It’s kinda scary really. I have been reading others’ lists for albums of the year and trying to think what mine are. And I can barely think of any. Has this year been a bad year for music, or is it just that I have been distracted by things for much of the year and have missed some of the better releases? Ho-hum. Anyway…the best that I can think of from me for this year.

While I still try and keep the broad focus of the music covered here to the wider sphere of industrial music, I also listen to other music – this year perhaps more than ever – and thus the spread here is perhaps a bit wider than you might otherwise expect. You know what, though? Try some of this music. Especially the stuff you don’t recognise or don’t know. Go for it – I love hearing new music that someone else has enthused about, trying to understand what’s so awesome about it. Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes it will take days or weeks to click, and hopefully, something here will do that to you.

Time to cue the music. You can listen along on Spotify or Youtube. Links to the right.

/Collide
/Vortex
/Noiseplus Music

As many will know this band’s albums have been almost on repeat play in my life over much of this year. Although this is ostensibly a remix album, it really is good – 2 CDs worth, three “new” covers (Feed Me To The Lions being the best of them), and at least two tracks that are better than the originals (Charlie Clouser’s storming “Emirian Mix” of Euphoria and then the “Antistatic Mix” of Like You Want To Believe. Add to that somewhere between another 10-20 remixes available on the website…

/Skinny Puppy
/The Greater Wrong Of The Right
/SPV

A few comebacks this year, but the return of Skinny Puppy was probably the best of all. The new album is perhaps a little more polished than previous albums, and less dense in structure, but opening tracks I’m Mortal and Pro-Test are their best tracks in years. Add to that the astonishing live show in London in the summer, and here’s hoping they keep it together for another album in the next year or two…

/Ministry
/Houses of the Molé
/Sanctuary Records

Talking of comebacks, there hadn’t really been much of a gap since the last Ministry album, but seeing as this is their best album since Psalm 69 (12 years ago!), I think it counts as a comeback. Full of political rage, the album roars past barely drawing breath. Hard to pick a best track when the entire album is this good, but either No W or Worthless take the honours for me.

/My Dying Bride
/Songs of Darkness, Words of Light
/Peaceville

Another band pretty much back out of the wilderness are these guys. Again their strongest album in some years, it is kinda back to basics, with MDB stripping out the experimentation and concentrating on what they do best – doom. Best track? My Wine In Silence.

/Rammstein
/Reise, Reise
/Universal

Yet another band returning from a year or so out of the spotlight, they confounded us all by making an album that was subtly different to previous albums. Still anthemic and in the main heavy as, with what seems like is destined to be the best single that never was (Moskau, of course). Not actually a single bad track on the album, and as ever the tracks are even more astonishing live.

/Imperative Reaction
/Redemption
/Metropolis Records

Having only really heard these guys remixing other people’s stuff until this year, I was pleasantly surprised when I got hold of this. Good, solid EBM, with a harder edge running through many tracks. Best tracks? Guilt and Something I Left Behind.

/Assemblage23
/Storm
/Accession Records

Was pretty disappointed with the last album (Defiance), so to find this as good as it is was really good news. Not a single bad track on the album, either, which makes it even harder to pick the best track. But I’ll go for Complacent, I think.

/Rotersand
/Truth Is Fanatic
/Endless Records

Had heard good things before they supported A23, but they were even better than that live, and the album lives up to expectations. Much harder than EBM, bordering on noise at points, but with a melodic undertow that keeps tracks in your head for weeks. Almost Violent is without a question the best track on there, though.