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Approval 93%
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Album Ratings 402
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Last Active 10-30-22 11:20 pm
Joined 06-28-18
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| Industrial-ish Music in 2023
Trey Spencer wrote In his Top Albums of 2023 list that “Industrial is pretty much a dead genre with nothing truly significant being released.” It hurt me to read this, but not because I think he’s wrong. No, I fear he’ll be proved correct in the long run.
The sound definitely feels like it has ran its course. It’s been a good forty years, but it’s hard to imagine where else it can go. It’s just going to get increasingly stale if it doesn’t start incorporating something radical from other genres and hybridizing (see for example Acid Arab below). And if it DOES hybridize, it won’t be Industrial anymore. That’s tragic, but it’s not my fault.
Still, I enjoyed a bunch of releases this year, even if they mostly lacked innovation. | | 1 |  | Godflesh
Purge
“Industrial is dead” reminds me of similar statements made of Punk in the late 70’s. Following the demise of Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols, some critics asserted that Punk was dead. The Exploited released their album “Punks Not Dead” as a “why-don’t-you-go-fuck-yourself?” retort to this, and it helped spark a – somewhat literal in this case – violent revolution that helped give rise to Hardcore/Street Punk.
But I don’t see a revolution in the cards for Industrial. Simon.K wrote as a comment to his review of Godflesh’s 2023 PURGE that the album is “just godflesh doing what they do, which is cool, but there’s nothing that exciting here tbh.” That sucks, but (sigh) it feels accurate. PURGE rocks, pretty much all the way through, but not more than the previous couple albums, never mind their work of thirty years ago.
* If I had to choose only one: LAZARUS LEPER | | 2 |  | 3Teeth
EndEx
I was excited about this new album while listening to the singles as they were released...until “Higher Than Death” came out. The chorus has a most unwelcome Arena-Rock, “man oh man, I really hope this explodes commercially and makes me wealthy” feel to it. (Has anyone heard this one on the radio?)
Still, this album is pretty great overall. If I ran a bar made of songs instead of bottles of liquor, I would put at least half the tracks on the middle shelf.
* If I had to choose only one: MERCHANT OF THE VOID. Top shelf in my bar. | | 3 |  | Turmion Katilot
Omen X
KMFDM’S Sonya Konzietko credits himself with inventing Industrial-Metal. I don’t know about all that, but he was definitely a part of it, and he said something valuable to critics:
“What I always hated most about heavy metal was that the best riffs came only once and were never repeated. So the fascination, actually, was to sample a great riff, loop it, and play it over and over again.” (Wikipedia)
KMFDM, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Fear Factory, Skrew, Rammstein, Eisbrecher, 3Teeth – they’ve all contributed marvelously to this goal, and in my mind Turmion Katilot competes with ALL these bands in creating the very best of this “take-a-good-riff-and-loop-it” trick. Their earlier work has some of my favorite guitar riffs ever, but this album has some good ones too.
And they do the best job of consistently incorporating lady song.
* Don’t miss the video of SORMENJALKI. It’s hilarious and worth watching, even if it’s on mute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCg1jeVhims | | 4 |  | Hellripper
Warlocks Grim and Withered Hags
No Industrial here. Nothing “Industrial-ish” either.
Still, it’s one my favorite 2023 releases, so I couldn’t leave it off.
“favorite 2023 release”?
Zac124 wrote in his review of this album that it “is a gold mine of pummelling thrash riffage.” Forget just this year: WARLOCKS GRIM AND WITHERED HAGS has some of the best riffage I’ve heard since ASHES OF THE WAKE.
* If I had to choose only one : The opening track, NUCKELAVEE, is one of the best album openers ever created, ANGEL OF DEATH, BATTERY, TIME DOES NOT HEAL and LIVING MONSTROSITY notwithstanding. But the whole record is nearly perfect. | | 5 |  | Till Lindemann
Zunge
Don’t miss Simon K.’s review of this
* If I had to choose only one: ALLES FUR DER KINDER, track 8 | | 6 |  | nolongerhuman
Marionette
Metalheads might want to kick my ass just for writing this, but in my mental bar Aggrotech sits close to my favorite Thrash and Hardcore Punk. Psychologically, they’re like sister genres. Well, cousins at least. Where Thrash is a kind bourbon and Hardcore is a kind of rye, Aggrotech is a kind of scotch. But it’s all whiskey in my mind, as opposed to, say, a kind of rum or vodka or tequila.
