On December 9th, the first Circle of Dust album in nearly 20 years, Machines of Our Disgrace, will be released. Artist/producer Klayton, who may be best-known for his work in post-Circle of Dust project Celldweller, will release CoD’s first album since 1998’s Disengage on his own FiXT label. The album returns to the act’s industrial roots, welding electronic music with metal elements. In honor of the Circle of Dust’s return, we asked Klayton what his favorite industrial albums were.

5) Skinny Puppy, Too Dark Park

https://youtu.be/bPyQc6xJyZg
Seeing this tour blew my mind. This album was electronic with barely a guitar to be found, yet I saw more bloody bodies coming out of the pit than I’d see at a local New York metal show. The perfect amount of darkness, grit and melody.

4) Front 242, Front by Front

https://youtu.be/EVe2Atu6WmM
Great synth sounds and aggressive vocals had me hooked on this album. I was looking for electronic music that still had balls, and this was it.

3) Front Line Assembly, Caustic Grip

So much great sound design and hard-hitting beats all over this album. It personified “Cyberpunk” to me in the early 90s when I got this album.

2) Nitzer Ebb, Belief

Another album rife with riffs, but synthesizer riffs, not guitars. It was refreshing and that along with vocal hooks made this a perfect album for me.

1) Ministry, Twitch

The closest thing to having modern guitars in industrial music at the time. So dark and aggressive even when it was a sampled bassline creating the groove.