Opiate For The Masses formed in Phoenix, Arizona in 1999, founded by vocalist Ron Underwood, guitarist and keyboardist Jim Kaufman, guitarist Dustin Lyon, and drummer Elias Mallin, with Ryan Head rounding out the early lineup on bass. The group's name is an alteration of Karl Marx's famous aphorism, "Religion is the opium of the people," and the band self-released a demo album entitled New Machines and the Wasted Life in 2000. The Alternative-Metal Industrial troop toured constantly and released three EPs over its first years, but in 2003 Lyon left the fold, and one year later Seven Antonopolous was introduced as their new drummer to replace departed member Elias Mallin. The band eventually relocated to Los Angeles, sharpening an aggressive, theatrical sound that fused industrial textures with gothic and alternative metal.
The band's breakthrough came with the release of its debut full-length, The Spore, released on April 26, 2005, by Jim Kaufman's own Voodoo Records , after the band signed with Warcon Enterprises. The self-produced album created a solid buzz and diehard fanbase, backed by a slew of major tours alongside Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, My Chemical Romance and Static-X, among countless others. By this stage the classic and most recognized lineup had solidified around Underwood, Kaufman, drummer Chris "Seven" Antonopoulos, and bassist Anna K., who had previously played in Drain STH . The group also played the Taste of Chaos tour , cementing its reputation as a formidable live act on the national touring circuit.
Building on that momentum, Opiate For The Masses signed to Century Media Records and released its second full-length, Manifesto, in 2008, expanding its industrial-metal sound and drawing high-profile praise from peers. Chester Bennington of Linkin Park predicted the band would be big, while Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold called them the band to look out for, describing them as a great rock band with an edge and a must-see live act. Joey Jordison of Slipknot also praised the band as nothing short of hypnotic. The band contributed music that found its way onto genre soundtracks, further widening its reach among rock and metal audiences, and the lineup continued to include contributions from guitarist Andy Gerald along the way.
Despite the critical goodwill and relentless touring, Opiate For The Masses called it quits at the end of the decade. In June 2009, the band posted on their MySpace page that they had broken up and gone their separate ways. In the aftermath, Kaufman moved into producing bands and scoring films from his studio in Hollywood, Underwood returned to his hometown of Phoenix, Antonopoulos went on to play with the German metal bands Leaves' Eyes and Atrocity while performing drum clinics worldwide, and Anna K began writing music for an undisclosed new project. In 2010, Underwood went on to form the band 9ELECTRIC with Mikey Lopez, Micah Electric, and Casey DC , carrying the theatrical, industrial-tinged spirit of his earlier band into a new project. Though short-lived, Opiate For The Masses remains a well-regarded name among fans of early-2000s industrial and alternative metal, remembered for its intense live shows and its brush with mainstream rock stardom.
That intensity is exactly what Wayne Dennon captured when he photographed Opiate For The Masses live in concert in 2005, at the height of the band's touring push behind The Spore. His images from that night, 18 of them in total, remain part of this archive, preserved as a lasting document of a band that critics and peers alike once tipped for greatness. Visitors have returned to view these photographs 14,211 times, a testament to both Wayne's eye for capturing raw stage energy and the enduring curiosity fans still have for this short-lived but memorable act.
