The Wild Bunch and "Any Love" (1980s–1990) DJs
Daddy G and
Mushroom, and rappers
Tricky and
3D met as members of partying collective
the Wild Bunch in the early 1980s. One of the first homegrown
sound systems in the UK, the Wild Bunch became dominant on the Bristol club scene in the mid-1980s. It was co-produced by Bristol double-act
Smith & Mighty and featured the
falsetto-voiced singer-songwriter
Carlton McCarthy. In 1990, they committed to deliver six studio albums and a "best of"
compilation to Circa Records. This record label became a subsidiary of, and was later subsumed into,
Virgin Records, which in turn was acquired by
EMI.
Blue Lines and "Unfinished Sympathy" (1991–1993) at Barcelona 2007 3D co-wrote
Neneh Cherry's
Manchild in 1989 alongside producer,
Jonny Dollar. This working relationship continued with Cherry helping Massive Attack to record their first album
Blue Lines. Cherry's partner
Cameron McVey was an executive producer of the album and became the group's first manager. Cherry and McVey provided financial support, via the Cherry Bear organisation, and the album was partly recorded in their house. The band used guest vocalists, interspersed with their own
sprechgesang stylings, on top of what became regarded as an essentially British creative sampling production; a trademark sound that fused
hip hop,
soul,
reggae and other eclectic references, both musical and lyrical. MC Willie Wee, also once part of the Wild Bunch, featured. Neneh Cherry sang backing vocals on environmentalist anthem, "Hymn of the Big Wheel". The album has been retrospectively considered the first of the "
trip-hop" genre and received critical acclaim. That year they released "
Unfinished Sympathy" as a single, with its genre defining strings recorded at
Abbey Road studio, composed by
Jonny Dollar and later arranged by
Wil Malone. The group temporarily shortened their name to "Massive" on the advice of McVey to avoid controversy relating to the
Gulf War. They returned to being "Massive Attack" for their next single, "
Safe from Harm".
Protection and Melankolic (1994–1997) For their second album, the band brought in
Everything but the Girl's
Tracey Thorn The other collaborators on
Protection were
Marius de Vries and
Craig Armstrong, a Scottish classical pianist. Tricky decided to end his involvement with the band in 1995 in order to pursue a solo career. Also in 1996, Massive Attack produced two remixes of "
Milk" by
Garbage, released across the single's UK 12-inch vinyl formats: "D Mix" and "Trance Mix". The same year, the Insects became unavailable for co-production and having parted ways with Nellee Hooper, the band were introduced to
Neil Davidge, a relatively unknown producer who had an association with anonymous dance-pop outfit
DNA. The first track they worked on was "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game", a cover version sung by Tracey Thorn for the
Batman Forever soundtrack. Initially, Davidge was brought in as engineer, but soon became producer. The group increasingly fractured in the lead-up to the third album, Davidge having to co-produce the three producers' ideas separately. Mushroom was reported to be unhappy with the degree of the post-punk direction in which 3D, increasingly filling the production vacuum, was taking the band. and "Dissolved Girl", a new song with vocals by Sarah Jay (that was later remixed for the next album), which was featured at the beginning of the 1999 film
The Matrix, although it was not on the official soundtrack. Later that year, they released a single, "
Risingson", from what would be their third album,
Mezzanine.
Mezzanine, "Teardrop", Vowles's departure and Marshall's absence (1997–2001) 3D became the band's main producer in 1997 in the recording sessions that made
Mezzanine, Massive Attack's most commercially successful album, selling nearly four million copies. It featured Neil Davidge as a sound engineer and co-producer, and Horace Andy and
Elizabeth Fraser as the main guest vocalists. During recording,
Angelo Bruschini became their permanent lead guitarist both in a session capacity and live. as well as being nominated for a
Mercury Prize. Touring extensively, friction between Mushroom and the other band members came to a head. Mushroom was unhappy with the direction of the group and having to appear on tour. In 1999, Mushroom left the band. Around this time, 3D, with Davidge decamped into Ridge Farm studio with friends and band members of
Lupine Howl (made up of former members of the band
Spiritualized, including Damon Reece, who went on to be Massive Attack's permanent session drummer and one of two live drummers) towards a fourth Massive Attack LP, taking things even further into a rock direction. Despite having taken 3D's side after Mushroom's departure and participating in a webcast as a duo in 2000, Daddy G took a personal break from the band in 2001.
