Saviour Machine was formed in 1990 (I've occasionally heard of a forming in the Riverside/ San Bernadino,California area, in the summer of 1989). In 1990 the band recorded and released their first demo. The members at this first time were:
Eric Clayton (voc & keys), Jeff Clayton (guitars), Dean Forsyth (bass guitar) Chris Fee (drums & percussion).
At the beginning they performed any concerts in the "near" sourroundings, (many Southern California night clubs)
They were always aspiring to get a secular deal since is has been hard for Saviour Machine to gain acceptance in the United States Christian market. In the late 80's/early '90s, Heavy Metal (pop-metal) had finally gained resonable acceptance. The bands had long, styled hair, make-up, etc...It was the Bon Jovi, Poison and Warrant era; Saviour Machine was going absolutely nowhere at this time; they were just being pushed underground and couldn't break into any of the scenes. Finally, after playing in many clubs (and becoming frustrated with the California scene) they got a call in 1992 to play a Christian Rock Festival in Irvine. Nobody knows exactly how it happened, but, eventually somebody got a copy of the demo to the right person. This concert eventually led to the deal with Frontline and seemed to be a great situation at the time.
Finally they could record and release their first album: "Saviour Machine I".
A few weeks before the album came out, the controversity with Frontline began. Some of the people that shared the vision for Saviour Machine left the record label (more details at the background-section).
Following the Release of "Saviour Machine I", they went on a US Tour. After doing some shows in California, they began opening for Deliverance. The tour was very succesful with the awesome theatrical show for which Saviour Machine is known. Unfortunately the tour ended in controversy when one of the promoters did not agree with the band's message, and pulled the plug on the show. Saviour Machine ended up getting removed from the rest of the tour.(more details at the background-section).
After the US-Tour they went back into the studio, to work on "Saviour Machine II". During this time Frontline's financial situation worsened. Saviour Machine, however, had a deal for two records (and no outs). Frontline decided to allow Saviour Machine to make their second album (Saviour Machine II) with an extremely low budget. Furthermore, they only relreased 1000 copies of the record making it hard for anyone to purchase.'
After finishing Saviour Machine II they did their first tour of Germany(Nov./Dec. '94) and a self-organized Tour of Germany and Holland in May '95. The Tour brought an unbelievable 500 fans per show with nearly no promotion.
This tour attracted several record labels to make offers to the band. Saviour Machine nearly signed with the Holland-label "SI"(who had a marketing deal with RoadRunner). But Eric Clayton also got letters from the German based Massacre Records and met the man who is now his manager (Matthias Mittelstädt) This was the beginning of a very, very successfully partnership!
In 1995 MCM -Music was formed bye Matthias Mittelstädt, Eric Clayton and Rainer Mittelstädt and MCM-Music bought the rights to every SM album ever released from Frontline.
Saviour Machine I and II were re-mastered and re-released in Europe by MCM-Music and MAssacre Records as well as the 1990 demo that got them signed to frontline. (More about the founding of MCM-Music).
In June 1995, Saviour Machine began composing a trilogy entitled "Legend". Legend is a comprehensive musical interpretation of the Apocalypse. In the march '96 Saviour Machine went out of the road across Germany. During this Tour the live-video and album in Owen/Teck were recorded. It is the best live album(quality) I've ever heard!
A great milestone for Saviour Machine occured in January 1997 with the release of Legend Part I. This Work contains various musical styles and recieved critical acclaim in the United Strates and Europe.
The release of Legend Part II occcured in March '98 and this record topped (really) it's predecessor. The scheduled release-date for Legend Part III is in 2000 and it will be a double-disk with 36 Tracks(!!!).