Of course, Aggrotech borrows very little of its music from Hardcore and Thrash, but it does borrow heavily from their aggression.
It’s like psychotic Synthpop on fuck’n PCP. Know what I mean?
Anyway, there’s some delicious Middle Eastern-sounding tone-colours on this one that I hope he does more of in the future. They’re rare in the genre
* If I had to choose only one: SHATTERED, track-2. | | 7 |  | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Bauhaus Staircase
Speaking of Synthpop: Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark are still making albums?
They don’t appear to have stopped making them since 1984. And they sound almost exactly the same, with updated production.
I inherited my older sister’s record collection when I was about ten, when she got bored and moved on to SLIPPERY WHEN WET along with a new boyfriend. The collection was diverse: For example, I inherited albums by Suicidal Tendencies and D.R.I along with Depeche Mode’s “Black Celebration” and OMD’s second album “The Pacific Age.”
Later, In Middle and High School I occasionally hung out with metal-loving guys who were ferocious gatekeepers of their tribe. I often found myself in environments where openly admitting that I listened to shit like Erasure and Bronski Beat was potentially physically dangerous, and I naturally lost touch with the old classic bands and wasn’t aware OMD was even still around.
* If I had to choose only one: BAUHAUS STAIRCASE – 12” Extended Mix (from the si | | 8 |  | VNV Nation
Electric Sun
A large chunk of Western Classical music is based on a trick that our brains do unconsciously if they are trained to hear it: Some chords – dissonances – naturally make you yearn for satisfaction, relief, resolution. In Classical theory, the purpose of a dissonant chord is to pull you, unconsciously, to other chords that provide this satisfaction. A typical Classical piece is a see-saw of tension and release.
VNV Nation puts this trick to work on the song “WAIT” in a way that filled me with ecstasy while vaping weed one night (actual Ecstasy would have helped also). Starting at about 3:50, synthetic strings establish both harmony and anticipation. He then increasingly layers it with changing sounds, and when the main melody starts at 5:10 it creates an exquisite dissonance that digs into my soul like a hook in a fish’s mouth for the rest of the song.
It’s fucking masterful, and extremely rare for modern music to have that effect on me. | | 9 |  | Leaether Strip
Last Station
The opening harmonies and pseudo-medieval choir in the opening of this album doesn’t grip me quite like VNV Nation’s WAIT, but it’s pretty awesome. Old Leather Strip from the 90’s is one of my favorite Electro-Industrial artists, sitting comfortably on the same shelves as Front Line Assembly and Wumpscut of the same decade (Skinny Puppy’s albums are special vintages and get their own display cases).
But his vocal-style started getting on my nerves around 2000, and the albums since then haven’t usually been good enough – as a whole – for me to ignore this newer style. Some of the music on this one, though, is top shelf.
* If I had to choose only one: DOUBLE EDGED SWORD, track 1 | | 10 |  | mind.in.a.box
Black and White
This album rocks. I’m curious why so many Sputniks checked out their earlier albums, whereas this one only has a couple ratings. Did everyone who used to like this stuff just get bored with it? Or did they just disappear from the site?
Anyway, one thing I love about this album: They are an Austrian band, but one of the many vocal styles they use -- for example on track 2, LOST AND ALONE – reminds me a little of Elvis Presley. Or at least it has an American-Southern twang; it’s a tiny bit like a Country-EBM hybrid.
If I had to choose only one: DIGITAL MIASMA, track 5 | | 11 |  | Host
IX
Don’t miss Trey’s review of this, and see below
* If I had to choose only one: TOMORROW’S SKY, track-2 | | 12 |  | Diary of Dreams
Melancholin
This album came out about the same time as XI by Host, celebrated elsewhere on Sputnik. Maybe I just don’t know the Host album well enough, but it seems to me that Host and Diary of Dreams don’t just belong to sister genres, but really should be classed in the same genre. Yet Host, who has 12,000 listeners Spotify, has 49-ratings on Sputnik, while Diary of Dreams has five-times as many listeners yet only 3-ratings on Sputnik. And there are some users and staffers who rated the Host album that I never would have guessed would give the album a "good" or better rating. Maybe the Host is just a better album, but I speculate it’s the result of the tremendous non-musical cargo that Paradise Lost’s reputation brought to Host.
