Eric Clayton


Eric Clayton is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer, best known for his work in the influential gothic symphonic metal group Saviour Machine which he formed with his brother Jeff Clayton in 1989. Eric Clayton is notable for his deep baritone operatic vocals, and is known for his theatrical live performances and dark, peculiar appearances and masks.

Saviour Machine

Eric Clayton's most ambitious work has been Saviour Machine, which released two studio albums Saviour Machine I and Saviour Machine II before starting the Legend trilogy that strictly focuses on the end times, Book of Revelation and prophecies about the biblical apocalypse. The band has also released a compilation album titled Synopsis, the live albums Live in Deutschland 1995 and Live in Deutschland 2002. Both were also filmed and released on VHS and DVD format. The band was originally signed to Christian metal label Frontline Records but gothic metal in all its visual appearance was misunderstood in US Christian scenes, and eventually Saviour Machine began work with MCM Music and Massacre Records, labels based in Germany where the band was more popular than in US. In 1997 Saviour Machine performed at Wacken Open Air, the biggest exclusively metal music festival in the world.
Eric Clayton had on and off been working on the last album in the Legend series, Legend Part III:II, which should have been the last Saviour Machine album. The album was supposed to be released on July 7, 2007, but was postponed due to Clayton's esophageal condition called Barrett's Esophagus which was diagnosed in 2004 but eventually got worse. During the down-time of Saviour Machine, Clayton occasionally performed guest vocals and produced albums by other bands.
Clayton compiled The Collective Journals released in 2010 available at the band website, but soon after performing a handful of unplugged Saviour Machine-shows in The Netherlands and Germany in 2013, he officially broke up the band, abandoned the unfinished Legend-project, and retired from the music business.
Following the death of David Bowie in 2016, Eric started a project with his brother Jeff, to record and digitally release a Bowie cover song once a month for a year, in tribute. This collaboration has led to the writing of potential new Saviour Machine material.

Post-Saviour Machine

Two years after the dissolution of Saviour Machine, in 2015, Clayton committed to playing at Ayreon's Theater Equation shows in Holland in September, reprising his role as "Reason" from the 2004 album The Human Equation. In 2018 he finally returned to music properly, starting a new band called Eric Clayton And The Nine for a European tour. The band consists of Eric and five Dutch musicians, performing the early Saviour Machine repertoire.
In 2020 Eric releases his first solo album called 'A Thousand Scars', written together with his brother, Adam Pederson, Ludo Caanen and Twan Bakker. All lyrics written by Eric Clayton and music performed by 'The Nine', produced and mixed by Devon Graves. The album contains 15 tracks.

Vocal style and live performance

Clayton's vocals can simply be described as operatic. His voice ranges from high tenor to low baritone to occasionally the deep basso, and is typically filled with dark emotions. On Legend trilogy as well as on some guest performances he utilized cinematic, narrative speaking vocals.
On Saviour Machine's concerts, Clayton performs several theatrical and symbolic gestures. He typically paints his face in a way that it resembles an iconic theatre mask, and wears a peculiar forehead jewel as well as black clothes. Some of his live performances include wearing an American flag during the songs "Legion" and "American Babylon", dipping the Israeli and Palestinian flag into blood, wearing devices that resemble demon wings, and other gestures with separate masks, candles, chains, statues etc.
Clayton's lyrics are deeply spiritual, and on the first two album's include themes ranging from salvation to melodramatic, horror oriented dark romanticism on songs such as "Legion". As the first album was banned from Christian bookstores due to a certain line in that song, Clayton has somewhat humorously criticized the Christian music scene for its hypocritical manners on songs such as "Ascension of Heroes."

Discography

Saviour Machine
YearTitle
1990Saviour Machine
1993Saviour Machine I
1994Saviour Machine II
1995Live In Deutschland 1995
1997Legend I
1998Legend II
2001Legend III:I
2002Live In Deutschland 2002
2003Synopsis: An Introduction To The Artist
2006Rarities/Revelations
2020A Thousand Scars

Guest appearances
YearTitleArtistContribution
1992Stay of ExecutionDeliveranceBacking vocals
1998AnthemsWedding PartyBacking vocals
1998Damnation Eva O
2003The Great FallNarniaLead vocals on "The Great Fall of Man"
2004The Human EquationAyreonThe part of "Reason" on several songs
2004Glory Thy NameDivineFireNarration on "From Death To Life", "The Spirit", and "The Way To Eternity"
2005The CallingAudiovisionNarration on "Hold Me"