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The Best Industrial / Cyber / Electronic Metal Album - Metal Storm Awards 2023
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1.  Godflesh - Purge 95
2.  Mesarthim - Arrival 57
3.  Health - Rat Wars 54
4.  Abstract Void - Forever 40
5.  Turmion Kätilöt - Omen X 39
6.  Fange - Privation 27
7.  Neo Inferno 262 - Pleonectic 13
8.  Madre - Embryo 12
9.  JAAW - Supercluster 11
  Djinn-Ghül - Opulence 11
Total votes:
391



Abstract Void - Forever

With classic synth leads, straight grooves, and, well, “abstract” screams, Abstract Void leads you on a journey through the borderland between synthwave and atmospheric black. If you’re a fan of, for example, Perturbator or Hollywood Burns, but also like black metal, you’ll feel right at home here in a mix that you’ll wonder why there’s not more of around. It opens with an atmospheric piece and then moves forward into the title track’s pummeling blast beats and soaring synth leads that sound as '80s as they sound 2020s in their contrast between modern and nostalgic. Forever is a great, fun, and captivating work that surely deserves more attention from the community at large, so be sure to check it out.

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album playlist)

Djinn-Ghül - Opulence

Djinn-Ghül bells, Djinn-Ghül bells, Djinn-Ghül all the way / Oh, what fun it is to ride on a chugging open A / Hey!

Okay, the holiday season's over already. And even if the ceaseless rotation of the Earth had not taken care of that already, Djinn-Ghül certainly would put an end to the revelry themselves: Opulence is a short, sharp shock of deathcore that slams so mercilessly it feels like listening to an orbital bombardment. And not just deathcore: Djinn-Ghül have adopted the precision and groove of industrial metal titans and woven in electronics to generate a sound as noisy and harsh, and yet atmospheric and haunting, as it is brutal and belligerent. Opulence goes beyond the mere flirtation with electronic elements that other deathcore bands have attempted in the past, advancing into a real fusion of the styles (and a concomitant diffusion of neck vertebrae).

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album stream)

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Fange - Privation

For a band that's no stranger to the MSAs and whose albums have been nominated in at least two other categories, it's interesting that Fange seem to have finally decided to settle more in the industrial area. But the thing is that Fange never stopped being hardcore punk and Fange never stopped being sludge, so what Privation ends up having is crushing sludge riffs and punk vitriol in the vocals, but with pulsating electronics and cold mechanical percussion, a slight touch of post-metal, and darkwave in its atmosphere and melodies, all meticulously manipulated to create an experience both pummeling and pensive.

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album stream)

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Godflesh - Purge

There are very few industrial bands that go back to the '80s that aren't just heavier EBM/industrial, and Streetcleaner is still the definitive industrial metal album. But Godflesh remain vital even after 35 years as a band (40 if you count Fall Of Because) and Purge does more than just rest on its laurels for being a Godflesh album. The sludgy heaviness of the riffs gets supplemented by a lot more hip-hop percussion and various types of EDM, mostly of the techno, dub, breakbeat, and drum & bass variety, to create something both futuristic and alienating in its oppressive ambiance. Perhaps nothing that hasn't been tried and tested in Justin Broadrick's huge catalogue already, but a late-career triumph nonetheless.

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album playlist)

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Health - Rat Wars

Perhaps less of an industrial metal band and more of a electro-industrial band that's heavy enough and consciously appeals to metalheads, Health does deliver its most metal album with Rat Wars. Though specific songs from their collaborative series might be even more metal than Rat Wars's heaviest moments, rarely has a Health album used distorted electric guitars in its soundtrack and left so much heaviness in its mix even in its electronica-only moments. Rat Wars comes complete with songs like "Crack Metal" and "Children Of Sorrow" having some guitars and/or drumming that wouldn't be far off from what you'd hear in a metal song, and a song that samples fellow nominee Godflesh.