* If I had to choose only one: THE SECRET, track 2 | | 13 |  | Absurd Minds
Gravitas
I was tempted to leave this out, but it just felt like they deserved some love because...you know what? They are REALLY trying. And their previous work is among my favorite in the genre.
“Trying” is grossly unfair, though. It’s just that the aesthetic of their newer music is very Goth and sad and mysterious and melancholy. I sympathize with them, but I get my melancholy music from Classical. Still, I listen to the opening track, ATMA, often. I just lose interest in the rest of the album. Like all their music, though, it all sounds like first-rate musicianship.
All of Jack Daniel’s premium offerings command high prices and are considered by some drinkers to be the best whiskeys in the world. They all make me gag, but I wouldn’t say they’re BAD. They’re just not for me. This album doesn’t make me gag, though, it just tastes flat, like light beer.
* If I had to choose only one: ATMA, track 1 | | 14 |  | Wumpscut
Giftkeks
A perfect EP.
Strange that an EP with only four excellent songs is better than an average LP containing only four excellent songs and a bunch of average ones, but that’s how psychology works.
* If I had to choose only one: SILENT RUNNING, track 1 | | 15 |  | Wumpscut
DJ Dwarf 23
Ratzinger went bananas this season with remix albums that he's offering in colorful boxed sets along with merch, apparently for Christmas. From what I can tell -- without completely geeking out and counting precisely -- he remixed all of his albums from the last 27-years, resulting in perhaps thousands of songs, all which reflect his obsession for squeezing out every last drop out of musical potential from a single song.
And he recruited a bunch of his peers, who are similarly obsessed, to contribute: Velvet Acid Christ, Suicide Commando, Das Ich, Solar Fake, Covenant, Haujobb, and a bunch of other bands I missed or don't recognize.
And I love the artwork.
* If I had to choose only one: : GIFTKEKS -- CYNICAL FRONT REMIX, track 10 | | 16 |  | Acid Arab
Trois
My candidate for "best hybrid of the century." This was recommended by Raul Stanciu on Sowing’s Q1 2023 Playlist. In a reply to a comment I made he wrote “I laughed when I saw it was placed first on the Q1, quite unrepresentative of the rest of the list.” Not just “unrepresentative” of the music on the list, but on almost everything on Sputnikmusic. Islamic influences have made a very minimal impact on Western music, much less Sputnik.
This one is certainly closer to Industrial than the Hellripper is, but it is still it's own thing. I love this album, which is loaded with Western Acid-House mixed with Islamic melodies and rhythms. I'll definitely write a review of this if Raul never does. Hell, I'll probably write one even if he does write a review -- the album deserves to be lavished upon. It’s nearly perfect.
* If I had to choose only one: EMO, track 9. Auto-tuned Arabic over Rave music. Great stuff. | |
BallsToTheWall
01.04.24 | Great list. 12 is an underrated band. | kildare
01.04.24 | "underrated" Yeah, his stuff is really deep, lots of layering that's very "trance-ish" if I spend time focusing on it. | Willie
01.04.24 | I do believe industrial is dying... at least the traditional industrial and industrial metal. Like I said somewhere else, for me in order to be industrial, the industrial elements have to be the main element. Metal bands with drum machines and keyboards are not industrial metal IMO. If you listen to the Circle of Dust album "Brain Child" and then listen to some of the newer bands that get pushed as industrial metal... they're not the same. Circle of Dust has electronics, rhythmic beats, processed vocals, samples, etc... and they happen to use guitars. Same with most KMFDM albums or "Millennium" by Front Line Assembly.
