Fear Factory's Dino Cazares Warns That Clickbait Headlines In Metal Media Are "Dangerous"

Fear Factory, etc. guitarist Dino Cazares has newly spoken out against clickbait headlines, particularly when it comes to the metal media. A recent post on X made by Cazares found him on the receiving end of some heat due to a provocative headline derived in part from his social media post. In an exchange with a fan on X that has since been deleted, Cazares shot down Pantera being a direct influence on Fear Factory‘s earlier material.

A subsequent story based on those comments made by Cazares was posted on a website, and also tied into a 2020 tweet in which Cazares voiced similar concerns of Pantera‘s albums not being a substantial influence on the early works of Fear Factory.

In that 2020 tweet, Cazares admitted that he initially passed over listening to Pantera after first being introduced to them during their, as Cazares put it, “glam band” days. Cazares of course isn’t wrong in that characterization, as prior to 1990’s “Cowboys From Hell“, Pantera had yet to fully break the mold of their glam roots. That 2020 tweet also saw Cazares relaying that he didn’t truly begin to appreciate Pantera until their 1994 effort “Far Beyond Driven“.

Despite the years of distance between those separate exchanges on social media, both were recently combined into a headline which Cazares publicly called clickbait. That headline read. ‘Dino Cazares Denies Pantera Influence on Fear Factory, Calls Them Glam Band’.

This led Cazares to comment several times on X about the matter today, December 16th.

Cazares also elaborated further on his concerns regarding clickbait in a subsequent post on X made this afternoon, December 16th. That post read:

“Using misleading, click-bait headlines in metal media is dangerous.
Many people only read the headline and immediately judge the person or situation without reading the full article that explains the actual facts.

When headlines are framed to provoke outrage instead of accuracy, they can fuel anger, misinformation, and hostile reactions. In extreme cases, that kind of misrepresentation can push people toward real-world confrontations or violence based on something that isn’t even true.

Journalism, especially in a passionate community like metal comes with responsibility. Accuracy matters more than clicks.”

Cazares certainly has a point, especially considering the involvement of Pantera in the headline. While not exactly the definition of ‘clickbait’ by modern standards, the proverbial elephant in the room in Cazares‘ statement would be a beef that erupted between Pantera‘s vocalist Phil Anselmo and their late guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott back in the early 2000s.

That public war of words spilled over into the press in 2004, with Anselmo at one point telling Metal Hammer that Dimebag needed to be “beaten severely.” Anselmo‘s heated words followed Pantera‘s bitter breakup in the year prior. Several months after that interview made the rounds, Abbott and more were killed onstage by an apparent deranged Pantera fan during a Damageplan show in Columbus, OH.

Dimebag‘s brother Vinnie Paul Abbott, who was onstage playing with his brother during that murderous rampage, blamed Anselmo‘s call for inciting violence against his brother in the press as being responsible for his subsequent murder. As such, Vinnie Paul ultimately never forgave Anselmo over the matter. Back in 2022, Pantera bassist/vocalist Rex Brown stated of that:

“[Vinnie] would not have anything to do with Phil—period. He thought that that was the reason his brother was dead. I disagree with that. I think this was a nut that had already been out there planning and premeditating whatever move he was gonna make.”