| Silicon Messiah | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Blaze |
| Cover: | Smartwork.jpg |
| Released: | 22 May 2000 |
| Recorded: | Early 2000 |
| Genre: | Heavy metal |
| Length: | 52:06 |
| Label: | SPV |
| Producer: | Andy Sneap |
| Next Title: | Tenth Dimension |
| Next Year: | 2002 |
Silicon Messiah is the debut studio album by English heavy metal band Blaze, released in 2000.
Original Japanese and South American pressings included bonus tracks: "The Day I Fell to Earth" was included in both territories, while South American pressings additionally included "Motherfuckers R Us" and a live cover of the Wolfsbane song "Steel", along with an interactive track. With the exception of the interactive track, these bonus tracks were subsequently reissued internationally on the 15th anniversary edition of the album in 2015. The cover artwork on the album features an image of Blaze Bayley with his skin coloured blue and covered with computer circuitry.
The song "Born As a Stranger" is based on the Robert A. Heinlein novel Stranger in a Strange Land and was originally intended for Iron Maiden.[1] Blaze Bayley began writing the track for his intended third album with the band, but when he was replaced as lead singer by the returning Bruce Dickinson, Bayley instead repurposed the song for Silicon Messiah.[1] Bayley's tenure with Iron Maiden also informed the bonus tracks "The Day I Fell to Earth", which deals with his abrupt departure from the band, and "Motherfuckers R Us", which recalls a concert on the North American leg of the Virtual XI World Tour.
Other influences on the album include Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, which inspired the song "Identity", and the film Gattaca, upon which both "Reach for the Horizon" and "The Launch" were based.[1]