That isn't everything, though. I think traditional industrial and industrial metal is dying because so much of what made it unique is now utilized within regular metal. The delineation that used to exist isn't really there anymore. You look at bands like Babymetal or Annisokay or even Fear Factory and they've taken so much from the genre, that the traditional stuff just sounds dated.... like traditional heavy metal eventually gave way to all the modern metal bands that co-opted the best parts and left everything else behind. You could argue that traditional heavy metal isn't dead because bands still exist that play it, but they all sound dated. It's a homage sound. Basically, heavy metal and industrial can't break from that 'dated' stigma without losing what made them unique in the first place. | Azazzel
01.04.24 | hadn't thought about it like that Willie but I think you make a compelling comparison with Heavy Metal whereby the defining distinctions of form are axiomatically limiting in their delineation proportional to the hyper-specificity of the genre, same for nu-metal or what have you while say, death and black metal, continue to permute and evolve within a more sonically amenable abstract emotive paradigm | kildare
01.04.24 | @Willie: "so much...is now utilized within regular metal. The delineation that used to exist isn't really there anymore." I agree with that. I'm reminded of the "homage sound" lately with Rolling Stones' "new" one. There doesn't seem to be a way to re-capture Classic Rock's vitality -- it just got old. The saddest examples I can think of are recordings of Classical music: Some of the "classics" get recorded and performed over and over and over, not just the same sound but the same piece. Like re-releasing thousands of covers of U2's "I still haven't found what i"m looking for," each cover trying to sound like the original, with minimal changes.
But honestly I'm happy with new "homage" music. I know it might be pathetic from where you're sitting -- this actually might be a basic way to classify music-lovers into two types -- but I would be happy if King Diamond just kept putting out the same shit until I get old enough to lose interest in everything except TV and food, like other elderly people.
I would be interested to read a review of Circle of Dust's original versus their Remix album. I had never heard either until you remarked on them above: The two albums sound RADICALLY different. Were they a part of the "Orgy = Industrial" wave of the late 90's? I kind of missed that wave outside the stuff on the radio, which didn't sound like Industrial to me. The Remixes may not be the same as Industrial-Metal to your ears, but the Remix definitely sounds closer to Industrial on the spectrum. | Willie
01.04.24 | Exactly. Those genres with hyper-specific requirements are doomed to eventually die off as other bands take the best parts and evolve. That doesn't mean the genre literally goes away, but the fan base shrinks and the excitement of new music wanes. Industrial had its formative time in the 80s and flared into the mainstream in the 90s, but by the 2000s other bands had taken the best parts leaving the Ministry's and NINs and Skinny Puppy's of the world to languish. KMFDM's music is still good, but it is definitely not exciting anymore. You know exactly what you're going to get. Trent Reznor tried to expand on the genre sound with varying degrees of success, but mostly I believe he got by on the momentum of his earliest releases.
It's almost like in real life where the highly specialized animals are the first to die off when the environment starts to change while the more robust and versatile can continue to thrive. Black and death metal, from an early stage in their life cycles, started to diversify incorporating prog, goth, post metal, jazz, etc while retaining their defining sounds. If industrial incorporates prog they become prog with industrial influences, if they incorporate post metal they become post metal with industrial influences... etc. | kildare
01.04.24 | @Azazzel: "the defining distinctions of form are axiomatically limiting in their delineation proportional to the hyper-specificity of the genre": I'd like to quote this in a review I've thought about, if you're cool with it. It captures perfectly a thought I've had for a review I've kicked around (in my head) for Hammerfall's INFECTION. That album didn't change their sound at all to my uncritical ears (no one in the tribe would look at my profile and call me a fan of Power-metal); the music sounds the same, but that album get universally the worst ratings, and I assume it's just because of the zombie stuff. "Hyper-specificity" captures that well: Before Hammerfall released the album, they didn't know zombies were off-limits. Fantasy, dragons, werewolves --- all that shit's OK. But NOT zombies. Apparently, their problem is that the axiom "don't sing about zombies" didn't exist until they tried it.
Or did I miss what you're saying? | Willie
01.04.24 | The above was to Azazzel. kildare and I must have been typing at the same time.
