| Weight | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 12, 1994 | |||
| Recorded | December 1993 | |||
| Studio | Echo Creek Ranch (Meyers, California) | |||
| Genre | Alternative metal[1] | |||
| Length | 53:26 | |||
| Label | Imago | |||
| Producer | Theo Van Rock | |||
| Rollins Band chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Weight | ||||
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| Alternate cover | ||||
 Alternate promo edition cover | ||||
Weight is the fourth studio album by American rock bandRollins Band, released on April 12, 1994. It featured the band's biggest hits, "Liar" and "Disconnect".
The songs for the album were written throughout 1993, after the band completed touring for their previous releaseThe End of Silence. The writing for the songs took place inEast Village, Manhattan, since all of the members of the band lived in New York, with the exception ofHenry Rollins, who was based inLos Angeles.[2][3] Rollins has said that he conceived several song lyrics and musical ideas on his way to band practice in New York.[3] In a 1997 interview, he further recalled that "a lot of the initial songs, like a big hunk of them, were written really fast. 'Volume 4', 'Fool', 'Disconnect', and 'Liar' were written in like two days. Then there's another burst that gave us another hunk. Then they were groomed, argued over, mantled, dismantled, different bridge sections put in. Then the rest of the record took the rest of the summer into the fall."[4]Rollins Band played a small number of shows during 1993, where they previewed some of the new material they had been writing.[5] They then recordedWeight during a snowy December 1993 in Echo Creek Ranch, in Meyers, California. While recording the album in Echo Creek Ranch, Rollins was interviewed byMTV, and said "we recorded the album out here at this log cabin in the middle of nowhere because it enabled us to make a lot of noise night and day and not worry about neighbors. We could go seven days a week as many hours as we wanted and hopefully create a very free musical atmosphere and that's why we did it." Rollins added that, "having recorded in this cabin like this in a very kind of homey atmosphere, I wouldn't want to go back to a studio again."[6]
In May 1994,Spin described the album as a mix ofrap,punk,funk,metal andjazz, also calling it a "far cry" from Henry Rollins' previous bandBlack Flag.[7] It was produced by the band's long-time sound technician, the Dutch-born Theo Van Rock. Around this time, Van Rock was often being credited as a fifth member of the band, despite playing no instruments, and even appeared in the music video for "Liar" and in several photo shoots alongside the other members. When asked aboutWeight, Van Rock told MTV that, "the sound of the album is warm, open and honest. Henry's been known as somebody who's like very strong in his, let's say screaming, and now we are doing the singing thing as well."[6]
For the album, bassistAndrew Weiss was replaced byMelvin Gibbs, known at the time for his jazz work.The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, by music criticColin Larkin, described Gibbs as adding a stronger funk influence to the band's sound, with songs such as "Liar" and "Tired" also drawing heavily from jazz.[8] Rollins Band would go on to incorporate even more jazz elements on their next album, 1997'sCome In and Burn, before stripping down their sound on 2000'sGet Some Go Again, which had the entire backing band replaced.[9] In his 1994 bookThe Virgin Rock Yearbook 1994-1995, British author Tony Horkins wrote that withWeight, Rollins Band were delving into thefunk metal genre, which was popular in the early 1990s.[10] The songs on 1992'sThe End of Silence were all written in 1988, before the style was as prevalent in the mainstream.[11] Gibbs was recommended to Rollins byVernon Reid, who was a member of the all-black funk metal bandLiving Colour. Rollins talked about the influence Gibbs had on the band's sound in 1993, saying, "having an new member in the band, Melvin Gibbs on bass, has really changed things. He and the drummer, Sim Cain, together have formed this really amazing rhythm alliance."[6] Gibbs noted that he had some familiarity withprogressive rock andhardcore punk bands such asBad Brains, but that he had only become familiar with heavy metal music much more recently. He remembered in 2011 that, "the big joke of the Rollins Band was how little I actually knew about rock music, and metal in particular. One of the reasons was, when I was growing up, that was theDo the Right Thing era inBrooklyn and essentially any kid who wore aBlack Sabbath t-shirt was going to call me the N-word, and I was going to have to fight him. So that was my association of heavy metal music – a bunch of racist dudes that I was going to end up in a fistfight with." He added, "later I found out that they actually are a really great band, but at that time I didn’t really listen to them. I actually got into metal in the '80s when I was working atTower Records."[2] According to Gibbs, Rollins was being heavily influenced by thestoner rock bandSleep around the making ofWeight, which led to him becoming a fan of the style as well.[2] Gibbs said he stopped following heavy metal music as closely after leaving the Rollins Band at the end of 1997, but that he still continued to listen to several stoner rock bands.[2]
"Liar" has been described as being written from the perspective of a manipulative male character, although Rollins refuted this in a May 1994 interview with MTV'sHeadbangers Ball, saying, "the person in the song isn't necessarily a guy. Everyone has manipulated someone else to get to the desired endpoint. Everyone has. Guys, girls. And everyone has felt very lonely and open to being pulled around, and convinced and lied to. Guys do it to girls, girls do it to guys. It happens all the way around. So it's not about a guy doing a thing to a girl, it's about what people do to each other." In this same interview, Rollins described the closing track "Shine" as the most positive song on the album, and said that it revolved around "triumph [and] standing up."[3]
In support ofWeight, Rollins Band went on a 24-date American tour withHelmet and theLes Claypool projectSausage.[12] The tour with Helmet and Sausage lasted between July and August 1994, with all of the shows being recorded.[13]
The video for "Liar" was directed by Dutch photographerAnton Corbijn in a desert location and featured Rollins dressed as a devil, a nun,Superman and a police officer, with the latter three being meant to represent "icons of truth".[3] The video was heavily featured on MTV'salternative program120 Minutes and the metal programHeadbangers Ball.[14] It gained further popularity after appearing on a 1994Beavis and Butt-Head episode titled "Liar! Liar!".[15] Another video from the album, "Disconnect", appeared twice on the series, first in the 1995 episode "Top o' the Mountain", then as part of the episode "Shortcuts" in March 1997 (the same month the band's follow-upCome In and Burn was released). The song "Civilized" was also used as the closing theme forDennis Miller Live from 1994–2002 onHBO.
