100,000 scrobbles!

That means I’ve listened to at least that many songs since I started recording my listening history in 20081.

Let’s have a look at my top Artists, Albums, and Tracks. 2 3

Artists

  1. Klayton (Celldweller, Circle of Dust, Argyle Park, Criss Angel, Ap2, Brainchild and more) (3500+ plays): a talented multi-instrumentalist with a variety of excellent industrial-adjacent projects.
  2. Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly, Delerium, Fear Factory, Noise Unit, Rhys Fulber and more) (2700): multi-genre electronic musician, producer, and remixer.
  3. August Burns Red (1500): technical metalcore from Manheim, PA
  4. In the Midst of Lions (1300): most-likely my introduction to deathcore, and still one of my faves
  5. For Today (1200): unrelenting metalcore with a message
  6. Nine Inch Nails (1100): what could I say that you don’t already know?
  7. KMFDM (1100): the industrial rock giants
  8. Haste The Day (1000): local metalcore with some boppy anthems
  9. Opeth (1000): progressive death metal and prog rock
  10. Juno Reactor (900): genre-bending psytrance that you may know from Matrix soundtracks

Together, these top artists still only account for roughly 15% of my listening. Check “artists” on my profile if you want to see more of the others.

Albums

  1. In the Midst of Lions - The Heart of Man: I listened to this over and over when I commuted downtown 1 or 2 times a week. You can still catch me or my spouse belting out an epic growl of “Brood of Vipers!” from The Pharisaic Heart.
  2. For Today - Breaker: Energetic & hard-hitting without a dud on the entire album.
  3. The Crimson Armada - Conviction: Technical deathcore with choruses that beg you to sing along.
  4. August Burns Red - Constellations: This was the album that got me hooked on ABR.
  5. Broken Note - Terminal Static: Grimy industrial dubs. One of many groundbreaking breakcore-ish albums from the Ad Noiseam label.
  6. Zao - Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest: Not only one of my top-listened albums, but surely one of the best, as well. Incredible genre-defining metalcore. I even have the album cover as art.
  7. Katatonia - Dethroned & Uncrowned: The clever title for this soft4 version of their Dead End Kings album alone makes it worth a listen, but I find myself melancholically singing along to almost every track.
  8. DJ Hidden - The Later After: Threatening atmospheric drum & bass, darkstep. Another of the groundbreaking breakcore-ish albums from the Ad Noiseam label.
  9. Celldweller - Wish Upon A Blackstar: This is the moment Klayton hit his stride in creating albums as complete concepts.
  10. Flesh Field - Strain: To me, this is the most iconic sound of the “core” of industrial music. I really appreciate the drums, programming, and contrasting voices in this album.

Edit: I made a glaring omission! The next album would have come in #3 if I had included the different editions as one.

Argyle Park - Misguided: this was a super-controversial, way-ahead-of-its time album. It included people from Klayton’s musical circles, including his common collaborators (lvl, buka, Klank); Mark Salomon (of Stavesacre, the Crucified, Chatterbox, etc.); and others in the scene like Jyro (Mortal), J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus), Tommy Victor (Prong), and Lauren Boquette (Drown, Six). It’s a one-of-a-kind album.

Tracks

  1. In the Midst of Lions - The Machine: I dare you to listen to this an never let out your own “stop…the machine!”
  2. For Today - Devastator: Same as above, but with “tear it to the ground!”
  3. Igorrr - Double Monk: This was one of those songs that threatened my understanding of a what a “song” could be (Igorrr has a way of doing that). This is one of those few songs that I’ve put on a single-song loop. Also, from another of the groundbreaking breakcore-ish albums from the Ad Noiseam label.
  4. The Crimson Armada - Juggernaut: I love all the contrasting vocal and instrumental elements that make the story of this song work so well. “You can rip out my tongue / And I’ll speak of His love. / You can pry out my eyes / And I’ll show off His love / You can tear off my flesh / I’ll share the warmth of his love”.
  5. August Burns Red - White Washed: I just love the sound of this one, honestly. (I think it may be about an argument between them and a straightedge band.)
  6. Broken Note - Mask of Gas: this track feels like a industrial warehouse dance-off with electronic and hip-hop groups.
  7. Living Sacrifice - Bloodwork: this is from my favorite era of LS. Two percussionists. The guitars were percussion. The vocals were percussion. Everything was percussion! What a fun track and album.
  8. Drumcorps - Down: Like Igorrr’s track above, this was one of those songs that threatened my understanding of a what a “song” could be (and is yet another from a groundbreaking breakcore-ish album from the Ad Noiseam label).
  9. Haste The Day - When Everything Falls: remember when I said that this metalcore band had some boppy anthems? (also, it’s a great way to end a show/concert/festival. e.g.)
  10. Flobots - Stand Up: This was one of the tracks that introduced me to the social, lyrical, and musical depth of Flobots.

Your Turn

Tell me about your faves? What should I be loading up in my Plex to play next?


  1. There was a gap in recording centered around 2018 when I was having trouble scrobbling from Google Play Music. This was before Google killed that incredible service in favor of the far-inferior-but-cheaper-payouts-to-artists service YouTube Music. ↩︎

  2. “top” doesn’t necessarily mean “best” because, for example, it will favor prolific artists and music that’s been around longer. But it does mean they are things that I have repeatedly listened to and enjoy. ↩︎

  3. I’ll take a couple liberties that Last.fm doesn’t, like merging together musical acts related to the same musician or group, as well as only showing you the top album or track per artist (without repeats). ↩︎

  4. It’s like an acoustic version, but it’s not exactly “acoustic” either. ↩︎