Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
1994 Roadrunner
by Horatio

Quick Summary:
Cast your mind back ten years to Machine Head's debut, a time when every two bit metal scribe proclaimed them the future of metal.  Metal Hammer namely.  This was also the same rag that promised 3 Colours Red would be the biggest rock band in the world.  Machine Head rose from Flynn's time in third rate thrashers Vio-lence, appearing at a time when thrash and metal in general was all but dead in the mainstream.  Somehow 'Burn My Eyes' dented the British charts, leading to the UK metal press fawning over their every move for the next three years or so.  Machine Head were the future of nothing and still are.

'Burn My Eyes' was described by some flunkie as 'post thrash'.  Listening to the album fully is unbearable, but is necessary to learn there are only three or four segments of real thrash.  Compared to 'Divine Intervention' that same year, Machine Head had all the same crunch as Megadeth.  Everywhere you turned you were faced with the posturing of Flynn, acting as some tough guy from the Bay area, as though that gave him serious cred.  When asked who listens to Machine Head, Kontos once replied 'only the coolest people'.  What did that make me then?  A nerd more like.  Even Slayer fell in love with MH, taking them on tour in 94 (Kerry King saw the error of his ways and recently engaged in a war of words with Flynn questioning his musical departure from thrash, insinuating rightly he was faking it).  But then it took three years for a follow up, a diabolically dull affair 'The More Things Change' that saw Kontos dumped.  Mader soon followed and Machine Head fell apart.  I always suspected they were frauds from the get go and was proven right.  In 2004 they are a joke, much like they were in 1994 at the start.  This now stands as a dated relic of amateur thrash from perhaps the most contrived and forced act of its day.  Even Anselmo was more real than these wankers. '...and to all those with a lack of respect or faith, you have nothing to look forward to but the downtown, Oaktown beatdown'.  Bring it on then. 

Website:  www.machinehead1.com

Song Summaries:

1. Davidian - Machine Head were a band obsessed with personal angst and rage at the world.  Their harsh upbringings in the brutal Bay Area made them more streetwise than Steven Segal.  'Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast' screams Flynn in what I presume was meant to be a rallying call for metalheads.  Laboured at best.  C
2. Old - There's a smidgen of thrash splashed about here, but it doesn't provoke a reaction.  Well maybe it does.  It reminds me of how much of a turkey I was in '95 listening to this.  C
3. A Thousand Lies - 'You want some shit? I'll fuckin' pound you son'.  'Anger's a gift and I wont be kept down.' 'Used needle and a crack vile (vial?), a broken bottle and a bullet shell, this urban life is so volatile, an inner city or a concrete hell'.  Thanks for the summation dude.  F
4. None But My Own - This issue of Metal Hammer, at home with Rob Flynn!  Next issue at home with Logan Mader in suburban Oakland as he describes hearing gunshots every night!  Next month on the road with Machine Head, see what it's really like to sleep in a bunk on a tour bus.  Next month, Rob Flynn's ultimate metal playlist including Cro Mags, Sick Of It All and The Dropkick Murphy's!  D
5. The Rage To Overcome - What rage?  'An open mind with a closed fist!'  Okay back off now bro!  'A hatred burns inside of me! Emotion out of hand!'  Okay you've made your point, step back Rob!  C
6. Death Church - 'I been to jail. It didn't make me right'.  1994 was the golden age of using TV reports documenting urban violence as a backup to a bands tale of despair and hopelessness.  Machine Head utilized this factor remarkably badly.  Stagnant and agonizing in its mid paced stance.  C
7. A Nation On Fire - The problem with Machine Head is their incessant ramming down peoples throats about their urban upbringing.  I lived in a tougher part of Auckland than these chumps did in Oakland or wherever they came from.  But no, 'you tell me peace, well I hear gunshots all night, the scars I have I've earned because I've had to fight'.  Fight what?  Angry crowds irate at how bad Vio-lence were opening for Dark Angel at the Palladium?  Did Rob have to plow his way through a crowd of angry black gang members every day on his way to school?  'I can't back down from aggression, some hard knocks taught me this lesson.'  Set to some routine thrash it hardly makes me feel angered.  C
8. Blood For Blood - While this album is a dud it raises a smile only due to it's time and place at a certain point when I experimented with all metal.  Thankfully I got it out of my system so ten years later I wouldn't still be caught buying such tosh.  Hey by the way this is a thrasher!  Forget anything bad I've said!  C
9. I'm Your God Now - Opening as a Nirvana clone as if to appeal to the mainstream who frowned upon metal.  Of course it gets heavier.  Maybe.  I've skipped it already.  Seeing it's been seven years since I last aired this my memory's gotten foggy at remembering Z grade metal.  D
10. Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies - F
11. Block - The crowning achievement of Machine Head's career?  A great opening montage of more TV and radio sounds regarding the LA riots, police brutality and political corruption.  Rob's truly disillusioned with the direction this pitiful world's taken.  'America has to go through some kind of radical change' says an unknown voice.  Well it's good to see nothings changed then.  'You got white scum, Spanish scum, but wall to wall to you got nigger scum'  Remember that great line?  The apocalypse is now according to Rob, 'FUCK IT ALL!!!!!!!!'  C 

Average Song Rating:  C-
Overall Album Rating:  D

Also be sure to read:
Machine Head - The More Things Change by Skin Splitter