It had sold 423,000 units in the United States as of 1996, making it their most commercially successful release, and one of the most successful releases ofImago Records.[16][17] In 2004, a companion album titledWeighting was released on Rollins' own2.13.61 label. It featuredWeight-era live recordings and B-sides, as well as songs from an unreleased 1993 album the band had made withfree jazz saxophonistCharles Gayle.[18][3] Due to rights issues with Imago,Weight is not available onSpotify in the United States and other territories.[19] Up until 2023,Come In and Burn was also not available on Spotify due to similar rights issues with the band's next record label,DreamWorks.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| Christgau's Consumer Guide |  [20] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 8/10[21] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A−[22] |
| Los Angeles Times | [23] |
| MusicHound Rock | [24] |
| Rolling Stone | [25] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 7/10[26] |
The album received positive reviews from critics, and In 1995, "Liar" was nominated for theGrammy Award for Best Metal Performance.[27][28]Stephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllMusic gave it a four out of five star rating, saying "onWeight, the Rollins Band is able to mix the musicians' love for jazz with a blindingly direct hard rock assault, making a twisted form of metal-jazz."[9] He also describedWeight as lyrically adding some of the more down to earth elements from Rollins' spoken word career, which were not present on the earlier albums, which Erlewine considered to be solely about "relentless self-examination".[9] Richard Cromelin ofThe Los Angeles Times awarded it a three out of four rating, saying in April 1994 that "[Rollins] is like a martial-arts hero of the psychic terrain, and his war with hypocrisy and repression is played out on a scale that’s both intimate and larger than life — his feelings are too intense and colossal to be conveyed in conventional terms, so his bellow is super human, and his band plays its deliberatesludge-metal riffs with crushing power."[23] Deborah Frost ofEntertainment Weekly gave it an A− rating in April 1994, saying "the guitarist’s heavy-metal cliches never quite rise to frontman Rollins’ or new bassist Melvin Gibbs’ Richter-scale rumbling. Still, [it's] a near masterpiece."[22] Orla Swift of theRecord Journal listed it as one of the best albums of the year in December 1994, observing that "the addition of new bassist Melvin Gibbs gives the band a more fluid sound and allows guitarist Chris Haskett's divebombing guitar to be heard."[29] Mark Jenkins ofThe Washington Post wrote in August 1994 that "[Rollins] imagines himself theJean Genet of punk-metal. He may be 'high on your poison,' but what makes this album more interesting than most Rollins releases is not its Dionysian intensity — that's standard — but its unaccustomed musical variety. Speaker-rattling bassist Melvin Gibbs introduces a contrapuntal funkiness to the quartet's slamming hard rock."[30]
The Michigan Daily also praised the addition of Gibbs, writing "jazz bassist Melvin Gibbs is the perfect compliment behind Rollins' savagely honest lyrics."[31] In an August 1994 review of a Rollins Band concert with Helmet and Sausage, Jeff Vice of theDeseret News wrote "heavy metal just keeps getting weirder and weirder", adding that "alternative metal act Rollins Band [plays] near jazz/metal."[32] In October 1994, theManila Standard's review stated, "forWeight, Rollins Band's second recording, Rollins and cohorts carry on with their traditional mettle of diverse-paced yet always heavy, non-traditional metal, supported by lyrics that realize Rollins' apparent thematic objective: to inject some self-assuring sense into the listener, those who may be attracted to the noise as a source of escape from self-demeaning reality."[33]The Beaver County Times labelled it the band's "most proactive album" in May 1994, saying "poet, author and rock icon Henry Rollins — whose band laid the groundwork for the current 'message metal' — has some advice for the angst-ridden: Stop whining about systemic oppression; change is up to the individual."[34]
In his 1998 book,Turned on: A Biography of Henry Rollins author James Parker reflected, "Rollins Band'sWeight, released the month ofCobain's death, sounded like a retort togrunge, a slapdown — its grooves had the weight, not of collapse, but of a muscled certainty."[35]Spin wrote in 2000 that this album andCome In and Burn saw Rollins "play self-help drill sergeant against the atonal guitar riffs and Frankenstein grooves blueprinted [on] 1988'sLife Time.[36]Rolling Stone placed it 25th on a 2014 list titled "1994: The 40 Best Records From Mainstream Alternative’s Greatest Year", saying that "In the seven years since Rollins formed his eponymous band, the group had evolved into a jazz-metal hybrid with tight grooves that could either play it cool or sizzle and seethe along with him."[37] In 2016,Metal Hammer included it on their "10 essentialalt-metal albums" list.[1]Louder Sound ranked it as the best Rollins Band album in 2022.[38]
| Year | Publication | Country | Accolade | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Metal Hammer | United Kingdom | "Albums of the Year" | 7 | [39] |
| 1994 | Melody Maker | United Kingdom | "Albums of the Year" | 34 | [40] |
| 1994 | Sounds | Germany | "Albums of the Year" | 47 | [41] |
| 1995 | RAW | United Kingdom | "90 Essential Albums for the 90s" | * | [42] |
| "*" denotes an unordered list. | |||||
All songs are credited to the Rollins Band.
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