100th Window, Marshall's return and Collected (2002–2006) at the
Eurockéennes Festival 2008 With Daddy G temporarily no longer involved in the studio, Davidge and 3D steered "LP4" on their own. Enlisting the vocals of
Sinéad O'Connor and Horace Andy,
100th Window was mastered in August 2002 and released in February 2003. Featuring no samples or cover versions,
100th Window was not as critically well received in Britain as the other records, although the album received a warmer reception internationally, scoring a 75 out of 100 on review aggregation site
Metacritic. The group collaborated with
Mos Def on the track "I Against I", which appeared on the "Special Cases" single and the soundtrack for
Blade II. "I Against I" is also notable as the only track from the
100th Window sessions that features a writing credit from Daddy G.
100th Window sold over one million copies and was toured extensively (including Queen Square, Bristol—a one-off sell out concert set up in the city centre park, which was seen as a homecoming). 3D was arrested on allegations involving child pornography in 2003, which were reported widely in the media. 3D was soon eliminated as a suspect (although he was charged with
ecstasy possession and unable to get a U.S. visa for a while) with Daddy G and fans offering their support. The arrest affected the beginning of the
100th Window tour schedule. 3D and Davidge agreed to an offer from director
Louis Leterrier to score the entire soundtrack for
Danny the Dog, starring
Jet Li, in 2005.
Dot Allison, who had sung with the band on the
100th Window tour, sang the end title track, "Aftersun". 3D and Davidge also scored the soundtrack for the
Bullet Boy film, with 3D on the end title vocals. Daddy G started coming into the studio the same year, although little came of the material. He decided to instead work with a production duo, Robot Club, in another studio, feeling that he would be more free to develop tracks in the way he wanted. Meanwhile, 3D and Davidge recorded with a number of different singers as well as creating a track named "Twilight", for
UNKLE's
War Stories album. Later that year, Massive Attack decided to release their contractually obliged compilation album
Collected in 2006. They released it with a second disc, made up of previously released non-album songs and unreleased sketches. In 2008 it was announced that Massive Attack were to curate the UK's Southbank
Meltdown, a week-long event. It was suggested in interviews that this event would inspire Massive Attack back into action, having spent several years drifting towards the completion of their fifth studio album. Later that year, 3D and Daddy G headed to
Damon Albarn's studios for some writing and jamming. Around this time, Davidge scored the soundtrack for a
Paul McGuigan film,
Push, and in December, 3D completed the score for
44 Inch Chest with the Insects and
Angelo Badalamenti. Davidge and 3D got back together in 2009 with Daddy G to finish the fifth album, incorporating bits of the Albarn material. Later it was announced that the band were to headline the 2009
Bestival festival, and soon after that they were to tour the UK and Europe. In May, 3D's instrumental "Herculaneum", featured in the film
Gomorra, won an Italian award for Best Song. Later that month, 3D and Daddy G picked up a special
Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Jonny Dollar died of cancer on 29 May 2009 aged 45, survived by his wife and four children. Dollar was the programmer and hands-on producer behind
Blue Lines, writing some of the melodies that were the basis for the string arrangements in "Unfinished Sympathy". Their new EP,
Splitting the Atom, was announced on 25 August 2009. The other new tracks on the EP were
Tunde Adebimpe's "Pray For Rain",
Martina Topley-Bird's "Psyche" and
Guy Garvey's "Bulletproof Love". The latter two tracks appear as remixes of the album versions. The fifth album was released on 12 November 2009, called
Heligoland, after the German
archipelago of
Heligoland, after a previous project called "Weather Underground" was abandoned. The opening track, "Pray For Rain" featured guest vocals of
TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. Damon Albarn, Martina Topley-Bird and
Mazzy Star frontwoman
Hope Sandoval also provide guest vocals on the album. 3D said in October 2010, to the Spinner website, that his plans were now for "unorthodox" releases of several EPs in 2011, rather than an album.
