Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Machine Head - Burn My Eyes (1994)

This is the album that seemingly half the fan base of early nineties metal have been waiting to be followed up for over 25 years now.  Rarely do I hear conversation or read reviews of Machine Head output post this record that doesn't mention the debut.  "This ain't no Burn My Eyes!" is one such common comment as if there is a genuine expectation that anything is ever going to match one of the most impacting and meaningful releases for most fans growing up with metal in the nineties.  As is perhaps human nature, the success of a band at one moment in time becomes a stick to beat them with in years to come.  

The majority of criticism that gets levelled at Machine Head is justified in my book, not that there is anything wrong with a band exploring new avenues and directions but with Flynn's unpredictable nature there is always a threat of you just not knowing what is coming next whenever a record release from the band is announced.  This (aside from the fact that I believe that Burn My Eyes was a one off record anyways) should be evidence enough that the debut was never going to ever get followed up in the strictest sense of the term.  Instead we should celebrate the brilliance of the debut as opposed to chaining it around the neck of the band like some wearisome burden.

By the time this record was released I had been into metal for five years and things were just starting to get a little stagnant for me.  Nu-metal was in the early stages of development and I had already decided it wasn't going to interest me that much.  Virtually every penny I earned went on vinyl, CD or cassette and my shelves in my bedroom were stocked full of everything from Pantera to Morbid Angel, from Bon Jovi to Judas Priest and I felt like I heard everything.  My liking of Pantera was what I recall being the thread that lead me to Machine Head's debut album. A Vulgar Display of Power had been a big influence on my taste in terms of groove metal and Burn My Eyes seemed almost a natural progression for me.  The record felt fresh, brimming with angst-ridden energy and brooding violence.  It sounded like how I (and no doubt every teenage metal fan at the time) wanted their own band to sound like if they ever started one up.  It was equal parts catharsis for the moody teenager as it was unbridled vehemence for the older hormones floating around in my blood at the time.

The tracks just stacked up like a string of devastatingly powerful wrestlers making their entrance one by one into some all out royal rumble.  It was most definitely an album that in 1994 I would have awarded five stars to.  A quarter of a century's worth of hindsight has seen the number of stars diminish as my tastes have changed and I rarely come back to this record with any regularity nowadays.  I still stick to my point earlier on in the review that this record should be celebrated for what it delivered to both me personally and the metal genre as a whole at the time.  It is still a brilliant and very important album.