@Kildare: I'm happy with homage industrial as well. I really like the latest Cyanotic release that came out in 2023, but it doesn't create excitement and it doesn't feel new and fresh. The problem with that is if I'm going to listen to new music that feels old or just listen to my old favorites, it's almost always my old favorites. Also, there seems to be less and less legit industrial releases every year. So, it doesn't sound pathetic. If Skinny Puppy had released variations of "Too Dark Park" forever, I'd listen to every release. Shit, KMFDM releases variations of "Angst" for the past twenty years, and I still listen every time
I'm not sure what you're referring to with Circle of Dust. The original versions of their first two releases (the self titled release and Brain Child) are industrial metal even without the remixes. They were definitely part of the Orgy = Industrial era... which is the most attention the genre ever got, unfortunately ... but they were way heavier. | kildare
01.04.24 | "It's almost like in real life where the highly specialized animals are the first to die off when the environment starts to change while the more robust and versatile can continue to thrive": I was thinking of dog breeds, but this is far more exact. | Willie
01.04.24 | I don't know if you ever saw it, but this list and the way I kind of separate the bands is how I see industrial: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/list.php?memberid=252470&listid=37901 | kildare
01.04.24 | Thanks for link: I love genre discussions. They fit in with my thinking on evolution and dog breeds perfectly.
Circle of Dust: On Spotify there's a "Brainchild (Remixed)" 2023 album, and a 1994 "Brainchild (REMASTERED)[Deluxe Edition]". God, Industrial has to be the most confusing genre after Classical to talk about through text; it's the only other genre I can think of that's obsessed with multiple versions of the same songs by the same artists.
Anyway, the 2023 version of "Telltale Crime - The Forgotten Remix" has a prominent Dub-step synth at 0:40 in place of the guitars that's wildly different from the original. Not commenting just clarifying
I need to spend more time with Orgy and Stabbing Westward and them. I got into different music after KMFDM and Skinny Puppy and Front 242 a bunch of others split up, and Ministry went from Sludge to thrash, and missed the "new wave" -- for lack of a better phrase -- of Industrial.
Would you say there's been a "newer wave" of Industrial in the last decade? I would vote that Rabbit Junk constitutes a flavor that's newer than Industrial circa 2001, but I learned about them from your review of their 2022 album, and have stuck pretty much to what's popular in Europe, where new sounds evolves very much slower than here. | kildare
01.04.24 | Got to go, but I'll check this later. Maybe you answered the question in your list | Willie
01.04.24 | @Kildare: I'm talking about the actual original Brain Child release from 1994 that was remastered a few years back (that fixed the incredibly muddy original mix). The self-titled debut has a remastered version that is much better than the original too. Those are the two I would recommend.
Some of the Stabbing Westward style bands were more alternative with electronics than actual industrial rock, but some were well worth checking out. Stabbing Westward, God Lives Underwater, The Hunger, Machines of Loving Grace, Argyle Park... those were all pretty good bands.
Rabbit Junk is awesome and they've managed to make a modern industrial metal sound... but I can't think of many other modern 'industrial' bands that have had the same successful modernization of the sound. | ThyCrossAwaits
01.04.24 | That 3TEETH was really fun but wow the new Godflesh was boring as watching grass dry, and I gave it more than its fair share of chances. | Sharenge
01.05.24 | >"Lazarus Leper"
nice, saw that track getting some hate but I think it's pretty sick | kildare
01.05.24 | @ThyCrossAwaits: I'm not quite as bored of it as you, but I admit the Godflesh album isn't one of my favorites by them.
@Sharenge: But Lazarus Leper seems like a good representative of their unique Sludgy-Industrial-Doom-ish-type songs, and I'm still failing to capture that sound in words that only they can do | DrGonzo1937
01.05.24 | Very nice list mate. I’ll give it a more thorough look through later. That Turmion Katilot album looks very interesting. I’m gonna spin it today. | insomniac15
01.05.24 | Happy you dig Acid Arab, it's something else for sure!
