What Are You Listening To Now - The Sphere Edition

Nine Inch Nails - "Broken" E.P. (1992)

NIN's heaviest release & an absolutely superb follow-up to their very strong debut album from three years earlier. All the shackles have come off here. "Broken" harnesses unbridled noise & fury in a way that few have done more successfully. Incredibly consistent & amongst Trent Reznor's best work.

4.5/5

Nine Inch Nails - "Broken" E.P. (1992)

NIN's heaviest release & an absolutely superb follow-up to their very strong debut album from three years earlier. All the shackles have come off here. "Broken" harnesses unbridled noise & fury in a way that few have done more successfully. Incredibly consistent & amongst Trent Reznor's best work.

4.5/5

Agreed!

Godflesh - "Streetcleaner" (1989)

Possibly my all-time favourite industrial metal release. So fucking dark & incredibly original. It still sounds as fresh today as it did when I was 14 years old.

4.5/5

Strapping Young Lad - "City" (1997)

A very solid slab of industrial metal that should appeal to fans of Fear Factory, Ministry & Nailbomb. I'm not sure it's the classic release it's often made out to be but it sure hits the spot.

4/5

I'm a big fan. Alien is great too!

By the way, I spend hours looking for the best possible artwork for each album cover, and then you fill the forums with shitty ones like this. Do your brother a favour and use the art from this site. 

Ministry - "ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ [Psalm 69]" (1992)

This absolutely classic masterpiece in Al Jourgensen's finest work in my opinion. A perfect mixture of industrial & thrash metal for fans of Nailbomb, Strapping Young Lad & White Zombie.

4.5/5

Fear Factory - Aggression Continuum (2021)

In truth, I've not listened to a new Fear Factory album since 2001's Digimortal and of those that I have listened to, Demanufacture is the only one I ever return to much, so I am pretty unfamiliar with where the band headed thematically and musically during most of the 21st century. I understand that Burton C. Bell has now left the band, although he had recorded his vocal parts for Aggression Continuum before heading out the door. Shame, as Bell has a distinctive voice and his vocals are one of the most striking parts of FF's arsenal.

Well, it seems like I haven't missed a huge amount in the last two decades as Aggression Continuum does not sound strikingly dissimilar to the band's earlier albums such as the aforementioned Demanufacture and Digimortal. I guess they may just be trying to recreate their glory days but, in truth, this is Demanufacture-lite and after the passage of so many years we would be unrealistic expecting them to still spit out the same venom and aggression as on their earlier material. If even bands like Slayer struggle to pull it off, we can't expect FF to be able to either. Probably most disappointing is that it still sounds SO much like the earlier material that it doesn't feel like they've actually developed that much musically. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe something a little more progressive sounding or atmospheric, but this very much follows a formula established long ago, pitching itself somewhere between industrial and groove metal and if anything it now feels more entrenched in the groove metal camp, which would never especially endear itself to me personally.

There is also an instrumental version of the album available. Not sure that there's enough going on here to merit it, but if you want it, it's there.

Godflesh - Streetcleaner (1989)

I figured it was high time I gave the much-lauded Streetcleaner, one of the most well-known industrial metal releases of all time, a listen. Well, it's early days yet, but I was not blown away anything like as much as I thought I would be. However, as someone who has previously railed against people judging metal releases out of context, I will be delving into this much further over the coming weeks. One thing is for certain, and that is that I wasn't anything like hip enough to be listening to anything remotely like this back in 1989. There is much that warrants further exploration that's for sure, but it is such a well-regarded album, piling up plaudits from all and sundry, that I suppose I was expecting far more than it is reasonable to expect and as such I feel, initially, a little let down by it being merely decent rather than transcendent. I don't yet wish to ascribe a numerical value to relativise my enjoyment of Streetcleaner, as I think it has far more to offer up than I have yet discovered, so I will leave it at that until much later.

I've been on an industrial kick today.  I went back and reevaluated a couple of industrial metal albums just to check my views, and even heard Mutter for the first time.  Currently listing to a pretty heavy and atmospheric cyber metal / EDM album that's kind of replicating my feelings towards variety, but the genre listing looks both consistent and outlandish at the same time:

Internet Protocol by Master Boot Record

Primaries: Synthwave, Cyber Metal, Darksynth

Secondaries: Chiptune, Industrial Metal, Neoclassical Metal

I also notice hints of thrash and djent, and there's definitely a Malmsteen vibe.  Synthwave is kinda iffy for me, and so is cyber metal, so I'm hoping the rest lives up to the hype (and stays diversified).

Godflesh - Hymns (2001)

I'm not really that "up" on Godflesh and have never listened to them much. I remember listening to Songs of Love and Hate and not being overly affected by it. So, as part of a 2000's decade project, I gave their 2001 sixth album a listen. OK, it has a Fear Factory-ish feeling to it, but I am really surprised this doesn't have a nu-metal tag because that is exactly what this sounds like to me. I don't mean the Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park style of poppy nu-metal, but nu-metal all the same, done in a reasonably heavy and less accessible way for sure. I don't say that with any kind of negative connotation, because to my ears this is nu-metal done right and isn't too bad at all. The album sounds best to me when the band sound most like Fear Factory and it ends on a real high with the closer Jesu and it's throbbing bassline is the pick of the bunch for me. Look, it isn't going to trouble my higher ratings because this just doesn't utilise much that hits my musical sweet spots, but neither does it see me looking to turn it off. It is waaaay too long at 75 minutes, a good half an hour could be kicked to the kerb, but it is perfectly listenable and more than suitable as a backdrop while I do something else. I am never going to worship at the Godflesh altar like so many metalheads do, but I don't begrudge them their reputation and success at all.

3.5/5