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Machine Head
Biography
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Biography
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Machine Head is a heavy metal band, formed in 1992 in Oakland, California.
Machine Head: Band History
It has been said that Machine Head was one of the heaviest metal music bands to rise during the 1990's. Their first album, Burn My Eyes (1994), is widely acclaimed to be as pivotal to heavy metal as Slayer's Reign in Blood and Metallica's Master of Puppets. The first song on the album Davidian features the lyric "Let freedom reign // with the shotgun blast". Subsequently the video was banned from MTV.
After Chris Kontos left to work with Testament, the drumming services of Dave McClain were acquired. They then released the followup album, The More Things Change in 1997, after which guitarist Logan Mader unexpectedly left in the spring of 1998. He was to be replaced by Ahrue Luster (Now of Ill Niño) who worked with the band on the third album The Burning Red (1999). This album was a sign of a change for Machine Head, the band deciding to experiment more rather than release another album that would be seen as a just a shadow in the footsteps of Burn My Eyes. Robb uses his rapping techniques in this album rather than the growl he used on earlier releases. The song Devil With The Kings Card is based on Logan Mader's leaving of the band. In the end neither of these albums, were as prominent, successful or ground breaking as Burn My Eyes.
Machine Head released Supercharger in 2001, though the album failed to do well, mostly due to it being released shortly after 9/11. The video for the song Crashing Around You was banned by MTV due to its images of collapsing buildings. Once the tour had been completed, Machine Head said their farewells to their record label Roadrunner Records. Ahrue Luster was later kicked out of the band for musical differences and was replaced by Phil Demmel. Since then 2003 and 2004 have been somewhat of a revival for Machine Head, firstly releasing their live album Hellalive in 2003 which was a recording of a Brixton Academy, London set.
In fall 2003, Machine Head released their fifth studio album, Through the Ashes of Empires, in Europe. In early 2004 they re-signed to Roadrunner Records in America and then released Through the Ashes of Empires in the US, featuring an additional song which had not appeared on the European release. Through the Ashes of Empires returned to a style closer to that of Burn My Eyes (their first album), and received significant publicity due to the success of the song Imperium and a massive return to lyrical form by Robb Flynn. As part of this revival, Machine Head headlined the "True Metal" stage at 2005's Wacken Open Air festival in front of 40,000 fans - their biggest show to date!
Machine Head: Sound Debate
There have been a few debates on Machine Head's overall sound. Some call them a thrash metal or a neo-thrash metal band, due to the fast guitar riffs and angry vocals. Others call them groove metal because of the groove they pit into their rhythms or half groove and half thrash metal for having both fast riffs and lots of grooves. Machine Head have also been categorised as Metalcore due to their blend of Hardcore-esque lyrics and vocals, with a more 'metallic' sound. Others have called them nu metal or mallcore, mostly due to The Burning Red and Supercharger albums but say they went back to "true" metal on the Through the Ashes of Empires album. Robb Flynn has stated that Machine Head were never a thrash band in any form and that they are more influenced by hardcore metal than thrash.
Machine Head: Line-Up
Robb Flynn (Vocals, Guitars)
Founding member of Machine Head.
Producer for Through the Ashes of Empires.
Adam Duce (Backing Vocals, Bass)
Co-Founding member.
Phil Demmel (Lead Guitars)
Joined around the time of the album Through the Ashes of Empires.
Dave McClain (Drums)
Joined around the time of the album The More Things Change.
Machine Head: Previous Members
Logan Mader (Guitars)
Member from band's founding to album The More Things Change.
Dave Costanza (Drums)
Member from band's founding, replaced by Chris Kontos.
Chris Kontos (Drums)
Member from not long after band's founding to album Burn My Eyes.
Ahrue Luster (Guitars)
Member from around the time of The Burning Red to Supercharger.
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