I have to listen more to VNV Nation, I only know random songs, but never checked a full album of theirs. | DadKungFu
01.05.24 | Nice feature. Industrial as a dead genre doesn't really ring true to me unless we're talking about the "traditional" sound as Willie said. But there was such a unified kind of spirit to the original wave of industrial music, someone could argue that that spirit had already died by the time Godflesh and Skinny Puppy were adding a metal aesthetic to it. But if we look at that proliferation of industrial into the metal scene as being simply part of its natural development then I don't see any reason why Pan Daijing and clipping shouldn't be considered just another stage in that proliferation. | Azazzel
01.05.24 | haha true Willie we are literally just reinventing the "Adaptive-Tradeoff" hypothesis in evolutionary biology but you again raise a very interesting caveat regarding "post" metal. what a nifty sleight of hand trick that was and brilliant fortuitous marketing though in my estimation it seems "post" itself has diminished in power to the point it's been reified often back under the death and black umbrella as an 'influence' synonymous with track length and ambience - at some point 'atmospheric-sludge' proper was carved out neutering it
seems for industrial the same happened for the electronic dance side of it's aspect as well. there's a glut of youtube playlist of industrial influenced post-punk electronic with designer genre names like ITALIAN SEXWAVE DARK DISCO SYNTHPUNK COLD TECHNO GOTHICELECTRO
throw this one up in an incognito tabs and youll see a ton of em in the recommended section
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7seKl3gM9w | Azazzel
01.05.24 | @kildare well thematic content for power metal like fantasy is more like arbitrary culturally codified and enforced aesthetics but an axiom would be a bit more fundamental like a triangle having 3 sides or say power metal almost essentially requiring guitar solos and/or grandiose vocals without which it ceases to be. like nobody quibbles over calling Sabbaton power-metal just cause they write about real history instead of fantasy to your point about zombies | Ladron93
01.05.24 | Hi, kildare.
12 and 2 are the ones I like, but I stick with darkwave. xP
Acid Arab - ٣ looks like a new techno/house music to me. But nice find, I'll give it a listen later.
I've never been obsessed with industrial music these days, but it's just been fun for the homage vibe rather than doing something new to it. I highly doubt it.
And I might have to agree with Trey (Willie). I rarely listen to industrial music these days. And don't get me wrong. I like Black Rain - Dark Pool, Sin - Errare Digital Est (2002) or NIN - The Fragile (1999).
I think those kind of albums are enough for me. My two cents here.
Nice list and happy late nu year. | kildare
01.05.24 | @DrGonzo: I love Turmion Katilot, but due to word-count restrictions I wasn't able to warn readers that they have very gurgle-y death growls. That is sometimes a huge turn-off for me personally. Chuck Shuldiner of Death is easily one of my favorite guitarists, but I could never get used to his growl until he changed it on Symbolic. I don't know why Turmion Katilot's don't bother me. It's just one of those weird things. | kildare
01.05.24 | @insomniac: The new VNV Nation is one of the only albums by them I would recommend to someone not already a fan, because the musical structure is so tight. The other albums are great (I'm a fan), but they're a derived-Synthpop that all kind of sound the same, and if you've heard one song you've heard versions of all the others.
But I read an interview with Ronan recently, and he talked about how he cooks up his songs while doing stuff like driving, then takes them to his "arrangers." I interpret "arrangers" to be theory-nerds that put his melodies into four-part harmony. I suspect it's a little like Alan Wilder's role in Depeche Mode before he left the band in a huff. Martin Gore took almost all the credit for Mode's songs, but Wilder seems to have built the structure. And post-Wilder Depeche Mode is noticeably different. This new VNV Nation -- and Noire, the one before it -- sound to me like the product of good song-writing along with very talented "arrangers." But I downloaded these from Bandcamp, so I don't know the arrangers names. Judging from Depeche Mode's history, Ronan might like it that way. Giving credit seems to be a touchy issue in the biz. | kildare
01.05.24 | @DadKungFu: "someone could argue that [the Industrial] spirit had already died by the time Godflesh and Skinny Puppy were adding a metal aesthetic to it." Haha, glad you popped in here DadKungFu -- you're one of the very few people I've watched on the site who's reviewed -- since I've been on the site anyway -- the "real" industrial of Throbbing Gristle and Einstürzende Neubauten. I'm not into that stuff and totally forgot that Puppy and them really aren't the original Industrialists. Yeah, I would definitely argue that the evolution from Throbbing Gristle to NIN was the most radical of all.
I've never heard Pan Daijing -- I'll check it this weekend. Incidentally, I saw you rated a Cevin Key album. The Puppies loved Throbbing Gristle, and it seems like Key's solo project -- and Download, the project he did this his late colleague -- were projects more dedicated to "true" Industrial. They were unhappy with the direction Puppy was going when the -- even more intense -- metal influences came into the band with Rabies, and were apparently trying to extend "true" Industrial's style.
