first supporters to believe in me. So thank you so much! I remember you in the comments section saying “Milo, that’s fucking amazing” – I will never forget that! Thank you!

I was hooked from the moment I heard your voice. But I remember you had to re-record your Resurrection and Timelessness video because you weren’t singing along to an instrumental and Burton’s vocals were in the background.

Exactly! That was when Dino hit me up and he wanted me to do a bunch of new covers while also redoing my Resurrection and Timelessness video. I recorded with the original songs because I didn’t have the instrumental versions. Dino sent me the instrumentals to redo Resurrection and Timelessness so he could hear just me, instead of me singing on top of Burton’s recorded vocals.

Personally, I didn’t even think that was an issue because I could hear your natural voice coming through and I’m saying to myself “This guy is phenomenal!”

Thank you, but yeah that was a really emotional time too because my Soul of a New Machine medley came out in January 2020. I remember it was a month away from the lockdown in Europe.

The Soul of a New Machine medley was just for fun, just to put it out and enjoy it with some fellow Fear Factory fans. At that stage, I didn’t even know about the audition. But when I covered Resurrection and Timelessness it was during the lockdown.

I remember seeing a little note at the end of the Resurrection and Timelessness video saying thank you to Fear Factory for getting you through the tough times or something along those lines.

I did write something emotional, but that’s just a typical metal cliché. All metalheads like us, we are so passionate about it, each and everyone one of us has got a “Heavy metal saved my life” story, right?

I remember recording Resurrection and Timelessness at a very dark time because of the lockdown and later on, a lot of bad shit happened. It was really blue and I needed to do that cover to let out those emotions because those closing Fear Factory songs like Resurrection/Timelessness, Memory Imprints, Expiration Date they are the songs that get me more emotional. When I’m all alone and if I’m going through some bad shit, I can easily cry because they fucken strike some heavy chords, you know?

I don’t think you’re human if those songs don’t create some sort of emotive response in your inner being.

Yeah, I really needed to do it not just because I wanted to have fun, but because it was a really fucken dark time. I needed to communicate that, and I think that was the best that I could do because Resurrection and Timelessness, I think are two faces of the same feeling. Resurrection to me is a mental state of being more positive and thinking, I can do it, I can “revive” and feel the positive energy flowing through my veins. That’s the vibe it gives me.

Timelessness is like a sweet death, like I’m commiserating myself in a sweet way. It’s dark but it’s beautiful at the same time.

The result was that Dino commended me again the next day. It was seven in the morning in Italy, I was still numb from waking up, and I couldn’t believe it was happening, and, you know – the rest is history!

Yeah, I saw you mention in other interviews that that was the feeling at the time. But what about the feeling when Dino said he wanted you as Fear Factory’s new vocalist?

It was November 2021, and during the first day of the physical audition in LA, Dino played me a bunch of instrumentals cranked loud on the PA, we did 18 songs in total. When we were done for the day, I thought the audition was finished. We did a second day of auditioning, and we were walking away from the rehearsal space and Dino said “You know what, I think I can work with you” – it was really chill! He didn’t say “Oh, you’ve got the job.” So I was thinking in my head “Are you saying that I’m hired? Fuck!” but I couldn’t show all that enthusiasm because I wanted to look professional! I responded with “Okay, okay” but inside my head it was like “Aaaahhh! Fuck Yeah!”

So yeah, that’s funny to look back on, that was the moment I was like “Okay, it’s really happening!”

Milo, I’m absolutely fucking stoked that you are the new Fear Factory singer. I think this band is in very safe hands! We’re all looking forward to seeing you in Australia for summer in 2024!

We should be in Australia next year by summer, I can’t wait because I’ve never been there! My brother lived there for two years and says it’s fucking amazing!

Dino told me the most hardcore fans of Fear Factory are from Australia, you’ve got a heavy fan base over there!

Yes, in every city pretty much. You’ll be welcomed with open arms when you do arrive here, we’re really looking forward to seeing you guys and watching you play some new material!

Back to the now, you guys have a Mexico, Central and South America tour after this current North America and Canadian tour, right?

Yes, I love South Americans, they’re just like me the Latinos, really passionate and really dedicated – it’s gonna be a kick-ass experience. I visited Brazil 10 years ago and I can’t wait to be in all those places and meet all the people!

Before that though, you’re playing a very iconic venue called The Whiskey A Go-Go. Are you looking forward to that?

I was watching videos on YouTube of my favourite bands playing The Whiskey 10 years ago – it was fucking cool. Now, here I am, about to play a show there. It’s just one of the many surreal things that’s happening to me at the moment! We put that show on because the current tour LA date sold out. We had to put on this sideshow in LA for all people that missed out on tickets to the tour show.

Diving deeper into American culture do you follow any of the American sports at all?

In Italy we are crazy about soccer, but I’m not really a soccer follower. I loved basketball when I was a kid. I was a fan of Space Jam and was in love with Michael Jordan. I played basketball for seven years when I was a kid, but never been an avid follower. I’d like to play basketball again in Rome, when I have time and can find some friends to play on a team with me.

I do find it cool that it’s a typical American thing to follow sports. I had my brother here with me last year when I did the audition and he gifted us tickets for seeing the Lakers. I was standing in awe at Laker Stadium, that was an amazing experience even though I’m not a big follower. I don’t even know many of the player’s names, of course I have a Kobe Bryant jersey because I love the aesthetics of it.

Dino said I was with the band at the right time for the historic moment when LeBron James broke the scoring record, so that was iconic.

I dare say that Dino will turn you into a Lakers fan during your time in Fear Factory.

I’m a vocalist myself so I’ve got some vocal questions for you. What do you do to keep your voice firing on all cylinders on such a long tour?

I’ve been trained by my mother and she’s a professional vocal teacher and singer. I’ve been so lucky that I have a musical family. My mother taught me some really good warm up techniques.

As long as you have something that creates resistance, it’s really useful. A good thing to start with is what my mother calls “Sirens” where you go from the lowest range to the highest range using very soft sounds with a finger on your lips to create that resistance. It really helps to hit light registrations like a falsetto and getting your voice used to ranges that you wouldn’t normally hit when you talk.

I like having a keyboard or a guitar. I can play chords and sing along doing scales and then go up half a step. Then up higher and higher so you’re getting closer and closer to your highest range. Push yourself a little bit to your uppermost limit – for me that is A or B in the fourth octave.

Then when you’ve hit the top of your range with the falsetto you go back down again and repeat the process.

For sustaining long notes, you can exercise your diaphragm. The exercises are kind of cringy but they’re helpful.

Speaking of which, what do you do to keep your lungs fit?

My best friend in Italy who is also a vocalist in one of my two bands back in Rome is a Kung Fu instructor. It’s a very cool style – tiger and mantis. I am his student and I want to continue the very long path of kung fu, not just because it’s a passion but because it also helped me get ready for this long tour. It’s the first time for me playing so many consecutive shows. We do a lot of cardio and a lot of muscle exercises including abs and crazy legs training to get myself ready for the tour. I’ve been working out to the point of exhaustion.

Stamina is important so I bought a product off the internet that really intrigued me I wanted to try. It’s really helpful – you put it in your mouth and it creates resistance. You breathe inside of it and it makes your breathing muscles stronger.

Milo, it’s been an absolute pleasure, honour and privilege to talk with you today. I really appreciate you taking the time.

All the best! See you in Aussie, mate!