Fear Factory’s “Fear Campaign” Lyrics Meaning

Despite their moniker, Fear Factory is not a band that advocates living shook. And such a stance takes front and center stage in “Fear Campaign”, a song that more or less reads just co-writer and vocalist Burton C. Bell has described it. 

The only aspect of his explanation that is left out of the lyrics is that, when he mentions fear as being a “strategic tool”, he does not go on to state who utilizes it as such. But in his own words Burton lets it be known that he is in fact referring to the powers-that-be. Simply put, he is referring to the likes of governments, religious institutions and the people of authority who direct our lives. 

But even without that foreknowledge, as implied earlier it’s more or less obvious who he’s talking about anyway. But the clearest hint comes in the first verse, where the job of the police is identified as ‘enforcing obedient behavior’.

The Victims of the “Fear Campaign”

In all, what is being put forth is that we, the general public, are the victims of a “fear campaign”. And those who are conducting it, as noted above, do so in the name of making us conform to their will and statutes. Or put differently, there is no need for the elite to directly control us, when they can use the fear of “war”, “pestilence”, “terror”, “failure”, “drugs”, “rape”, and so on and so forth to shake us into complying.

But as sorta implied, this song doesn’t read as if it is about painting govvie and co. as the bad guys, at least not exclusively. Instead the vocalist also indirectly condemns those of us who allow fear to ‘be our god’, which we will take as a reference to people who, one way or another, factor in fear in all of their decisions.

And what is interesting is that we would imagine this is a song which the likes of anti-vaxxers in the here and now would absolutely adore. That is to say that, to be totally honest, fear has been heavily utilized by some parties in power during the COVID-19 pandemic in the name of making the public follow their espoused path to optimum health, even though serious questions have risen about their methodology and ultimate goal. 

And from a conspiratorial perspective, that is exactly the point the vocalist is trying to make, that even beyond the law itself, governments and other such authoritative institutions tend to use fear as a means of management.

Fear Factory

Fear Factory is a band from L.A. that has been rocking, heavy metal style, since around the early 1990s. They released 10 studio albums between 1992 and 2021. This track is from an LP they put out through Candlelight Records entitled “Mechanize”.

This particular song was the project’s second single. It was issued out as such on 4 February 2010. And to note prior to “Mechanize”, Fear Factory’s artistry centered on using science fiction to get their points across. But even as long ago as the late-aughts, the band had already concluded “the controlling authorities” had gone too far in terms promoting fear. They thus decided to drop more straightforward lyrics, such as “Fear Campaign”, on the above album.

Facts about “Fear Campaign”

This piece was written by the following Fear Factory bandmates:

• Dino Cazares
• Burton C. Bell

Burton, who served as lead vocalist since the group’s inception, left the outfit under less-than-ideal circumstances as recently as 2020. 

And at the time this track came out, the other two members of the band, who have also gone their own way amidst beef since, were drummer Gene Hoglan and bassist Byron Stroud.

This song was produced by Canadian native Rhys Fulber. Throughout his career, Rhys has worked extensively with Fear Factory.

The music video to “Fear Campaign” was directed by the pair of filmographers who work regularly together, (Ian) McFarland & (Mike) Pecci.