Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 10:00 AM by Nikos Nakos
30 Years Burn Through Our Eyes
“1994… corruption, racism, hate.
The church has failed… If Jesus came down, he’d be shot?”
In a transitional decade for metal music, creating pleasant surprises was a highlight for every metalhead who had lost faith in his music. It was the era when Pantera was selling out one sold out tour after another on the Far Beyond Driven Tour, when Sepultura was in a compositional orgasm preparing ”Roots”, when Biohazard was appearing in the mainstream world via MTV and Warner and when Fear Factory was preparing the monumental ”Demanufacture”, when an idea from the west coast of the United States overnight came rushing into the scene with a debut album that was as good, if not better, than all those bands that had been around for years.
A lot has been written all these years about how the iconic “Burn My Eyes”, which this year completes 30 years of existence, gave new life to a dying metal scene. Machine Head before they entered the business in a big way had already had 3 years of life starting in Oakland, California on October 12, 1991, jamming for many nights in an old warehouse in front of a homeless audience, where they managed to record. With a demo totaling $800, with distorted vocals over a house intercom they managed to convince a Roadrunner rep to sign them on October 10, 1993 before he even saw them play live. With Robb Flynn recklessly celebrating the event with an overdose of heroin, unclear if it happened on the Exodus tour where he participated in some shows, the decision of his ugly and violent departure from Vio-lence seemed to vindicate his dreams and ideas that were never accepted by his ex-band mates but accepted by the people who supported his side project.
Recording their debut album at Fantasy Studios, just across the bay in Berkeley, California, produced by Colin Richardson and with the great Randy Rhoads as the songwriting thought leader, they managed to earn a spot on Slayer’s European tour during the fall and winter of 1994. At the time, monumental industry albums such as Green Day’s ‘Dookie’, Rancid’s ‘Let’s Go’ and Tesla’s ‘Bust A Nut’ were recorded at these studios. Considering that in the early days, the promoters didn’t know who they could get the band to play with, they were mainly playing with punk bands like Rancid because of their friendly relationships, hence the match up with Slayers was dreamy.
A huge honor for them and for the time as the patriarchs of world thrash is not the easiest band to stand next to on tour. Their amazing opening act presence as well as the reception they met watching their merch sell out, brought them back to Europe in 1995 for headline shows! Regarding their joint tour, we should also mention the fact that we see them together on Slayer’s VHS “Live Intrusion”, when Robb Flynn (and Chris Kontos) take the encore on stage for a cover of Venom’s “Witching Hour”, which we loved listening to as teenagers back then (I personally think it’s the best ever).
The foundations for something very good had already been laid and the metal world was creating expectations towards this new player of the market. With 400,000 copies sold worldwide within a year and a half of its release, ”Burn My Eyes” managed to become Roadrunner’s best-selling debut album until it was surpassed 5 years later in 1999 by Slipknot. A major feat achieved without the exposure of music channels and radio, but only by word of mouth.
Although it originally had a different title and cover artwork (originally titled “Davidian” and its proposed artwork featured a diamond-shaped band logo on a static-filled TV), acclaimed artist Dave McKean (who also created covers for Fear Factory, Frontline Assembly and Skinny Puppy) took over and delivered an iconic piece of heavy-metal art.
If Machine Head’s music was an unstoppable force, Robb Flynn’s identity as a songwriter was established with similar vigor on this legendary debut. The album draws heavily on the social unrest that marked the band’s hometown in the early ’90s. The lyrics, written by frontman Robb Flynn, vividly encapsulate the internal strife born out of social chaos. The first song Machine Head ever wrote was “Death Church,” a track that strongly criticizes religious speculation. The 6th song on the album was ground zero for Machine Head. Written by Flynn during his time in Vio-lence, it was heavily influenced by the British Godflesh’s “Streetcleaner” album and, as was normal at the time, was rejected (the other one that was rejected was “Blood For Blood”). Also, the song in question served as a sort of a certificate of competence to Al Jourgensen of Ministry at the time for a future collaboration as a live musician at their shows in 1992, since he had left Vio-lence, but his fate was not destined.
Relentlessly angry but literate and inventive, he wrote about the bloody 1993 Waco siege on the legendary opening track “Davidian”. Robb also wrote about the 1992 Los Angeles riots through the perverse ”Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies” and on the album’s closing track through ”Block”. Thematically in other songs Flynn took aim at religion and political corruption, while in the slow-moving ”I’m Your God Now” he confronted the horrors of drug addiction. Tracks like ”None But My Own” and ”The Rage to Overcome” delve into the realm of physical and mental abuse. Thirty years later, all of this seems alarming in relation to the current state of disarray of humanity. An album in parts musically influenced by Flynn’s great love of Neurosis, Celtic Frost and D.R.I. at the time. Paradox considering he professes to be a fan of The Cure and Coldplay.
The uniqueness of “Burn My Eyes” at a time when many bands were reluctant to experiment, highlighted Machine Head who managed to fearlessly bridge the gap between the second generation thrash of the Bay Area, personified through bands like Testament and Death Angel, and the then emerging school of Exhorder / Pantera. This inventive blend of styles was key to their sound, which would later evolve and reappear in modified form in their post “Supercharger” output. This bold experimentation not only won over fans, but critics as well. “Burn My Eyes” received considerable acclaim, particularly in Europe, proving that it was not only a commercial and songwriting success. The combination of aggressive thrash and sort of hip hop/rap yeast, combined with Flynn’s incendiary lyrics, made the album a definitive contribution to 90s metal. A recognizable in-your-face all-time classic metal album of a sometimes underrated era that many have tried and failed to replicate.
