I was listening to some Psalm 69 today and got all sentimental about the late 80′s / early 90′s industrial scene. So I decided to make up a small top five list of my personal all time fave industrial bands:

1.) Ministry -Back in the day Al Jourgensen & Paul Barker were the most frightening gruesome twosome out there. Ministry were like the bastard love child of Depeche Mode & Slayer. This band could not be touched live or on wax in their prime (1988 – 1992). The Mind Is A Terrible Thing to Taste is the industrial blueprint that so many douche bag bands in the mid and late 90′s took & made into something utterly weak n’ disgraceful. A side note….Ministry’s five song set at Lollapalooza 92 at Vancouver’s Thunderbird Stadium was one of the best thirty minutes of my life.

2.) Nitzer Ebb – Militant marches set to heavy as f**k  techno (no…not the guido meathead jock wearing an I Love House wifebeater type of techno music). Crashing sheet metal never sounded this beautiful. That Total Age record was Ebb’s shining moment & is one of the monumental, timeless albums of the genre.

3.) Throbbing Gristle – The soundtrack to a bloody gorilla attack on a baby panda. This band could go from something totally violent and chaotic like “Discipline” to a soft, eerie, and gentle “Weeping”. Art house industrial at its finest.

4.) Nine Inch Nails – The most prolific band (man) on the planet. Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, & The Downward Spiral…each of them so vastly different from one another, yet all brilliant in their own right. With the exception of the odd clunker  (The Fragile being the one), Trent has built up a solid body of work with the NIN catalogue. Also, if The Slip record released in 2008 was to be the last swan song for NIN, then it was a perfect way to end it, as that record is amazing.

5.) Head Of David – This was the band that was sandwiched between Napalm Death & Godflesh for Justin Broadrick (he left Head of David in 1989 though). Dustbowl & Seedstate were the most under-rated albums of the late 80′s / early 90′s era industrial scene. My two fave industrial songs ever come from HOD, “Dog Day Sunrise” and “Honey Lives”. A band that deserved more recognition than they received & was totally ahead (no pun intended) of their time.