Ritual Spirit EP and working with Tricky again (2013–2019) In a 2013 interview for his first solo art show since 2008, 3D confirmed that not only was new Massive Attack material in the works, but that rumours of a reunion with Tricky were true. Tricky had not been featured on a Massive Attack album since 1994's
Protection. Massive Attack headlined at
Secret Solstice, a new music festival in
Reykjavík in June 2014. On 21 February 2015, it was confirmed through the Massive Attack Facebook page that they would be collaborating with
Run the Jewels. An iPhone application,
Fantom, was released in 2016, developed by a team including 3D, which let users hear parts of four new songs by remixing them in real time, using the phone's location, movement, clock, heartbeat, and camera. The group released a new EP on 28 January 2016,
Ritual Spirit, which includes the four songs released on Fantom. The EP was written and produced by 3D and new collaborator, Euan Dickinson. It was their first release since the 2011
Four Walls / Paradise Circus collaboration with
Burial, and the first time since 1994 that Tricky had been featured on Massive Attack content. Scottish hip-hop group
Young Fathers, London rapper
Roots Manuva and singer
Azekel also featured on the EP. Massive Attack previewed three new songs on 26 July 2016: "Come Near Me", "The Spoils", and "Dear Friend" on the Fantom iPhone application on which they previously previewed the four songs from the
Ritual Spirit EP. They released a new EP on 29 July 2016, "
The Spoils", which includes "The Spoils" and "Come Near Me", both previewed on Fantom. The EP was written and produced by Daddy G, without 3D's involvement. "The Spoils" features vocals from American singer-songwriter
Hope Sandoval, and "Come Near Me" features British vocalist
Ghostpoet. A music video for "Come Near Me", directed by Ed Morris, and featuring Kosovan actress
Arta Dobroshi, was released the same day as the single. The video for "The Spoils", featuring
Cate Blanchett and directed by Australian director
John Hillcoat, was released on 9 August 2016. Massive Attack cancelled their appearance at the 2018
Mad Cool festival in
Madrid because of sound bleed from
Franz Ferdinand on a neighbouring stage. The festival offered several solutions to accommodate the band, but Massive Attack rejected them all. Massive Attack went on tour in 2019 to promote the 20th anniversary rerelease of
Mezzanine, billed as "Mezzanine XX1". The American tour dates, originally scheduled for April, were postponed to September due to illness in the band.
Eutopia EP and audiovisual releases (2020–present) Massive Attack released a political audiovisual EP in July 2020 called
Eutopia. The three-track fusion was created across five cities during the
COVID-19 global lockdown period, and was partly formed by generative algorithmic visuals from AI art pioneer
Mario Klingemann and collaborations with
Algiers,
Young Fathers and US poet
Saul Williams. The conceptual project, co-written and produced by 3D and documentary filmmaker
Mark Donne, featured strong arguments for global system change from UN Paris Climate Agreement author
Christiana Figueres, founder of the
Universal Basic Income Principle Professor
Guy Standing and inventor of the US "Wealth Tax" policy Professor
Gabriel Zucman. Each video ends with a quote from Thomas More's
Utopia. Massive Attack were scheduled to headline the 2022 edition of the
Primavera Sound music festival in
Barcelona,
Spain, but an unnamed band member's serious illness forced the band to cancel its appearance with the rest of its European tour.
Angelo Bruschini, who played guitar on
Mezzanine and
100th Window and had toured with the band since 1995, died of lung cancer on 23 October 2023. The group played their first show in five years on 5 June 2024 in
Gothenburg, Sweden, joined by guests
Elizabeth Fraser,
Horace Andy and
Young Fathers, who all toured with the band during their European shows that summer. The same line-up played Bristol in August. Billed as a 'Climate Action Accelerator' gig, the group worked with local businesses to reduce the event's
environmental impact. Around this time, Massive Attack announced their first American tour since 2019; again to feature Fraser, Andy and Young Fathers. However, on 11 October 2024, the group cancelled all the US dates less than a week before. They cited "unforeseen circumstances" as the reason. In a December 2024 interview with
NME, 3D revealed plans to release new music next year that had been ready since 2020 but was held up by record label disputes. He also said the band rejected an offer to play
Coachella 2025 because of its environmental impact. In September 2025, Massive Attack called for the removal of their music from Spotify in protest against
Spotify CEO
Daniel Ek's investment in artificial intelligence military company
Helsing. In April 2026, the band released "
Boots on the Ground", a track featuring
Tom Waits that was recorded several years prior. ==Musical style==