Modern Classics: Machine Head - Burn My Eyes

The 90's appeared to a few people (and guitar magazines) as the “Great Metal Depression Of The 90's”. The falling of “Glam Metal” and thrash to grunge would push the majority of metal into the underground. In many genres, stagnation is often to extra nail in the coffin. In the case of metal at the end of the 80's, many felt that to progress a band should become heavier, and to those same people, their expectations were not met.

Machine Head contained within it’s ranks a bay area thrash veteran - Robb Flynn. The heavier guitars, harsher vocals and more aggression overall rooted in 80's thrash in "Burn My Eyes" fuelled some already angry metal audiences, was just the right thing at just the right time.

It’s always unfortunate to read articles about thrash and the important albums. While many people cling to the 80's, a lot of people fail to realize that Machine Head helped to modernize the genre, which was well-needed at the time.

With a little bit of digging, you can find other artists who were attempted and succeeded in helping to modernize the sound of thrash. Most European bands such as Occult, Hatesphere and The Haunted preferred speed and a bit more finesse to their approach, while Danish band Konkhra evolved to a much more brutal and American sounding style. Although some of these more modernized thrash bands came later, the influence did not go unnoticed. Taking a look around, you’ll see quite a few thrash influenced metalcore bands among the ranks of the many more melodic ones.

The key to sending brutality home can come from many places. Machine Head took advantage of everything they had at the time. The overall low-end heavy from the drums and guitars combined with the rougher vocal style were standards other bands could adopt and use easily. What did not come easily was the crafting of a whole memorable album, with down to earth lyrics that made the anger much more real than most of the subject matter of thrash from the 80's.

While many people see “Burn My Eyes” as the most thought of album when people think of Machine Head, I think “The More Things Change” gets overlooked far too often. “The More Things Change” tweaked the cosmetic sounds a little bit, perhaps not big enough to warrant a reaction from very many people. I personally always felt the songwriting had been honed to an even better quality than the previous album, and the rhyming pattern of the lyrics have been some of the most advanced I’ve ever seen in my life. In that sense, it’s always too bad to hear people talk about “The More Things Change” as just another “Burn My Eyes”. The general public reaction of “Burn My Eyes” puts it into a more classic role than “The More Things Change”.

The third album “The Burning Red” in 1998 saw Machine Head change their sound to nu-metal, a change that seemed to get some quick record sales, but eventually proved to be a huge downfall in the end. Rumours have been abound that Roadrunner Records held some bands hostage, forcing them to either change to nu-metal or get dropped as the label began cashing in the nu-metal craze. Their fourth album “Supercharger” was released on September 11th. The single entitled “Crashing Around You” with burning buildings in the video which had aired before the release date, coupled with the release of the album on the infamous date, Machine Head saw their support drop instantly.

2003 saw the return of Machine Head with the album "Through The Ashes Of Empires", and a partial return to their old sound. From a personal standpoint, I would describe it as a culmination of all their previous albums all at once. In a strange way, it showed that perhaps the influence of nu-metal isn’t all shallow.

At this current point in time, Machine Head are working on a new release.

9/10

Machine Head
Roadrunner Records