<div class="header-image"></div> <table class="table-header"> <thead> <tr> <th colspan="2"></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>2025-06-15</td> <td style="text-align: right;"><a href="About.md" class="internal-link">About</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> # A Brief History of Industrial Music  Industrial music has a lot of overlap with genres spanning techno, EBM, Goth, and other avante-garde categories. It grew out of the post-punk era, but has roots predating even punk, and crosses over into heavy metal, ambient, hip hop, and even symphony orchestra. Thus it's a *massive* subject to tackle, and there are so many bands I'd like to cover, and music I'd like to include. Obviously I can't go over it all in a single post, and I hope to return at some point. With all the crossover I've mentioned, there will certainly be opportunity. ## Early Experiments Industrial music began in the 70s, officially, with experimentation using new technology in sound production using electronics. Synthesizers were novel in the 70s and different bands used them with custom self-modifications to get noise unintended from manufacturers. Much of this derived from the art scene in the 70s, perhaps even moreso than the music scene, with much inspiration from Andy Worhol. But electronic music began much earlier than this, with the Moog synthesizer pioneering much of what would come to be. Walter Carlos famously released his *Switched on Bach* LP in 1968, to much musical acclaim. But a year earlier in 1967, The Doors, on their second record *Strange Days*, included a track called "Horse Latitudes" which I consider to be the first Industrial track. It was more of an art piece, being a soundscape to backdrop Jim Morrison reciting an older poem he had written some years earlier.  *The Doors - Horse Latitudes (1967)* The Beatles was producing a lot of experimental work at this time as well, and I'd be remiss to not include at least a mention of "Revolution 9". And while there were some bands experimenting with these avant-garde soundscapes, most were trying to make real music from this new technology. One of the earliest singles made purely from the Moog Synthesizer was "Popcorn," a cover song constructed by Hot Butter.  And while pop songs were the main direction of electronic music, with perfectly timed beats and futuristic synthesizer sounds leading perfectly into the coming disco craze, there was still plenty of experimentation coming from the drug and art scenes. The first *official* Industrial act comes from Genesis P. Orridge and Throbbing Gristle. It was Genesis who coined the term "Industrial" to describe the harsh, experimental noise he relentlessly directed at his audiences. And while Thobbing Gristle never really achieved mainstream attention, their influence is undeniable. Without Throbbing Gristle, I don't think you get Skinny Puppy, and without Skinny Puppy, you *certainly* don't get Nine Inch Nails.  *Throbbing Gristle - What a Day (1979)* ## The Eighties The whole "Industrial scene" really got underway in the 80's, with acts like Cabaret Voltaire, Ministry, Skinny Puppy of course, and others. Epicentres of the scene were Vancouver, Chicago, Germany. Kraftwerk was absolutely instrumental in showcasing what electronic music can be. While not strictly Industrial sounding, much of the German scene starts with them. Die Krupps, formed in 1980, would be more associated with early German Industrial, with an obvious Kraftwerk influence, and basically kicking off EBM. .mp3) *Die Krupps - Gladiators remix (1985)* England had a strong EBM scene as well, with Nitzer Ebb garnering attention internationally. I can remember Industrial dance bars always including a Nitzer Ebb track in their sets.  *Nitzer Ebb - Join in the Chant (1987)* Chicago can thank a record store for being the heartbeat of the late 80s Industrial Dance scene. Wax Trax! was a record store of the same name first, before the renowned indie label it later became. Decades later, a nod to the store was given in the movie High Fidelity with John Cusak sporting a Wax Trax! t-shirt.  In the late 80s and throughout the early 90s, Wax Trax! was synonymous with solid electronic music, particularly EBM or Electronic Body Music. It was pivotal in popularising the scene in local dance clubs. This is where Ministry first began releasing singles, including "Every Day is Halloween."  *Ministry - Every Day is Halloween (1981)* Ministry continued to prolifically output more and more throughout the 80s, with Al Jourgensen also contributing to several side projects at the time. One of these projects, The Revolting Cocks, managed to enjoy some popularity despite the name (though at some point they shortened it to RevCo which enabled them to be played on the radio). .mp3) *The Revolting Cocks - Beers Steers & Queers [Drop your britches mix] (1991)* There was much overlap with EBM and Industrial music. Different acts swung back and forth between the genres, blurring the boundaries between the two. Belgium's Front 242 is a great example of this, seeming to be a mostly EBM act, while delving into very Industrial elements and aesthetic. Their evolution brought them more solidly into an Industrial sound as the 80s progressed into the 90s, as did Ministry's.  *Front 242 - Headhunter (1988)* In Vancouver, Canada, there was an explosion of avante-garde and Industrial acts, much of it seeming to revolve around Skinny Puppy. In 1984, Skinny Puppy self-released their first EP on cassette called *Back and Forth*. This continued a trend that went back to the earlier experimental noise begun by Throbbing Gristle. The small local following in Vancouver quickly spread down into the states, involving collaborations with Wax Trax! bands like Ministry, and other Industrial allumni, like Pigface and even Genesis P. Orridge. In 1986 Wilhelm Schroeder, original Skinny Puppy band member, left to focus on his own projects. This allowed for Dwayne Goetell to fill the empty slot, and is really when Skinny Puppy separated itself from other EBM artists, and became the abrasive experimental act for which Industrial music was always known.  *Skinny Puppy - The Choke, Live at the Toronto Concert Hall (1987)* Meanwhile Wilhelm Schroeder (hereon known as Bill Leeb) started his own Industrial band that he called Front Line Assembly. FLA grew to be just as influential as Skinny Puppy and garnered a reputation of consistently putting out strong Industrial EBM. There's never a weak track on a Front Line Assembly Record. While Bill originally hailed from Vancouver, the initial FLA releases were included on the Wax Trax! label in Chicago. Their initial EBM-heavy style fit into the Wax Trax! catalogue nicely, and became a main staple of the label.  *Front Line Assembly - No Limit (1989)* One last, important note before we leave the 80s. In Cleaveland, Ohio, there was a young audio engineer for a small label called Right Track Studios by the name of Trent Reznor. Trent, who also was the label's janitor, was working on a musical project of his own in his spare time. Eventually he had enough to assemble a modest demo tape under the name Nine Inch Nails. This attracted the attention of several small indie labels, and he eventually signed to TVT Records in New York. The album *Pretty Hate Machine* was released in October of 1989 and became TVT's best selling record to date.  ## The Nineties The 90s was a special decade for music in that alternative music became mainstream. Radio and record labels were now looking for the new and different, rather than bland and safe, which had long been the practice. Hard rock, grungy metal and punk became the best-selling music and largest concerts of the decade. This opened the door for experimental electronic and Industrial music to garner an audience too. Ministry took advantage of the massive popularity of noisy Grunge and Metal and incorporated it into the 1992 album *Psalm 69*, though they were already becoming more and more harsh sounding with each album. By the time the 90s rolled around, they were a very different act from the Ministry of 1981 singing "Every Day is Halloween."  *Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod (1992)* There's a temptation here to go repeatedly into the evolution of a few bands here. Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy are a couple of them. In 1992 FLA won an award for best alternative video by the Canadian "Much Music" channel for "Mindphaser."  *Front Line Assembly - Mindphaser (1992)* As I recall they beat out Skinny Puppy's "Killing Game" which was also nominated that year. And similar to Ministry, Front Line Assembly experimented with a more guitar-laden sound for a couple albums before returning to a more purely Industrial theme, this time with a much more layered effect, probably due to the success of another project of theirs: Delerium. Skinny Puppy, meanwhile, was also growing more heavy and harsh sounding with each release, thanks to the influence of Dwayne Goetell. In 1989 they collaborated with Ministry's Al Jourgensen on the *Bites* album, and in 1990 they released *Too Dark Park*, which may have been the most abrasive Industrial Album released anywhere up to that point in time.  *Skinny Puppy - Convulsion (1990)* Unfortunately, rifts began splintering the band, which got worse during the 1992 tour for their *Last Rites* album. In 1993 they signed to a new label, American Records, and in 1995, while recording for their first release with them, things got worse with addiction problems exacerbating the issue, leading to Ogre leaving the band. cEven Key and Dwayne Goetell returned to Vancouver to finish production. Soon after that Dwayne tragically died of a heroin overdose in his parent's home. cEvin was left to cobble together an album to fulfil his contractual obligation to American, resulting in *The Process* in 1996. Nivek did eventually return to Vancouver to assist with the final production. It's worth noting here that on top of the band's breakup and the death of Dwayne Goetell, there was also issues with the American label, who accused them of making music that was unlistenable. Using a creativity clause in the contract, the label attempted to micromanage the production of the album, assigning 3 different producers to the project. They wanted the record to be something more akin to Nine Inch Nails, which has it's own ironies. The loss of Dwayne Goetell shouldn't be understated. I think he had yet to reach his full potential. Skinny Puppy was about to enter a 10 year hiatus and Dwayne's aDuck project could have really excelled in this period. His death robbed the world of this potential. It was a an immeasurable tragedy.  *aDuck - Burnout (1997)* The disintegration of Skinny Puppy lead to the creation of another project called Download, which has been releasing material all the way up to 2019 (as of this writing). cEvin Key has had many other side projects over the years too, but the Download project, I think, was the most significant, spawning 10 full album releases and several tours over decades. In the early 90s, Pigface debuted with the album *Gub*. It was really a who's who in Industrial/Punk at the time, with contributions from Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Chris Connelly of The Revolting Cocks. Other contributors were Martin Atkins of Ministry and En Esch of KMFDM. The song "Suck" from that album, co-written and sung by Reznor, eventually made it to a hidden track on the NIN EP *Broken*.  *Trent Reznor and Ogre of Skinny Puppy performing together with Pigface in 1991.* In the background, Trent was dealing with growing difficulties with his label TVT, who were attempting exert ever more control over his output as Nine Inch Nails. Trent was moving to a much heavier, experimental direction, while TVT wanted another synth-pop album like Pretty Hate Machine. The contract allowed for almost complete control over the creative output, as well as most of the royalties. TVT refused to allow Trent to release anything that wasn't approved by the label. He also was forbidden to work on any other projects, which kept his name off the credits of collaborative efforts with other artists, such as 1000 Homo DJs, which he did with Al Jourgensen of Ministry. His vocal tracks on that release needed to be re-recorded to avoid contractual disputes. The NIN *Broken* EP was mostly recorded in secret, while Interscope Records was negotiating a deal with TVT. Interscope recognised the potential of NIN and worked to extricate Reznor from the TVT contract. A new deal was eventually signed, and Broken was finally released through a partnership with Interscope and TVT, freeing Reznor to create his own label, Nothing Records, under Interscope as a parent company. The EP went platinum within *months* of its release, and the song "Wish" even earned a grammy award (for best heavy metal performance of all things). The Downward Spiral was without TVT entirely.  *Nine Inch Nails - Wish (1992)* The Downward Spiral went multi-platinum in 1994, brought Industrial music to the masses, and paved the way for other bands to share some of that spotlight (although I'd guess those bands probably wouldn't want to be thought of that way). KMFDM, PWEI, Marilyn Manson and others, along with some I've mentioned already, have benefited from NIN, and the rise of alternative music in general. By the mid 90s, dance clubs were dipping extensively into the Industrial genre, and even radio stations were anxious to extend their previously limited library of playable tracks.  *KMFDM - Juke Joint Jezabel (1995)* By the end of the 90s, however, the alternative music scene had reached end-of-life and was supplanted by a never-ending stream of pre-assembled pop groups like The Backstreet Boys, Nsync, and The Spice Girls. It still existed, but had mostly retreated back into the underground, relegated to small clubs and niche record shops. Bands like NIN still got attention, of course, and Ministry went full metal, abandoning the Industrial aspects of their music almost entirely. The scene itself had faded from public attention, and cultural mainstays like The Crow movie, adapted from the graphic novel, just weren't being made any more. The soundtrack of that movie was filled with goth and industrial acts who received mainstream attention from their inclusion. This sort of attention disappeared within just a few years.  *My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - After the Flesh (1995)* ## The 2000s and Beyond The 2000s was an interesting decade. Industrial was still hanging on in spite of the lack of attention, as fans still eagerly bought anything from their old favourites, who still kept pumping out releases. Nivek Ogre started his solo project, which initially was to be called Welt, but another act began using the name before he did in any official capacity, so he went with simply "Ohgr." On the self-titled debut, a track called "Cracker" caused a bit of a stir with fans, as it appeared to take jabs at Trent Reznor (and Eminem), accusing him of appropriating the music of soldiers who had been pushing the genre forward since the beginning, and making a fortune standing on their shoulders.  *Ohgr - Cracker (2001)* In 2011, Nivek actually addressed this in a Facebook post, wanting to put it rest. >[!quote] >*"just a quick jab at the past! we never directed anything negative towards anyone really. it was more a commentary on how one ultimately makes a choice between embracing the ‘mainstream’.. in all its obtuse glory, or not; in the case of our little ohGr soldier who trudges into the lair of the minotaur .. to face his own fears? I must point out that trent’s pig poops all over me! self denigration much! at that time those were the bands that were becoming huge and blowing uP. anyway, my regrets, as stated above, were more to do with the misinterpretation that leads us to this point in time and this thread, bare bones. i don’t dislike trent. i’ve had only pleasant encounters with him and applaud his working of the ‘veil’. there noW .. no more need to speculate. wE bE too far along the paTh to bash the roots from which we were all nurtured. especially as that plot of land diminishes with every tick tock on the world/industrial clock! have a great day all mE drooGs!"