My 25 Favorite Industrial Albums of All Time - 25 through 1

   A throwback to the 80's early EBM/electro style (think Ministry's Twitch), Finite Automata originated in the unusual location of Pensacola, Florida and relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. They often serve as openers for industrial bands cutting through the dirty south, but never really took off and, honestly, deserve so much better. Here's to hoping that the Georgia goth/industrial scene starts kicking off some festival celebrating their own talented artists such as these guys, Vision Video, and Boy Harsher.

You know you've achieved legendary status not just when you get your own Tribute album... but when that album contains remixes by artists as diverse as The Deftones, Autechre, Josh Wink and Guru... yes... *THE* late Guru of the famous hip hop group, Gangstarr.

Skinny Puppy is quite avante garde just on their own. But the reimagining of some of these tracks by IDM and techno artists were something I never would have expected and took the music into a new world. Even the most faithful version on the entire album, Rodent, was taken to the next level by adding some extra guitar work. It went from a solid EBM track to a full-on metal banger.

Witness the birth of Industrial Rock as we know it. Industrial up to this point was mostly noise.

By 1980 people were trying to figure out what to do with punk. Established bands were moving on to new sounds. New bands were trying to figure out how to distinguish themselves in the same area, ultimately creating a hardcore scene in the next year or two. Killing Joke jumped on the post-punk wave but married it with the new industrial sounds being cranked out by Chrome and Throbbling Gristle. The latter half of this album is mostly goth rock, the first half is the beautiful fusion of cacophonic synths and punk and early metal that can be heard echoed a few years later by Ministry and Front Line Assembly. This is one of the most overlooked, but influential records of the last 50 years.

And 1996-1997 was the time where I was full force with both Industrial AND Techno. No other album really captures both styles together as Haujobb's Matrix. I really don't know how else to describe this album as an atmospheric, dark, Industrial version of Aphex Twin, but that wouldn't be doing it justice.

There haven't been many good industrial or goth bands since 2010 or so. Around that time the Darkwave style took over. And I'm not complaining. The explosion of the Darkwave genre was refreshing and I fell straight into it. Boy Harsher, Cold Cave, Drab Majesty all lead the charge in a new wave of dark music that took elements from techno, industrial, goth and combined it into a modern style that was appealing to a wide range of people. Despite a few great albums it got really old after a few years, like any other genre looking for an identity,

Some bands pivoted and went more indie or industrial or cabaret to escape the Darkwave Cliche. The Soft Moon was one of those bands caught in the static of a genre everyone was flocking to. In 2022 they blew the doors open with an album that I hadn't felt such a combination of style and emotion since NIN's The Downward Spiral. You can't just pick one or two tracks to judge it by. You have to set aside a short 37 minutes to actually listen to it from start to finish. Soft Kill's Luis Vasquez went all in on switching from Darkwave to Industrial and it was a gamble that paid off.

This was Wumpscut's most refined, synthy-est, and most chill of his early albums. If you're trying to introduce someone to classic Rudy Ratzinger, this is the album to try on them. 

There's a dash of harshness here, but plenty of beauty. Tracks like "Is It You" and "Angel" show the softer side of an artist so obsessed with death and suffering. It's got a bit of everything for everyone. It may not be his best album, but the nostalgia really hits me on this one; showing how beautiful 90's industrial was. 

Industrial / EMB doesn't get any catchier than this. FULL STOP.

Everyone reading this probably knows about this album. For those that don't: what can I say? This album is the peak of industrial dance. The beats are in your face and the lyrics are a culinary reduction, all the poetry and metaphors of the entire 90's industrial scene boiled down and simplified into just a handful of lyrics and emotions that don't get any more straightforward. 

I could go on about this album, but that defeats the purpose of it. There are no deep words to filter through and decode and that was the point.

Throbbing Gristle and Einstürzende Neubauten get all the credit as the two main pioneers of Industrial Music, but there really was no single album more influential that Suicide's debut. It's the harshest, scariest album I've ever heard.

