To open each new year, I’ve for some years now posted a rundown of new music coming your way. This year is no exception, but it seems that there is less music coming that I might have expected. But then, I’m probably missing a few things! Anyway – this year, in addition to the full list further down the page, I’ve picked five albums I’m really looking forward to hearing.

So, here goes:

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One album I’m really looking forward to in 2014 is from LA-area industrial terrorists 3TEETH. They made quite a splash last year with a number of strikingly different, hyper-dense tracks that owe a bit of a debt to the freakiest end of Skinny Puppy’s material (not to mention FLA and a few other nineties-industrial artists), but don’t let their influences suggest that this is just another throwback. Quite the opposite – this is a very modern, very now take on the sound, complete with awesome visual media that compliments the chaotic electronics perfectly. An entire album of this will be very interesting indeed.

Also, look out for an interview with the band on amodelofcontrol.com in the next week.

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The fact that Nothing But Love – on the album but released last year on Dependence 2013, of course – was the amodelofcontrol.com top track of 2013 is perhaps a pointer of just how much I’m looking forward to this album. Despite the lengthy gap since Double Crosser (which came out in 2006), not a lot appears to have changed, not that it needs to. It is still the pristine electronic pop music with a pitch-black edge, with intelligent lyrics and melodies to die for. The first essential album of 2014? I really, really hope so.

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The first hint of a new album – again, their first album proper in some years – came with the S EP late last year, which proved to have some of the most satisfying tracks by Laibach in a long, long time. Interestingly though, it seems change is afoot again in this restless band, which a poppier, funkier edge showing through in the tracks released so far, but never without their trademark aloof politics and arch comment. Spectre should be a fascinating album.

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It’s going to be a busy year for rising stars Legend. First there is the delayed split 7″ with fellow Icelanders Sólstafir (you can hear their exquisite cover of Runaway Train here – quite what Legend have done with Fjara I can’t wait to hear), then apparently a remix album (of tracks from their amazing debut Fearless, that I’ve still not stopped listening to yet), then finally a new album much later in the year. Their sound – a much-more-goth Depeche Mode at their most epic, at points – has more hooks that Icelandic fishermen, and in tracks like Sister or City, displays a populist touch that could see them outgrow the goth/industrial scene that has taken them to heart very quickly indeed if the second album is as good. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to finally seeing their much-praised live show in Toronto in May.

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After making quite a splash with his first album under the Be My Enemy name, Phil Barry’s latest project doesn’t have a great deal to prove, perhaps, with a second album. That debut managed the delicate balancing act of referencing his best known work (Cubanate, of course), while including other elements that made the album stand alone. Obviously, it drew in a lot of old fans, of course, but that was to be expected – but crucially gigs so far have shown a younger audience that might be expected. As for the new material, what was unveiled at the Slimelight show in August was impressive, making me that keener to hear the final results. Make it soon, Phil!

Here is the full round-up of albums either confirmed or expected this year (so far). Obviously things can and do change, so this won’t be gospel. But it gives an idea – and feel free to add others in the comments if you know more.

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13-Jan
Bruce Springsteen – High Hopes
20-Jan
Mogwai – Rave Tapes

24-Jan
Nine Inch Nails/Coil – Recoiled

03-Feb
Behemoth – The Satanist

11-Feb
Seabound – Speak in Storms
Aesthetic Perfection – ‘Til Death
††† – self-titled

14-Feb
Nachtmahr – Feindbild

17-Feb
Perc – The Power & The Glory

24-Feb
St Vincent – St Vincent

11-March
God Module – False Face
Seeming – Madness & Extinction
Psyclon Nine – [Disorder: The Shadow Sessions] (remix album)
Motorjesus – Electric Revelation

25-March
Combichrist – We Love You
THYX – Super Vision

March
Angelspit – The Product
Laibach – Spectre

“Spring”
Tori Amos – Unrepentent Geraldines
Prong – Ruining Lives

undated
3TEETH – TBA
Swans – TBA
Prude – The Dark Age of Consent
Primordial – TBA
Immortal – TBA
Electric Wizard – TBA
ICE-T/Bodycount – Manslaughter
Cypress Hill – TBA
Ruby – TBA
Neuroticfish – A Sign of Life?
Encephalon – TBA
E-Craft – Rearrested
Mastodon – TBA
Foo Fighters – TBA
Tool – TBA
Alter der Ruine – TBA
Rabbit Junk – TBA
Cyanotic – Worst Case Scenario
Manic Street Preachers – TBA
Be My Enemy – TBA
The Horrors – TBA
Grimes – TBA
Legend – TBA
kidneythieves – TBA
Stromkern – TBA
Method Cell – TBA
The Gothsicles – TBA
Prometheus Burning – TBA
Komor Kommando – TBA
Will Haven – TBA
Radiohead – TBA
Paresis – TBA
Concrete Lung – TBA