ANYWAY, would you say Key succeeded in maintaining a "true" Industrial style? Or is it still too metal/EBM/dancy-ish to be shelved beside Throbbing Gristle and the others on the original Industrial record label? I've never rated Key's albums; I don't seem to get what he's trying to say. But that's the same with Gristle and Neubauten, so I'm curious if I don't "get them" in the same way, if that makes sense. | kildare
01.05.24 | @Ladron: As a darkwave fan I was curious that you hadn't rated the Diary of Dreams -- but I just discovered that you just have a different rating name from your comment name. Surprise!
One of our fellow Sputnik users -- Xyphdryne -- assured me his early work is better. As I recall it's better to work backwards from this new one to around 2014. I'll get to them eventually, but you're a little more into the genre than I, so I thought I'd mention it. | kildare
01.05.24 | @Azazzel: "power metal almost essentially requiring guitar solos and/or grandiose vocals without which it ceases to be," okay, I think I see what you mean. Relevant here maybe is Sabaton's Swedish version of Carolus Rex that's still power metal to my ears even though I don't understand a word of it.
"ITALIAN SEXWAVE DARK DISCO SYNTHPUNK COLD TECHNO GOTHICELECTRO." This kind of thing cracks me up. Spotify recommended a bunch of video/song clips to me like #industrial, #industrial metal, #EBM. Then they recommended "#Vampire."
#Vampire? | Voivod
01.05.24 | Great list and great discussion thread.
Currently jamming 12 and I'm already a fan, it reminds of Dead When I Found Her and their All The Way Down album. | kildare
01.05.24 | @Voivod: "it reminds me of Dead When I Found Her." Okay, I totally need to better check out this band now. I only discovered them on this site a year or so ago, and I process new music frustratingly slow, so haven't really given them priority. But this is at least the second favorable comment I've read from a trusted source, so it's a go | kildare
01.05.24 | @Willie: "Some of the Stabbing Westward style bands were more alternative with electronics than actual industrial rock, but some were well worth checking out." This kind of thing is so much more valuable than most of what I read on the relevant Wikipedia pages. I could read books-worth of this kind of thing. There exist books about Industrial, but judging from Wikipedia it's just too vast of a subject for one person, and I rather doubt that there's a book that has Throbbing Gristle, Skinny Puppy, Numb, Nitzer Ebb, Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, Circle of Dust, Stabbing Westward, Rabbit Junk and Cyanotic all under the same cover. I'll just have to stick with discussion threads!
Thanks for the "Circle of Dust" mention. I lost touch with Industrial of that era and missed this one completely. But so far it sounds well worth a plunge | Voivod
01.05.24 | @kildare
Listen to the album I mentioned, everything else by DWIFH is good, but pales in comparison. | Ladron93
01.07.24 | @kildare Yep, that's my 2nd name on Sputnikmusic. xD
Btw, Trois has been fun to listen to. | kkarron
01.07.24 | shit I gotta get sober to read this thread, I'll be back tomorrow | kildare
01.07.24 | @kkarron: Yup, good drugs pair well with listening to music. READING about music -- not so much | kildare
01.07.24 | @Voivod: I'll definitely start with All The Way Down. But so far it sounds like it'll be worth a discography plunge. It helps that he only has a few albums to survey | kildare
01.07.24 | @Ladron: Glad "Trois" was worth checking out! It turns out I get kind of nervous recommending stuff, and since my teenage years the accusation "that album you recommended to me really SUCKS" has been a deep psychological issue. I'll have to try and drop it in a review someday, since Sputnik is based on the whole concept of recommendations | Ladron93
01.08.24 | @kildare ^^
Don't be nervous of recommending stuff. | Tomstein
01.08.24 | Till Lindemann Health Godflesh and JAAW were pretty much the industrial metal albums of the for me. | kildare
01.08.24 | @Tomstein: I'll have to check out JAAW soon. Never heard of them, and they look like they just started their career -- always a plus | kildare
01.08.24 | @Ladron: Oh, I don't get THAT guilty about a failed rec, now that hearing new music is so cheap and I no longer have poorer friends depending on my judgement for their purchasing decisions. Hearing new music was harder then, unless you were into the stuff they played on the radio or MTV |
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