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album playlist)

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JAAW - Supercluster

JAAW is a new supergroup formed by members of Therapy?, Petbrick, and Twin Sister, and what they play is an even noisier and more industrial kind of noise rock. Having an actual producer as a member of the band means that the production is an even more integrated part of the songwriting, with noise and electronics working to gel the elements and enhance the atmosphere. Supercluster is full of in-your-face bangers, slower, sludgier bits, long-form atmospheric pieces, and touches of shoegaze-y alt metal, and all of it culminates in a drum-and-bass-infested cover of Björk's "Army Of Me".

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album playlist)

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Madre - Embryo

Embryo is not your momma’s catchy industrial metal. It's an abrasive, provoking, and noisy piece of music that's out to share its hostile feelings with you. The kick drums have a bassy, electronic thud to them, but the rhythms and tempos keep changing, enveloping you in a decidedly non-danceable way that burrows itself into your brain. Production tricks such as glitchy noise and heavy reverb furthermore serve to make Madre’s debut impenetrable yet highly memorable… if you can call offbeat rhythms descending into pure cacophonous chaos memorable, that is. Embryo is made further abrasive by the distorted screams anchoring every song to even more insanity, and it all sounds like a doomsday machine infected by a particularly nasty strain of ransomware virus (that nobody is planning to pay off anytime soon). In other words, it's a great piece of industrial metal and a promising debut you'd be remiss not to check out.

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album stream)

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Mesarthim - Arrival

What’s the interstellar equivalent of dungeon synth? Orbital correctional institution synth? Lunar penal colony synth? Whatever it is, it has plenty of precedent in what Mesarthim has been doing for ages: transporting black metal into space, and not just for pure, pillowy ambiance, not just to take that fateful frost all the way down to vacuum temperatures, but to find a genuine medium between synths and shrieks where the two halves can complement each other and evolve. Arrival is a solid intro to Mesarthim, showing off that long-practiced ability to fuse electronics and metal to achieve new dimensions of atmosphere. Synthesizers are for more than just a chilly backdrop: they can really strengthen the melodic range and emotional palette of an album when used properly, and Mesarthim have enough respect for their craft to hammer down the very best convergences between wistful black metal and future-chic humming.

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album stream)

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Neo Inferno 262 - Pleonectic

After a whopping 15 years since their debut Hacking The Holy Code, the French industrial black metal outfit Neo Inferno 262, led by mastermind A.K. (Merrimack, Decline Of The I), have finally presented their sophomore album. Featuring a lineup of renowned guests from the European black metal scene, Pleonectic showcases a menacing blend of atmo-black, industrial, dissonant black metal, trap, and ambient. It offers the extraordinary experience of an involuntary one-way trip into a post-apocalyptic limbo, where ultra-heavy guitars, dynamic bass, intense electronic elements, unsettling samples, and AI-generated soundscapes are not just musical instruments, but soulless, computer-operated instruments of torture. In this world governed by machines, human life only has two states: 1 or 0. In both cases, it is worthless and dispensable.The production quality of Pleonectic is notably high, a rarity in this genre, and each of its nine tracks surprises anew because absolutely nothing about it is predictable, requiring many listens to explore its depths even remotely. In any case, the return of Neo Inferno 262 is a significant contribution to the industrial black metal genre, as the band has retained its distinctive sound while simultaneously evolving - not just in one direction, but in many.

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album stream)

Turmion Kätilöt - Omen X

The crazy, disco-loving Finns in Turmion Kätilöt are back with their tenth serving of fun, danceable, yet black metal-infused electronic metal, and it's a riot. Ever since acquiring a new vocalist, this band has been on a winning streak that doesn't in any way break on Omen X. Not-so-subtle '90s Eurodisco hooks blend together with chugging, industrial riffs and loud, straightforward drums to create a soundscape that sounds just like a party you had a little too much fun at and kind of regret going to the day after. “Totuus” will get you up and moving with its loud disco thuds, the synth hooks on “Gabriel” will worm their way into your brain, and it only gets better from there. Omen X is the sound of a band that knows exactly what it wants to do, that does it very well, and that keeps riding its wave of revitalisation that it started two albums ago.

YouTube (full album stream)

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