industrial rock Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Nitzer Ebb “That Total Age”

sfilzen — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 19:03:08 +0000

Nitzer Ebb “That Total Age” 1987. Not on vinyl, but on ALL the other formats: I bought the cassette in ‘87 (and listened to it incessantly that year), picked up the CD sometime in the 90′s or early 2000′s, and am currently streaming it on Spotify (my tape player will probably munch the cassette and I don’t have a CD player readily accessible). Last night we got to see Nitzer Ebb play at Turner Hall here in Milwaukee – it was insane!! I danced non-stop for almost 2 hours (logging in over 10,000 steps and 2 cardio workouts on my FitBit 😅). The last time I saw them was over 30 years ago, in the summer of ‘90 when they toured with Depeche Mode – the bands are/were good friends and continued to work together on tours and recording for years after. Nitzer Ebb’s Bon Harris and Douglas McCarthy look older; I suppose I do, too.

Relentlessly pounding EBM/industrial dance, That Total Age was Nitzer Ebb’s debut album. The single “Join in the Chant” hit #9 on the US dance charts and the crowd went insane last night when they performed it.

Join in the Chant

Join in the Chant (2)

They also played “Murderous” and “Let Your Body Learn” (two of my favorites and both also released as singles ), plus a hilarious ballad version of “Violent Playground” and “Alarm” as part of the encore. While not on That Total Age, Nitzer Ebb also played “Hearts and Minds” (we have that 12″ single on vinyl). Another top pick from the album is the opener “Fitness to Purpose.” My original cassette has the track “Warsaw Ghetto” which was not included on the originally released CD’s (mine doesn’t have it) but that track does appear on the 2018 reissue.

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Pailhead “Trait”

sfilzen — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 17:47:10 +0000

Pailhead “Trait” 1988. Wax Trax! Records. 4-song industrial EP by the supergroup featuring Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) on vocals and guitar, Al Jourgensen (Ministry) on guitar plus Paul Barker on bass and Bill Rieflin on drums (both also from Ministry). The EP is a comp of two singles released in ‘88 – “Man Should Surrender” b/w “Anthem” and “Don’t Stand in Line” b/w “Ballad.” Trait is definitely more Ministry than Minor Threat or Fugazi: very hard industrial but a bit of the Fugazi punk sound seeps in on “Ballad” and the lyrical delivery on “Anthem.”

Trait’s singles were the only releases by Pailhead besides another single: “I Will Refuse” backed by “No Bunny” from 1987 which features Eric Spicer (Naked Raygun) on drums. Those two tracks were included with the CD release of Trait in the 90′s. From Allmusic: “Pailhead was clearly a fun project to work on for two musicians who were allowed to make some music outside of their respective genres, and though their actual output was rather minimal, the record still stands as a bizarre time capsule of aggressive musical fringes from the 1980s.”

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Ministry “Every Day (Is Halloween)”

sfilzen — Sat, 31 Oct 2020 18:23:02 +0000

Ministry “Every Day (Is Halloween)” 1985. Wax Trax! Records. 12″ single. 🎃Happy Halloween! 🎃 I guess technically the A-side of this 12″ is “All Day” but over time, “Every Day (Is Halloween)” – also listed as “(Every Day Is) Halloween” – has been more enduring, a regular feature at alternative dance clubs (when those things still existed) for industrial/goth dance nights; a track that one writer has called the anthem for goths. Both tracks are significantly more mellow (for Ministry, mind you) than their later releases, definitely more 80′s synthpop skewed – in fact “All Day” reminds me a lot of New Order – than the more militantly industrial metal sound they’d evolve towards with releases like ‘88′s Land of Rape and Honey (“Stigmata”) and ‘89′s The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste (“Thieves”).

