Eric:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know if it was decision, it was more of a natural progression. I think that the first album which was released in 1993, um, most bands first record takes years to put together, you know? We formed in 1990 and what you hear on Saviour Machine (s\/t) is the first three years of the band. We were young and raw and still searching for an identity. You could say we\u2019ve had some time to develop and choose the material and that sort of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> What bands influenced you guys back then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> Some of the stronger influences back then were probably some of the same influences today. We came from a background listening to Pink F., Black Sabbath, King Crimson, Led Z., early Genesis……..<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> Have you ever heard Solitude Aeturnus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> Yeah, they just opened up for us on a tour. We just did 16 dates in Europe and they were our support act on that tour. They were a bunch of great guys, we loved those guys. We spent a lot of time with them. They\u2019re a great band. They did one of the best cover versions of “Heaven and Hell” that I\u2019ve ever heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> What other secular bands have you guys played with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> We\u2019ve done tours with a lot of black metal acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> Really!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> Yeah, overseas. We\u2019ve played with Theater of Tragedy, Alastis,……<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> Do these bands usually open up for Saviour Machine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> The tour we did with T.O.T. was a co-headlining thing. It was an interesting tour. Most of the time we play with a lot of secular bands, it\u2019s some sort of festival. We\u2019re probably one of the only Christian bands that get the opportunity to play certain festivals. We played the (I couldn\u2019t understand what he said, I believe it was German \u2013 Mike) open-air festival last year, which is the largest metal festival over in Europe. There were like 40,000 people attending this show. Bands like Slayer, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Motor Head, just about every band you can think of was playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> Has Saviour Machine, as a whole, ever had any conflicts with any un-holier than thou bands\/individuals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> Major conflicts, nothing on a human level. Nothing that\u2019s tangible. We\u2019re all personal people and most of the bands you tour with and most professional acts we tour with, you find out that most of the time there are a lot of good people in these bands and they are professionals. It\u2019s hard to get anywhere with an unprofessional attitude, you know? So most of the time you find out that even people who claim to be overly satanic, or more humanistic or that sort of thing, you find that most of the time, regardless of what they are preaching from the stage, these people are really descent, even if they are preaching doom and gloom or that life isn\u2019t worth anything, it\u2019s interesting. I think that a lot of what comes out of a lot of these quote un-quote black metal acts, a lot of it is mainly a marketing scheme, an image, or some sense of rebellion that has come forth from confusion or misdirection. It\u2019s humanism at its source. I\u2019ve talked to a lot of these bands and I\u2019ve had conversations with them and you find out that they believe somewhat of what they are saying, but in many cases it\u2019s their own confusion that\u2019s driving it. Their own discontentment or disillusion and a lot of it, is just anger. It\u2019s a hate filled world and there is a lot of hate to go around. Hate sales, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> After you get done playing, do any of the bands you\u2019re touring with realize that you\u2019re a Christian band?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> They already know this before we go on tour with the band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> How do the bands you play with react to your live show?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> We\u2019ve had different reactions with different bands. Most of the time, after you get further into the tour and you get talking, they\u2019ll say; “Before we did this tour we thought that you were going to be these freaky Christians, preaching around to everybody, and we felt really weird to be around you guys, but you guys are really cool. We didn\u2019t know what to expect from you musically or visually.”, and that sort of thing. Sometimes we get the funny compliments like; “For being a Christian band, you guys are a lot scarier and intense than any black metal band we\u2019ve ever seen.”, and that sort of thing. It\u2019s kind of funny. In the end we\u2019re all human beings and there\u2019s ways to communicate and appreciate where another person is coming from even if you don\u2019t agree with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> I want to ask you about one of your past concerts. I don\u2019t know the entire story, but I recall hearing that at one of your concerts at Cornerstone you started crying. I heard that it was because people didn\u2019t really accept\/understand the concept and the imagery of Saviour Machine very well and that it was a real emotional time for all of you due to people turning their backs on the band. Would you mind telling me about that incident?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> Actually, that was in 1997. We….. this gets into a long story, but back in 1993, when our first album came out, there was a good buzz about Saviour Machine before we released our first record. The record sold really well in the stores for about six weeks, and shortly after, the controversy started brewing. We had such a backlash of controversy within the first two months that by the end of the third month, 85-90% of Saviour Machine (s\/t) had been pulled from Christian retail. That really ended our initial interest into the Christian music world. I guess you could say that we were ahead of our time with the makeup, the imagery, and some of the more impressionistic lyrics and so forth. It was too much for the, let\u2019s say the Bible belt, or the mainstream America. The Christian music world was definitely not ready for it here (the U.S.), that it closed the book here. Fortunately God opened a huge door for us over in Europe. Four years later, after the success in the secular market in Europe, a door was opened back here in the states last year in 1997, with the release of Legend, Part One. Shortly after that we were invited to play cornerstone, and actually that concert was the first concert that we have performed here in the U.S. in four years. I guess you could say that towards the end of the show, I was emotionally moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> Would you agree or disagree that there are a lot of people today and of course in the past, that used\/use the word of God or His name for evil purposes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric:<\/strong> Man is corrupt. Man is imperfect. The bottom line is that man has, let\u2019s say, destroyed just about everything he\u2019s touched since the dawn of time. There are a lot of men in this world, especially in this country, that have absolutely distorted and corrupted the word of God. They have used the name of God to make billions of dollars, you know? It\u2019s not for me to judge them though. It\u2019s a great tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outcast:<\/strong> What I\u2019m also getting to is this. The Bible was written YEARS ago, how do we know that scripture hasn\u2019t been tampered with throughout the translations and the years? Catholicism has two extra chapters that the protestant religions don\u2019t have in their Bible. How could anyone have faith in a book that was written so long ago, when we see how corrupt man is to begin with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Saviour](\"\/theoutcast\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Saviour-Machine-2.jpg\")