Chemlab! You Pussy Mother#uckers!

Discussion
23

[reply]alongside gravity kills but nowhere near minstry/nin class

Gravity Kills were just another one of those NIN clones, not even industrial AT ALL. One of the worst bands in the fake industrial catagory alongside Manson and shit. I rather listen to Fall Out Boy.[/reply]

So were Chemlab “Industrial”? All I see when I watch this video is a fucking loser thinking he’s Neo from the Matrix with a lightsaber doing awful electro rock. So fucking lame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbiquylYyfY

This shit is nowhere near the league of an album like ‘The Downward Spiral’ nor is it better than Marilyn Manson.

24

Well, that’s just a florescent tube, not a lightsaber.
And that song/video came out a good 6 or 7 years before The Matrix.

25

It’s still incredibly lame. I saw that video when I was 17 on some “Goth” video compilation which also contained Throbbing Gristle, Einsturzende Neubauten and other real Industrial acts.

Even then I knew the old timers were awesome and this Chemlab synth rock was pure cheese in a leather trench coat.

Some acts (Skinny Puppy, Ministry) don’t break through to the mainstream because their sound is inherently too abrasive or experimental. Some (Chemlab) just suck.

26

Well, that’s just a florescent tube, not a lightsaber.
And that song/video came out a good 6 or 7 years before The Matrix.

lol, he called it a lightsaber. Fuck yeah its a lightsaber, cos Jared is a Jedi Master. Man, voidhead came down hard on Chemlab ohhh weeee!, i respect your opinion sir, but i still think your dead wrong. When you said theyre not in the same league as manson… that was the cherry on top (ROFL). [:P]

28

@voidhead

Hey what is the name of that compilation you were talking about, you said it had Throbbing Gristle, Neubauten and CHEMLAB. I’m actually kinda interested in buying that, sounds good.

29

Used to have that old Chemlab shirt. I liked the “Burnout” album back in the day, re-listened to it a few years back though and was totally unmoved. They were also quite bad when I saw them live as the incredibly out of place opening act for Gwar’s 96 tour.

Anywhooo, I was always more of a 16volt fan myself, but in retrospect after their first album they weren’t so hot either.

30

@voidhead

Hey what is the name of that compilation you were talking about, you said it had Throbbing Gristle, Neubauten and CHEMLAB. I’m actually kinda interested in buying that, sounds good.

A quick search on discogs.com came up with this…

http://www.discogs.com/release/815275

Most of these videos are also on the Cleopatra Industrial Revolution vhs from several years earlier which is where I remember this particular Chemlab video from.

31

Most of these videos are also on the Cleopatra Industrial Revolution vhs from several years earlier which is where I remember this particular Chemlab video from.

I posted a rip of that vhs to dvd if anybody wants to host it for you again. Hell, I still haven’t gotten around to helping killface out! I’m so lazy!
Late,
grmpysmrf

32

So were Chemlab “Industrial”? All I see when I watch this video is a fucking loser thinking he’s Neo from the Matrix with a lightsaber doing awful electro rock. So fucking lame:

I’ll second that. All of those second (or is it third?) wave of ‘nuIndustrial’ bands in the mid nineties were hideous. Just fucking embarrassing. Bunch o’ junkie dimwits with synthesisers, leather jackets and delusions of grandeur.

What was that other band from that era I hated?..oh yeah…Skrew. Now they were terrible. TERRIBLE! Then there was Prick, KMFDM, Filter, Wumpscut, Pig…the list goes on.

Every bit as bad as ‘emo’ ever was/will be.

“Look at me everybody!! - I just read Neuromancer, listened to Front 242 and Cabaret Voltaire and shopped at a trendy Goth clothing boutique. I got the hairstyle, the attitude, the fishnet singlet and the heroin addiction to make it big in this town. My lyrics about social disintegration and the oncoming apocalyse as well as my samples ripped straight from The Road Warrior will have goth rock babes the world over eating out of my hand…not to mention my crotch.”

34

I agree with both peligro and carmangry, yes peligro i know the 90’s were full of shitty industrial rock bands, but Chemlab were one of the few good bands. And carmangry, if by ebm you mean trancy futurepop stuff then yea, i find it to be annoying, it was alright but its getting old.

35

What was that other band from that era I hated?..oh yeah…Skrew. Now they were terrible. TERRIBLE! Then there was Prick, KMFDM, Filter, Wumpscut, Pig…the list goes on.

That’s actually a pretty diverse list you’ve got there. Filter was a rock band with a sequencer playing way in the back of the mix. They only ever got listed with industrial bands because Richard Patrick used to play with NIN.