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Killing Joke “Killing Joke”

sfilzen — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:10:18 +0000

Killing Joke “Killing Joke” released 40 years ago today, October 5th, 1980. Heavy post-punk industrial noise rock, Killing Joke’s debut full-length LP made it to #39 on the UK album chart and has been hailed as a classic heavy rock album that influenced bands such as Ministry, Nirvana and Metallica. My favorite track on Killing Joke is “Wardance,” which they released early in ‘80 as a single and made it onto the US dance chart at #50. Also released as singles were “Change” (another album highlight) and “Requiem” which also hit the US dance chart at #43. Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters has cited Killing Joke as a major fave and Foo Fighters recorded “Requiem” for the b-side of their hit “Everlong.” Besides the singles, I also really love the thrashing instrumental industrial dance track “Bloodsport” and “The Wait” which Metallica recorded for their 1987 EP collection of covers The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited.

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Killing Joke “What’s THIS For…!”

sfilzen — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 17:56:34 +0000

Killing Joke “What’s THIS For…!” 1981. Malicious Damage/E.G. Records. Brutal post-punk/industrial rock, What’s THIS For…! was Killing Joke’s second album, a pretty great follow-up to their phenomenal and highly influential self-titled debut Killing Joke. My top track is “Tension,” a heavy industrial but highly danceable song that Killing Joke released on a double A-side single along with the borderline synthpop (albeit super heavy and dark) “Follow the Leaders;” the single reached #55 in the UK and went to #25 on the US Dance Club Songs chart. I also really like “Unspeakable” (the influence Killing Joke had on Nine Inch Nails is pretty obvious on this one while a song like “Butcher” definitely gave Ministry some motivation) and the head-stomping heart-throbbing epic “Madness.”

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Big Black “The Model”

sfilzen — Thu, 07 May 2020 16:28:33 +0000

Big Black “The Model” 1987. I’m spinning this cover of Kraftwerk’s “Das Model” (from their 1978 LP Die Mensch-Maschine) in honor of Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider, who died April 30th (that news released yesterday). “Das Model” is an infectiously boppy synthpop track that hit #1 in the UK and #7 in Germany (in ‘82) and went to #39 on the US dance charts (in ‘78). Big Black’s version of “The Model” is just as infectious but super-harsh, noisy industrial and awesome. It appeared on Big Black’s 1987 album Songs About Fucking. The flip side of this double A-side 7″ appeared on Songs About Fucking as a bonus track: a cover of Cheap Trick’s “He’s a Whore” from their 1977 debut Cheap Trick, a punky aggressive song (for Cheap Trick, anyway). Big Black’s version of “He’s a Whore” is of course way more aggressive and I like it a lot more than the original, especially the dark and growling vocals.

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Ministry “Greatest Fits”

sfilzen — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 19:38:12 +0000

Ministry “Greatest Fits” 2001/2018, double LP reissue on Run Out Grooves, blue and grey marbled vinyl. A great collection of Ministry’s hard industrial dance/metal singles from 1988 to 2001. Despite seeing Ministry’s somewhat disappointing show about a couple years ago, I still really love Ministry. This comp has some of their best including “Stigmata” and “The Land of Rape and Honey” (from the 1988 Land of Rape and Honey), “Thieves” and “So What” (from 1989′s The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste – the version of “So What” on this comp is a live version from a performance in 1994) and three tracks from their hit album 1992 LP Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs including the Grammy-nominated “N.W.O.,” “Just One Fix” and “Jesus Built My Hotrod” which features Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes. (Sidenote: Ministry recorded Psalm 69 at studios in both Chicago and in a small town not that far from Milwaukee – Lake Geneva – which makes me laugh because it’s one of those bucolic Wisconsin communities full of tourists, cheese shops, fudge….and Ministry!) From the less-successful Filth Pig (1996) are Ministry’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” (hilarious, mainly because I really don’t like Dylan’s original) and the 12″ single version of “Reload.” “Supermanic Soul” and “Bad Blood” are included from 1999′s Dark Side of the Spoon. Two non-Ministry album tracks are also on Greatest Fits: “What About Us?” from the 2001 movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, directed by Steven Spielberg and a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut,” a song much more in line with Ministry’s sound than Dylan’s. Both the Dylan and Sabbath cover songs were later included on Ministry’s all-cover song album Cover Up (2008).

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