Hang around in the music industry long enough and you’ll play every role the press has to conjure. Hero, villain, comeback kid. Earned or not, there are only so many parts to be handed out, and they have to be cast. There are blank pages to fill, hooks to set, ad space to sell and personal beefs to settle. The beast is always hungry, never satiated, claws sharpened and fangs glistening.
Oakland’s Machine Head is one of those bands that has been thrust into every part on the proverbial playbill. Started nearly a quarter century ago by guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn, formerly of Bay Area thrash legends Forbidden and Vio-lence, Machine Head’s debut, 1994’s Burn My Eyes, won the praise of critics and fans alike with its mix of thrash, groove and social commentary. Hundreds of thousands of copies were shipped worldwide, and the band quickly became Roadrunner Records’ top dog, selling more copies of their freshman effort than any other band until a little group called Slipknot came along.
Following the success of Burn My Eyes and the follow-up The More Things Change..., over in the UK and Europe, and to a lesser extent at home in the US, you could practically hear the collective music press sharpening their knives in preparation for tearing down that which they had so rapidly built up. The fuel for the flames came when on 1999’s The Burning Read, the band seemed to hop on the much-maligned nu-metal bandwagon. Some rapped lyrics and dumbed-down riffs were introduced to the mix along with a drastic change on the aesthetic front to the band’s image. Flynn himself began displaying a new-found affinity for hip-hop inspired fashions, and the predictable cries of “sell-out” were heard.
Photo courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records
Dark times lay ahead for the band. Dropped from their American label following the release of 2001’s Supercharger, Flynn and co had little choice but to abandon the unsuccessfully attempted nu-metal flirtation with mainstream success and go back to their Bay Area roots. Gradually, the band was welcomed back into the critical good graces, first with Through the Ashes of Empires. Grudgingly, the world seemed ready to welcome Machine Head back, albeit with a wary eye and a wait-and-see approach.
Then came the big one, The Blackening, an album near universally hailed as a modern classic of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Armed with over 15 years of frustrations, setbacks, personnel changes that nearly left the band permanently sidelined and the tragic death of Flynn’s friend, Pantera and Damageplan guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, Machine Head channeled it all into an opus of melody, aggression, new school groove and old school thrash. Essentially, the album comprised everything the band had been clawing for over the course of its career but never successfully managed to put together without the seams showing. Hero, villain, comeback kid. Machine Head had finally come full circle.
Since The Blackening thrust the band back into the company of the metal multiverse’s big names, Machine Head has put out a couple more albums. Both 2011’s Unto the Locust and 2014’s Bloodstone & Diamonds were praised as continuations on the imposing form of The Blackening. In many ways, The Blackening served as something of a reset button for the band, winning back old fans who may have abandoned them when the first vestiges of nu-metal reared their ugly head, while at the same time introducing Machine Head to a whole new generation of fans who may not have followed (or simply weren’t born yet) when the band made its debut.
Nearly 25 years on, Machine Head seems to be a band that has finally found its true form. The days of being a muddled character actor are long gone. Now, Machine Head is quite deservedly cast as a leading band.
■ An Evening with Machine Head, July 10 at Y17 Hana Live House (花漾 Hana 展演空間), 10F, 17 Renai Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中正區仁愛路一段17號10樓 ). Tickets are NT$1,500 to NT$3,200. Doors open at 6pm and the show begins at 7pm.
From a band that has always cared about commercial success to one that never gave it a passing thought, save to give it the finger. There’s basically only one way to accurately describe Tokyo’s Barbatos. I can’t print it here, but it involves taking an uncaring attitude toward giving heed to sexual intercourse. How’s that for tip-toeing around the stylistic guidelines?
Over the course of nearly 20 years, Barbatos has carved a bloody path through the underground, putting out over 30 releases, mostly splits and live albums of the rawest possible sonic caliber. Band leader Yasuyuki Suzuki, also of underground favorites Abigail, is a rare master of old school blackened thrashing punk and speed metal. He’s one of the few who has never, and will never, pay any credence whatsoever to any newly emerging trend.
To draw a comparison to the aforementioned Machine Head, if there is any, “sell out” is never a word you’ll hear associated with anything Suzuki puts his black mark on. If it came out after 1986, chances are he’s not interested, and fans around the world continue to worship him for his staunchly uncompromising stance.
■Barbatos headlines Holocausto Thrash IV (Holocausto Thrash 鞭擊大屠殺 IV) tomorrow night at APA Mini (小地方展演空間), 147, Hangzhou S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市杭州南路一段147號). Tickets are NT$800 in advance, NT$1,000 at the door, and the show gets underway at 6:30pm.
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