In fact, I never even heard this album it until way later in life. After many years of being into bands like Skinny Puppy, FLA, Ministry, Killing Joke and the like, I heard this band's name thrown around a bit as an influence and totally ignored it for the longest time. Once I finally gave this album a listen, I could easily hear it in everything I had been listening to for decades; and not just in the industrial scene. The opening track is the cover that sparked Henry Rollins' solo career. Bruce Springsteen's music can easily be heard in the song "Cheree". And "Frankie Teardrop"... well that one just goes down as the most terrifying song ever created.

Cabaret Voltaire s another one of those bands that you hear thrown around as major influences, and again not just amongst industrial bands. You can easily hear Ministry and Front 242 mimicking their early 80's style, but bands as broad as Orbital, Bauhaus, and Depeche Mode cite them as well. If you listen to some of their more popular songs, you'll wonder WTF I'm even listening to them as they eventually went full-on house music. Yet their late 70's work was almost unlistenable; imagine Severed Heads first album, but harsher.

1984's Microphonies was that sweet spot, though. A bizarre album where they blended their early experimental work with a bit of goth rock and synthpop. "Blue Heat" is the perfect example of this turning point that contained a little bit of all the industrial/experimental/goth/synthpop styles all into one. 

People will always argue about whether or not Apop was ever really industrial. Even they will deny it. You have to consider context. Their previous debut album was way harsh and very similar to Wumpscut in style, but perhaps a bit more ready for the dancefloor. At the time in the mid to late 90s we never really argued about subgenres. It was either industrial or it wasn't. It wasn't until 2000 that things got nitpicky. Back in the day, it was all under the "industrial umbrella" and it was the stuff the DJ's played at clubs like Orpheus in Baltimore or Tracks/Capital Ballroom in Washington DC during "industrial nights".

"Seven" had it all. EBM/Dance Beats, songs about drugs and murder. heavy sampling and sawtooth synths. There was no denying it was dark and abrasive. Mourn is one of the best tracks and it wasn't until a couple of listens that you realize the melody is a creative reworking of a sample from Nirvana's version of "The Man Who Sold the World". After this album, Apop felt like the spiritual successor to Cabaret Voltaire.

I bought the shirt for this album with this cover art covering the entire front. It went missing.  Being a pearl clutching Catholic, I'll bet five bucks that my mother found it and threw it away. She had claimed many times before that she was terrified that I was in a cult. In a way, I guess I was. 

A year prior, KMFDM's sound changed a bit. While still mainly industrial-metal, they embraced the pop sound that they dabbled with earlier on Angst. The single "Juke Joint Jezebel" blew the doors wide open for them and suddenly they were everywhere. Popular bands have this pivotal moment where they have to decide which direction to go from there. Do they go back to the old sound that the underground embraced? Do they bow to popular demand and give the mainstream what they want? Do they keep trying new things and seeing where it goes?

The answer was 1996's XTORT which checked option "D"... ALL OF THE ABOVE. This is the album that contains ALL the styles you've come to know and love. It also saw a lot less of En Esch and a lot more of Chris Connelly of Revolting Cocks. A lot of people who think the best days of KMFDM lie during the era where En Esch and they're generally not wrong, but this album was a moment where all the planets aligned for Sasha and Gunter. Some of the hardest tracks and most danceable tracks (and a mix of both) came from XTORT and some truly bizarre experiments such as Dogma featuring spoken word artist, Nicole Blackman

This was it. This was peak KMFDM. They released many more albums that just never hit quite like the early days, but what a run they had from 84-96.

The fifth PWEI album and last before the departure of lead single Clint Mansell who went off to score films for Darren Aronofsky, it marked a huge turn from their grebo sound to a heavy industrial rock album with the help of Trent Reznor. 

I'm not going to say much else about this album other than it's one of the most amazing Industrial Rock albums ever created, but the subject matter is even more topical today than it was back in 96: Demagoguery, Debauchery, Obsession with self-image, and the selfishness of society while ignoring all the problems of the world around Western Civilization. Sound all too familiar?

This album could have been created in 2023 and the sounds and lyrics would be just a fresh.

