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Ok, I've noticed a few people have posted interest in Industrial (largely historic given it is a tired old genre these days). Wondering who started listening to what, and when? For me, the first 'real' industrial song I remember hearing and loving was NIN's Head like a hole:

American exchange student circa 1990 was a fan, NZ didn't seem to have NIN in any store I'd been into so onto C90 it went.
From there, I spent probably 5-6 years all over the industrial spectrum. Ministry (Jesus built my Hotrod) probably being one of the early ones, then into Machines of Loving Grace, Klank, Circle of Dust, Mortal, White Zombie, even Filter, Marilyn and Powerman 5000 in the mid-later 90s.
For the more 'garage' level bands like Circle of Dust it was the DIY aesthetic that appealed - sounds like they had a Kramer, a Peavey Bandit and an Atari ST tucked in mum's basement whipping this stuff out. One thing that was pretty standard across a lot of it was these were obviously metal fans looking at pushing into a new direction (technically at least). Most of the fan base were reasonably left field compared to metallers, unless you were talking about the more mainstream acts (WZ, MM etc).
Tell me what you loved about it (if you did)? Who did you listen to? Anyone closer to home than the US market? Headless Chickens flirted on the pop edge with songs like George which I was a fan of, but we never really had a big presence here.

MOLG - Butterfly Wings for your pleasure:

Ministry were probably my first exposure to Industrial scene, when the owner of my local music shop started playing Psalm 69 on repeat. Being a metalhead in Nelson back in the late 80's and early 90's, my exposure to bands was pretty much dictated by what he would stock. Thankfully he had a pretty awesome taste in music.

It wasn't until I moved to the UK that I really got to pick up on NIN, even though Pretty Hate Machine came out before Psalm 69 and they were arguably much more successful. I had a decent appreciation of NIN, still have a couple of albums.

I would never have called myself an Industrial fan though (before anyone starts, no pics of a warehouse air conditioning unit please, lol), I was much more interested in the heavier stuff and spent more time following Carcass, Entombed and the like, but I did get to see Ministry live, plus White Zombie when they started adding more industrial elements to their sound (saw them twice in one weekend ).

And probably my favourite new band in this style:

Was big into industrial for a number of years, NIN, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, KMFDM, Fear Factory, Front Line Assembly etc...

I'm all about the layering of samples and synths etc into the songs, the more experimental side of metal without being "prog" (which I love too btw...)

Yeah forgot to mention Fear Factory. Biggie.

I think I originally discovered Ministry from the early Crusty Demons Motocross vids, used to ride MX back in the day... then at uni in the early 90's I got into NIN and Skinny Puppy and the rest

I vaguely recall NIN on RDU back at Uni of Canterbury early nineties, pretty sure Jesus built my hot rod was on there plenty too. But I think it was this that got me into a number of the industrial bands. I think Fear Factory & NIN (are Filter industrial? I guess so?) are the main ones I listened to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Ko ... Soundtrack

HackSaw wrote:I vaguely recall NIN on RDU back at Uni of Canterbury early nineties, pretty sure Jesus built my hot rod was on there plenty too. But I think it was this that got me into a number of the industrial bands. I think Fear Factory & NIN (are Filter industrial? I guess so?) are the main ones I listened to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Ko ... Soundtrack

Oooh what year(s) were you there? I started in 92...

null_pointer wrote:Yeah forgot to mention Fear Factory. Biggie.

Interesting addition, I was heavily into Soul of a New Machine and they definitely had an industrial flavour to their riffs and drumming, but I never saw them as an industrial band until much later. I saw them a few times as well, first was in a tiny club in London in summer with no aircon, it was so hot and full of people the drummer passed out several times during the gig.

jeremyb wrote:

HackSaw wrote:I vaguely recall NIN on RDU back at Uni of Canterbury early nineties, pretty sure Jesus built my hot rod was on there plenty too. But I think it was this that got me into a number of the industrial bands. I think Fear Factory & NIN (are Filter industrial? I guess so?) are the main ones I listened to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Ko ... Soundtrack

Oooh what year(s) were you there? I started in 92...

I was there 90-95 if memory serves. Saw some great gigs, PWEI was the standout. I hung out with the MUSOC crowd, played in a few of the shows, and helped out with lighting and setup and shite for a few of the orientations. Best night was doing lighting for Sam Hunt, just a slow fade from Red to Blue over the course of the show. And he was a fun entertainer!

I was at that Sam hunt gig! Small world!

many many great nights were spent in that Student Union building. I was quite saddened to read that it's coming down (or has already).

But everyone keep listing Industrial bands - I am going to have to put some research in tonight!

Danger Mouse wrote:

null_pointer wrote:Yeah forgot to mention Fear Factory. Biggie.

Interesting addition, I was heavily into Soul of a New Machine and they definitely had an industrial flavour to their riffs and drumming, but I never saw them as an industrial band until much later. I saw them a few times as well, first was in a tiny club in London in summer with no aircon, it was so hot and full of people the drummer passed out several times during the gig.

Start of Crash Test definitely qualifies, but yeah it was the riff/drumming that fit. I'd included them more from Demanufacture on, Soul was def more metal.

Huh, I didn't expect to have a big crossover of tastes like this. I love a lot of the 90's stuff from NIN, Fear Factory et al as mentioned, though I guess more especially the singles; Psalm 69 was one of the first CDs I ever bought but I'd not really listen to the whole thing very often, just Jesus Built my Hot Rod (love it, that is seriously one of the greatest songs ever written) and a couple of the other nasty and awesome ones on there.
That MK soundtrack was massive too, I still go back to some of those tracks. Orbital's one is brilliant on repeat late at night and the Juke Joint Jezebel by whoever it was. There were actually some awesome movie soundtrack albums in the 90s, like The Matrix and Spawn. I wonder when that stopped being a thing.

My old goth flatmates used to play heaps of Front 242, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, Wumpscut, and all that whole scene... I only half got into it becasue I usually liked more of a metal flavour and less electro but also more "catchy" song structures, for lack of a better description, but yeah.

Cools.

I think it pretty much started and ended with Ministry for me. Though from memory, I would have said Morbid Angel strayed into this territory as well. Haven't listened to any for well over a decade so I could have that totally wrong.