American Head Charge

American Head Charge

American Head Charge is a Minneapolis-based group active since 1996. The band works in alternative metal, industrial, industrial metal, metal and nu metal, and its early lineup includes Cameron Heacock, Chad Hanks, David Rogers, Wayne Kile, Bryan Ottoson, Karma Singh Cheema and Sin Quirin.

Formation and early years

The band begins when Cameron Heacock and Chad Hanks meet in a Minnesota rehab facility in 1997. From its earliest years, American Head Charge develops a reputation for volatile behaviour as well as heavy, aggressive music. That image includes extreme stage antics, fights with fans, damaged equipment, drug relapses and arrests, all of which becomes part of the group’s public identity.

Recording career

American Head Charge first attracts wider attention with The War of Art, its 2001 debut album. The record is described as the product of intensive touring and a period of internal conflict, and it establishes the band’s mix of forceful riffing, industrial texture and confrontational energy.

The follow-up, The Feeding, is made after a prolonged break from touring and during a difficult period within the group. It is recorded over four months with producer Greg Fidelman, who also engineers the Rick Rubin-produced first album. After leaving American Recordings without dispute, the band signs with Nitrus/DRT for the release. The album is shorter and more tightly controlled than The War of Art, running to 41 minutes, and is presented as a more disciplined but still violent and dramatic statement.

Songwriting and sound

The band’s material on The Feeding includes “Loyalty,” which opens the album and sets its harsh tone; “Dirty,” a heavy rocker shaped by extreme vocal delivery; “Walk Away,” which pairs a melodic chorus with abrupt destructive shifts; “To Be Me,” which closes the album on a calmer note; and “Ridiculed,” a central track built around interlocking guitar figures created separately by Bryan Ottoson and Cameron Heacock before the band realises they fit together. The group’s music is described as a collision of brutality, melody and a constant tension between order and chaos.

Line-up changes and later activity

Bryan Ottoson dies in 2005 while the band is on tour supporting Mudvayne. Christopher Emery is later fired from the band onstage in 2006. In 2007, American Head Charge releases Can’t Stop The Machine, a CD/DVD package that includes live recordings, remixes and other unreleased material, plus a career retrospective, interviews, footage from Ozzfest 2001, tours with Slipknot, Mudvayne and Static-X, behind-the-scenes material from the making of The War of Art and The Feeding, the band’s videos, and a tribute to Bryan Ottoson.

The group disbands in 2009, but later activity indicates a return to the project under Chad Hanks’ direction.