* > >&mdash; Nivek Ogre, Facebook, 2011 I remember reading this at the time and not quite buying it. But in writing this post, and re-encountering the controversy, I can see it in hindsight with a more charitable perspective. In the early 90s, there was a brief window of opportunity for bands like Skinny Puppy, perhaps even Skinny Puppy *in particular*. Trent mentioned Skinny Puppy as a major influence on more than one occasion, and even said in an interview that "'Down in It' was a total rip-off of 'Dig It.'" But with the break up of the band after Dwayne's death, that window remained out of reach. There was some broader attention from the single "Candle" getting radio play and video circulation but, without a tour or another follow-up album, nothing much happened. Download, cEvin Key's focus after Skinny Puppy, did moderately well, but never really garnered the attention of Skinny Puppy. Ohgr's debut was released too late. The alternative window had already closed. So Cracker, I think, really was about Ogre himself, rather than Trent. I think there's some resentment that shows, but it's like a bitter admission that he sees it in himself with the line "Another moment documents the fading magic of what could have been. Could it be I have given up?" The line "Still sucking life from the mainstream" isn't a comment about Trent. It's about himself. He's dependent on bands like NIN to keep interest alive in acts like Puppy, and Ohgr by association. Skinny Puppy did eventually reunite in 2004, and had several tours and albums since. cEvin Key toured with Ohgr as the drummer in promotion of his first 2 albums, and it was a pleasant experience for both he and Ogre. Mark Walk, who was instrumental in Ohgr's more accessible sound, joined the band, and several more albums and tours followed. The Skinny Puppy sound was forever changed, though. It became less abrasive and experimental with the addition of more accessible melodies, which I think is a result of Mark Walk joining the band.  *Skinny Puppy - Pro-Test (2004)* By the end of the 00s, the music industry had changed to an extent that was irreparable. Streaming services had supplanted individual album sales after a decade of piracy that really forced the hand of the entire business. There were a few bands that continued to tour after this: Skinny Puppy, NIN, PWEI, Projekt Pitchfork, and others, but they were performing for middle aged audiences at this point: the same fans who had loved them in decades past and were growing old with them. There's nothing wrong with this, but there is a distinct lack of young musicians taking the genre forward. And there's really nothing for young audiences in old, fat performers replaying the rebellious, edgy music of their youth--music that is really *intended* for youthful audiences who are misunderstood by older generations.  *Projekt Pitchfork - Live at M'era Luna (2023)* There was a very brief resurgence of experimental electronic music in the 00s. For a short while, dub-step became extremely popular before seemingly disappearing altogether within a year or two. It was really the last truly experimental genre to occur, I think, and in my opinion was a direct evolution of Industrial music. .mp3) *Skrillex - First of the Year [Equinox] (2011)* This was the last underground scene to be appropriated by the mainstream, and it's meteoric rise in popularity is, in itself, probably what killed it, as watered-down versions became the soundtrack of Microsoft commercials, soft drinks, and old, 20-year-old electronic acts trying to get in on the game. After this, we all know what happened. Music ceased to be the identity-marker of generations. It was supplanted by social media, and social justice. Kids stopped going to shows and started amassing into protests. And those who didn't partake in that just stayed home to play video games. With streaming services, people's experience with, and the way they listen to music changed. Music is no longer a commodity. Without having to pay for music on a per album basis, its value diminishes. Most people do pay for a streaming service of some sort, but paying 10 to 15 dollars per month for practically every song ever written is very different from paying $20 for 10 songs. And even this isn't really necessary, as YouTube provides it for free. Paid services do provide higher bitrates for better sound than YouTube, but the better quality streaming services provide is lost when played on crappy speakers through a bluetooth connection. This cheap abundance devalues any product, and music is no exception. I can remember making hour-long drives to Toronto just to browse through the massive record stores there, like A&A Records and HMV. There was also a huge number of smaller, used record stores where it was possible to find gems not found anywhere else. The joy of finding that one CD you thought you'd never encounter cannot be described. And while the Internet made all that music instantly available, it robs us of the hunt, and ruins the spoils. It's not special any more. The resurgence of vinyl and record collections helps, but it will never be as it once was. Music used to *define* underground subcultures, but I'm not sure underground subcultures even exist any more. It's hard to define a subculture as "underground" when it's immediately accessible to everyone. >[!info] >I should mention, before closing, that of course there are still *some* young Industrial bands out there. Some are quite good too. > >  > *3Teeth - Drift (2023)*