Rivetheaded: Guardians of Industrial Style

This is a declaration of my love for industrial and my hate for the criticisms being leveled against Aesthetic Perfection in 2014.

I listen to more industrial music than any other kind of music, and strongly identify with the themes frequently presented in that music - studied those themes in college, and wrote a Masters Thesis related to some of those themes. Growing up in Bremerton I have been wearing a special blend of clothes seen as military surplus, hip-hop sports gear and office casual, as well as hair styles involving the 1/8 inch shear since long before they started selling imitations of that style to Nine Inch Nails fans at Hot Topic. My first CD I owned was the "Head Like a Hole" 60-Minute EP, before any of the music stores in my area carried "Pretty Hate Machine."

Industrial started with a highly experimental pre-disco band in the 70's focusing on what kind of music they could make if they threw aside the normal ways of making music at the time (electric guitars and other instruments) and focused on important yet ugly subject matter neglected by other music genres at that time. This band was Throbbing Gristle, and as designed, they were genuinely unpleasant to listen to (do not try to listen to all of this song unless you are feeling it right away):

The heavy use of electronics, the insistence of approaching subject matter directly without any sugar coating, the video back drop behind the band, carefully composed music, and the heavy use of musical experimentation are the hallmarks of this musical style. So called "industrial metal" bands are only worthy to be called industrial in so far as they embrace most of this tool set.

The band that took Throbbing Gristle's vision and turned it into a musical genre was Skinny Puppy. This band started off in the early 80's in a very ugly place, basically equating violence to animals with violence to humans. This band paved the way for more popular acts like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, and today is more prolific (including side project Ohgr) than those bands:

Starting with Skinny Puppy, individual songs on an industrial album are like a 20 second clip of a pop song, industrial bands don't write songs so much as they write albums, each song is only part of the whole album, and by itself is out of context.

In the 90's when industrial had its day in the spot light, it was very focused on dark themes mostly avoided outside of metal at that time. Consider Sister Machine Gun's "Nothing":

At this time there was a lot of Rap/Metal fusion going on, such as Public Enemy & Athrax's "Bring the Noise," and so at this time industrial was considered to have a "heavy hip-hop influence," which you can hear in "Nothing," but yet the over all album "Torture Technique" is clearly something beyond metal or hip hop both in its style and its depravity.

Understand that the Hip Hop of that era was itself more experimental and dynamic than what "gansta rap" would later become. Consider the industrial qualities of Sir Mix Alot's "Gortex":

If you haven't identified a few unrelated and ironic connections between this song and industrial music, listen to it again, paying attention to the electronics and content of the lyrics.

Industrial of this era was incredibly influential, heavily involved in movie sound tracks and pushing the use of electronics in other music genres. You probably wouldn't be able to pick Pop Will Eat Itself out of the industrial acts at that time, but one of it's band members went on to write one of the most important meme songs of all time, "Requiem for a Dream" (strong relation to the film of the same name):

Now think about this song for a second: is it not everything that industrial should be? Yes, it is probably THE industrial masterpiece. You can hear the anxiety, despair, frustration, and the all consuming urgency that it conveys without a single lyric, and it does this through the tool set established by Throbbing Gristle and Skinny Puppy.

Soon after Skinny Puppy started to be known in the music world there were parallel developments in Europe. They were not as constrained by American marketing definitions as industrial, so that when industrial's popularity fell in the USA, the music continued to evolve in Europe. This was "aggrotech," aggressive techno music, a type of industrial that evolved from disco, as opposed to predating disco. Consider Grendel's industrial classic "The New Flesh":

In that song you clearly hear the club/dance/rave elements. Remember when Depeche Mode got darker and darker album after album until "Violator" was released? That movement was the genesis of aggrotech/euro-industrial. But they didn't stop there, they radically experimented and continued to evolve the genre. The one ultimate example I would give of this is "Desperate Youth" by The Retrosic:

Notice that it is a natural continuation of the genre: massive amounts of dynamic innovation, similar themes to "Nothing" and "Requiem for a Dream."

European band Combichrist and related side projects most clearly define industrial today, with songs like "Throat Full of Glass":

Combichrist does not avoid or deny the hip hop influence on industrial music:

Incredibly prolific, some of their artists were involved in other projects, notably Panzer AG:

Notice the similarities between "Battlefield" and "Requiem for a Dream." Notice the actual singing in "Throat Full of Glass."

Here's where things get controversial in today's industrial scene - apparently if you aren't screaming with voice distortion, you are "selling out" and "not really industrial." These guardians of industrial style (or "GIS" for short) actually have a far more narrow definition of industrial than this, so much so that some of the more important works above would be disqualified from being industrial by their definition. Keep in mind that this trend towards singing is even embraced by the above mentioned Grendel, arguably with more intense effect than what their previous voice distortion vocals had:

If Depeche Mode's "People Are People," Tears for Fears's "Shout," or Eurythmics's "Sweet Dreams" came out the decade after "The Downward Spiral" instead of the decade before, they would have been classified as industrial. 

Aesthetic Perfection is the most innovative major industrial act going today, and they are getting all kinds of flack for "not being industrial," and even for playing in front of audiences who are not already dedicated industrial fans. Even though numerous Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy/Ohgr songs have heavy piano elements, these GIS take huge issue with this Aesthetic Perfection song:

(Aesthetic Perfection did an excellent song, "Under Your Skin," using only human vocals as instruments on the same album.) Does "All Beauty Destroyed" fit into the genre of music started by Throbbing Gristle and established by Skinny Puppy? Careful how you answer because it's the same answer to this question: do you understand the industrial genre well enough to be able to say what is and is not industrial?

Aesthetic Perfection has PLENTY of aggrotech-style in other works, but in the songs and albums they are being criticized for, they are taking on industrial's most important obligation: to innovate. Aesthetic Perfection - like them or not - is the SALVATION of this genre, keeping it alive and growing, and from becoming an inbred inaccessible mess like Death Metal. More willing to play for audiences not already established as industrial fans than lot of other acts, their spreading the industrial gospel earns them my official title of "Industrial Messiah."

Industrial must continue to innovate in order to continue to be the king of musical genres. If we define industrial through static marketing terms, we are rejecting the tradition established by Throbbing Gristle and Skinny puppy - if it's not innovative, it's not industrial. Such narrow views blind us to industrial's future. Consider the following Tom Wait's song "Filipino Box Spring Hog," which has an industrial sound and is clearly on a level beyond most industrial being produced today:

Hip hop has some artists bucking marketing definitions as well. One of these acts - Die Antwoord - combines extremely aggressive rap with rave music - essentially a South African styled aggrotech - and seems to be lost on most industrial fans in spite of obvious industrial overtones in the art in some of their videos:

Be very careful, GIS, before you declare what is and is not Industrial.

Now this is a whole lot of very dark music I have mentioned here. How can I listen to so much of it? Well back in the early days there was religion-themed industrial that didn't "preach" (thankfully,) but had more progressive listener-empowering messages than say "The Downward Spiral," so I could mix in a little Mortal with my Sister Machine Gun. However in today's scene the progressive industrial band that really sticks out for me is Imperative Reaction. The first album they made that has the sound that they are developing now is called "As We Fall" and I have been listening to it a lot lately: 

I recall one GIS online referring to this Imperative Reaction sound as "more electro-punk, not so much industrial, IMHO." Well his opinion was humble indeed, because you could say the same thing about Throbbing Gristle.

If you think all industrial out there should basically sound like Psyclon Nine, then I have bad news for you: you aren't an industrial fan, you are just a fan of "bands that sound like Psyclon Nine," and you need to take it easy with your parent's credit card at Hot Topic.