 Many more people have probably seen Snogs album covers which have gone viral in the later days of social media than have heard Snog's music, which is a shame. When I first heard this album back in 97, a friend described it to me as industrial protest music. It's very  "in your face" anti-capitalist so take it with a grain of salt, because the beats are even better and if you aren't down with the political message, it's got a unique sound, unlike anything else on this list. 

Some of the greatest songs by Australia's Dee Thrussell are all packed in this one album: The Last Diamond. Late 20th Century Boy, Real Estate Man, Mind and Purpose. They're all amazing. They're all beautiful. Go give it a listen.

Side note: Look up the album covers by Chris Woods. He is to Snog what Aiden Hughes is to KMFDM. He designed many of the bands' covers and you've probably seen many of them. They're great. I befriended him on social media a few years back. I made a deal to trade him a PS2 I had lying around for a few autographed posters to give a wedding gift for the friend who introduced me to Snog two decades prior. We got into an argument about abortion and he blocked me and the deal fell through. The funny thing is we both took the same side on the topic. I just disagreed with the tactics that should be used to try to win voters to our side and he couldn't take it and cut me out of the picture. He was more principled, and my take was based on pragmatism. It's not a knock on Woods. I still respect the guy. It's just a note at how staunchly political both the visual and musical artists are within the Snog cult.

Obviously, everyone has their own take on the BEST Skinny Puppy album. Some love their first few works and no one is really wrong. They all have their own charm. The early to mid 80's saw a non-stop parade of near perfection. 

Plenty of people will rave about Too Park Park, Last Rights, and The Process as well which are way darker and none of them would be wrong either.

And in the middle of it all. stands this gem of an album. The extent of which Al Jourgensen influenced this album is debatable and I think we haven't heard the real story about it. Al went into the sessions briefly in his autobiography but didn't talk much about the process as much as he did the end result, stating that some people were unhappy with it which confused him because it created so of SP's most popular songs. Ogre recently mentioned on social media that he'll get into it in the not to near future.

All I know is this: Worlock is one of the most beautiful songs ever created by man. It's the industrial version of Orbital's Halcyon and On and On. It stands apart as the band's greatest achievement. If there was turmoil during this album's recording, it's hard to tell because it's so cohesive and badass. Then again, many other bands' best words ironically come from the times there was the most conflict.

This album dabbles in industrial rock more than their previous albums, which I believe is what turned some industrial purists off. But to them I say.. GET OVER YOURSELVES. Skinny Puppy did it, yea. They put their own spin on it which resulted in one of most in your face albums of the 80's and still had plenty of the album devoted to their usual style.

Yes, that's right. It's a TIE.

Let's be honest: These two albums are practically the same. It was impossible to choose between the two. FLA has always been the best "tech" industrial band. 1992's Tactical Neural Implant was full of the most amazing songs to begin with. However, it was released during a time when industrial metal started taking over. Bill Leeb responded. He said... "oh yea... you want metal? I'LL F****G GIVE YOU METAL" and (not literally) recreated the same album as TNI, but with a harsh guitar style that was dabbled in briefly with TNI... and he F***G NAILED IT.

Other Industrial Metal albums around the same time period as Millenium got more of the spotlight. Psalm 69 by Ministry was hailed as the gold standard, but it was a bit repetitive. Groundbreaking nevertheless. Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral became probably the most well known industrial metal album off all time and was lauded as a masterpiece by the entire world, but you really have to be in the mood to listen to something so depressing.

Millenium is an album, where even if I'm not in the mood, I can put in and it will MAKE ME in the mood. The same goes for Tactical Neural Implant. These two albums really are THAT GOOD. Tactical Neural Implant, while mostly electro-industrial, gives the same energy that any of the best industrial metal album will give you. Millenium, while metal, is still layered with enough synth and 303 style melodies that they're still just as beautiful despite the guitars. 

Ministry, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Throbbing Gristle, SWANS, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Cabaret Voltaire... these bands will always get all the credit. But no band was more hard working, prolific, consistent, creative, yet overlooked as Front Line Assembly. These two albums alone will always be in rotation no matter what mood I'm in. The same can't be said for the others.