HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Burn My Eyes – Machine Head

The popular narrative goes that by 1994, with grunge having been the main form of alternative music for the start of the decade, that metal was dead and buried while certain elements remained underground. This was not true in any way, shape or form with the likes of PANTERA, SEPULTURA, PRONG, BIOHAZARD and many more selling loads of records and packing out live shows while the more extreme likes of TESTAMENT, OBITUARY, NAPALM DEATH and CANNIBAL CORPSE all released acclaimed albums in that year. 

There was one band though who seemingly came out of nowhere, and were one that brought a fresh and truly explosive new style of metal into the mainstream. That band was MACHINE HEAD. Bursting out of the Bay Area with the same force as the shotgun blast they call for on Davidian, the opening salvo to debut full-length record Burn My Eyes. Released on August 9th, 1994 through Roadrunner Records, the record would grow to become the label’s biggest selling record, a title held until the arrival of SLIPKNOT five years later. 

Fresh from leaving thrashers VIO-LENCE, vocalist and guitarist Robb Flynn strived to create something even heavier and more powerful. Hooking up with bassist Adam Duce, guitarist Logan Mader and drummer Chris Kontos, the lineup for Burn My Eyes was cemented and today, is regarded as the quintessential MACHINE HEAD lineup. Although this makeup would only release Burn My Eyes, they will forever go down in history with this debut record.

Mixing thrash metal, hardcore punk, industrial and hip hop with a swaggering and intimidating groove, Machine Head talked the talked and walked the walk. Injecting an even grittier and streetwise feel about their music to modern metal, this was the sound and attitude of SLAYER, METALLICA, PUBLIC ENEMY, CYPRESS HILL, DISCHARGE, and more all coming together in a ball of furious anger and energy. 

From Davidian‘s explosive opening salvo onwards, this is the sound of a band making a statement and doing it with a palatable fury with songs like Old and A Thousand Lies becoming much played, instant metal anthems. But on reflection, the whole of Burn My Eyes is classic track after classic track with the likes of Death Church, The Rage To Overcome, Blood For Blood and Block as well sounding as good today as they did 30 years ago. Ungodly brutality, urban reality was a statement that memorably adorned MACHINE EHAD T-shirts when Burn My Eyes was released and brilliantly sums up the tales of inner city rage that made the album as incendiary as it was, and there was no faking it at all.

Burn My Eyes is littered with acute social commentary too, that sadly is still as relevant now as it was thirty years ago with the intro to Old telling of “corruption, racism, hate” being the most telling, and opened the door for even more metal bands to talk about social issues rather than more fantasy related subjects.

The impact that Burn My Eyes made was huge immediately with MACHINE HEAD being undoubtedly the hottest band in metal in 1994 and the band went from opening for SLAYER in the UK and Europe that November to headlining those same stages just six months later, an incredible achievement. With a memorable and special show on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball dedicated to the band on the road during the Burn My Eyes headline tour in 1995 was an essential documentary of that time to capture the hot new band live in action and slogging away on the road.

Prior to that, the band’s first UK headline shows at Rock City in Nottingham and the famous London Astoria in December 1994, also went down in the history books. Festival circuits would see the band grace the stages at Dynamo in the Netherlands alongside BIOHAZARD, TYPE O NEGATIVE and NAILBOMB, before joining METALLICA at their request in Donington, cementing the band as a genuine force in the live arena. 

Thirty years on, MACHINE HEAD have had quite the turbulent career, but despite lineup changes (Robb Flynn being the sole remaining member from the Burn My Eyes era) and a few label woes along the way, the band have always prevailed and the fact that they are going stronger than even today is testament to Robb Flynn‘s passion for his music. Given the fact that the band are landing headline slots at next year’s prestigious metal festivals Wacken and Bloodstock already, is testament to their legacy that began with their debut record.

It all started with Burn My Eyes and the fact that this debut album still has the same fire and excitement when you listen to it after all these years, means that it definitely deserves its status as one of the most important and brilliant metal albums of all time. 

Burn My Eyes was originally released on August 9th, 1994 via Roadrunner Records.

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