Wumpscut is nothing like any of those guys - he came from the tradition of hard, dark, European ebm. A disciple of Leaether Strip, not pop/rock industrial at all.

36

Out of the more obscure 90’s stuff, Die Krupps and Unit 187 were pretty good. There was always mainstream wannabe crap though. Remember Orgy ? I rest my case :slight_smile:

37

Industrial was coolest before it got the labeled “Industrial”.

No, Industrial was cool when it meant the music of people like Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, SPK, Laibach, Einsturzende Neubauten etc.

Then people like the posters here started thinking they were elite calling stuff like Chemlab and other shitty sequencer rock garbage “the real Industrial” and NIN/Manson posers because they “sold out”

It’s tough for many of you because you were around in the “glory days” and many of you instinctively oppose anything “mainstream”

Being too young to see any of this in its “heyday”, and not holding animosity towards anything that is commercially successful on a huge level, I think I have more of a critical vantage point.

Acts like NIN, Marilyn Manson, even Orgy for their first album were commercially successful because they made good Industrial Rock music with strong hooks and actually had talent.

The little guys like Chemlab were overlooked because they did not have the talent, originality or charisma of the mainstream acts, not because what they were doing was too “experimental” (it wasn’t) or “unique” (it wasn’t) for the masses to “understand” (they got it…they just knew it sucked).

Bands that are continuing in the Industrial tradition of Throbbing Gristle etc. are alive and well today in the thriving Noise scene (Wolf Eyes, Sightings, Prurient to name a few). And those of you bemoaning the “good old days” are mostly just full of shit. You never liked true Industrial to begin with. You liked bands that took the sounds of TG etc. and implemented them in a more traditional context with heavy metal or rock riffs (Ministry, KMFDM, Die Krupps, Fear Factory, Godflesh etc. etc.) or dance beats (Skinny Puppy, Wumpscutt, Front Line Assembly, Front 242 etc.)

That doesn’t make the “Second Wave” any less cool or enjoyable, it just makes it not this elite secret club you think you belong to that was “ruined” when journalists (and not the bands themselves) started calling stuff like NIN “Industrial” and you were all in a huff about it because “bands like KMFDM were the real Industrial”.

EDIT: The DVD I was referring to was ‘Gothic Industrial Madness’ from Cleopatra.

38

Orgy weren’t successful because they were GOOD.
They were successful because they covered a popular '80s song and made it XTREME!!!

39

I’m actually a big fan of true industrial, i know the roots of industrial. I grew up around a rock environment which is why i’m a fan of industrial rock. Oh and thanks ChemicalMeat & voidhead, Gothic Industrial Madness is full of good industrial. I bought a copy this morning.

40

Orgy weren’t successful because they were GOOD.
They were successful because they covered a popular '80s song and made it XTREME!!!

Orgy had multiple singles from both their first and second album that were moderately successful. The first album ‘Candyass’ has some really good drum programming and is a good Industrial Rock album.

Jay Gordon actually had a good voice compared to most Industrial Rock front men.

41

I disagree with pig being a bad artist… his cds are all amazing, as far as I’ve heard.

Orgy did have a good single on their second cd… something called like “dreams in digital”
bitching about what bands are “true industrial” after the initial first round bands is as pointless as trying to figure out what “true country” music is

42

Its pointless to bash a bunch of irrelevant 90’s industrial rock bands, cause everyone here knows that most of them suck, there are only a handfull that matter. The use of the guitar shouldnt automatically make it fake industrial. The ones that should get bashed are the ones that truly suck, as well as the knockoff wannabe’s. If you happen to think Chemlab is among the ones who suck, i’m fine with that.

43

bitching about what bands are “true industrial” after the initial first round bands is as pointless as trying to figure out what “true country” music is

I don’t think people were ‘bitching’ about these bands because they’re not ‘true industrial’ - moreso because they’re (in many cases) subpar acts who seemed to spring up from nowhere and were happy to ride the crest of the popularity wave that bands like NIN, Ministry and Front 242 created in the late '80s.

Do you honestly think that bands like Chemlab would have made a name for themselves otherwise? Their music is derivative and childish.

But I suppose to each his own as they say.

44

Yes i know about the “wave” NIN and Ministry created, i dont give a shit about that. What i’m saying is Chemlab were one of the few in that wave that were good enouph and deserved to be alongside NIN and Ministry. But some dont seem to agree, and thats cool, I’m just saying… i dont need a lesson in industrial rock history. Say what u want about 'em, just dont list a crap load of electro rock bands and compare them to Chemlab, cause honestly, none of them sound a thing like Chemlab.