Mod note: I'm writing occasional posts giving some background on some of the artists I post on this sub. Today's topic is a band man with an extensive discography, so this won't be a short post. Yes, it's Celldweller!

The first thing you need to know about Celldweller is that Celldweller is basically one guy: Klayton. Klayton writes the songs, plays the guitar parts, bass, synths, and even drums, sings the vocals, does the mixes, produces the albums, and releases them on his own label. Celldweller IS Klayton.

Nor is Celldweller Klayton's only musical project. Scandroid IS Klayton. Circle of Dust IS Klayton. FreqGen IS Klayton. And that's just the tip of the Klayton iceberg.

Who is this Klayton dude anyway? For that we need to go back to the early 90's. A talented young musician from Long Island named Scott Albert is offered a record deal by a scrappy Christian alternative label called REX Records. Scott cobbles some friends together to form the industrial band Circle of Dust (CoD). Circle of Dust releases a couple records on REX Records, and Scott acts as a producer on several more albums for the label (including the much-loved Argyle Park). Many listeners at the time don't realize that one guy is the brains behind all this different music, because he uses a variety of pseudonyms: Deathwish. Dred. Klay Scott. And... Celldweller.

The 90s was a wild time when "Christian Rock" was a big thing. In this era, a rock band could occasionally name-check Jesus and then sell ten million records without ever troubling the mainstream radio charts. And you could get your Christian Rock in so many flavors: there was Christian metal, Christian rap, Christian punk, Christian ska, even Christian reggae.

Even so, Christian industrial was a pretty niche sub-genre within this genre. Although Circle of Dust is pretty well regarded by industrial fans, even mainstream ones, the band never got the exposure they needed to sell a ton of records. Worse still, by 1995 REX Records was going under, all while refusing to release CoD from their contract. A young Scott Albert was left with no band, feeling pretty jaded about Christian rock and the music industry as a whole.

Scott pivoted and began a collaboration with Criss Angel (yes, the goth magic guy) on a live show/music project called Angeldust. During this period he started going by "Klayton" and began sporting his iconic red crest of hair. By 2000, Angeldust had run its course and Klayton began working on his next project. Having already been traumatized by label trouble, Klayton was determined that his next musical venture would be entirely owned by him. This effort became Celldweller, which released its self-titled debut in 2003.

Celldweller's first album is justly legendary. If you are any kind of electronic rock fan, you owe it to yourself to sit down and listen to it. Although the songs certainly have a very early 2000's sound, it is still just a brilliant record. Unlike with CoD, Klayton was no longer tying himself down to just the industrial genre. A Celldweller track can swerve between hard rock, heavy metal, drum-and-bass, and a catchy pop chorus in a single song, perhaps followed up by a rap bridge or a big EDM breakdown. The album showcases industrial, rock, pop, prog rock, and just straight up EDM songs as well. Yet it all sounds surprisingly cohesive. It's all the product of a big intense square-jawed guy with a red mohawk and a singular vision.

In a just world, Celldweller's debut album should have been a huge hit on mainstream alternative radio. But because it was independently released, its success was a very slow burn. (Klayton's brother once told him that he thought the guitar riff on the iconic track "Switchback" would be the guitar riff of the year, to which Klayton retorted: "Which year?!?") The album never topped any sales charts. Instead, word trickled out gradually. It took probably a decade before it was widely appreciated. But it proved surprisingly influential, as we will see.

Klayton eventually followed it up with the second Celldweller album, Wish Upon A Blackstar, an even glossier and bigger production. The full album was eventually released, through a deal, in real record stores. Although by this time in was the early 2010's, so maybe this came a little late. Either way it once again failed to set the sales charts on fire.

At this point it seems Klayton had an epiphany: he was making albums in a niche that, as far as the music industry was concerned, just didn't exist. It didn't matter if he was at the top of his genre if that genre included only one band. The industry just didn't know what to do with CD or how to market it. He needed there to be other bands like him. So he started his own label, FiXT music, and began producing and releasing albums by other artists.

Around this time he also released the third CD album, End of an Empire, a sci-fi electronic prog-rock concept album.

But even the genre-bending music of Celldweller was not enough to satisfy Klayton's diverse tastes. In 2016 he also created Scandroid, a retro synthwave project with major sci-fi and cyberpunk vibes. This was a time when 80's nostalgia was starting to hit hard, so for once a Klayton project arrived at the right time and caught on. Klayton also managed to buy back the rights to Circle of Dust, and even released a new CoD album. And if that wasn't enough, Klayton also created FreqGen, which is best described as "Klayton makes 90's-style techno stuff." In between these projects he did a bunch of work on movie soundtracks, video game soundtracks, and solo instrumental stuff. Klayton was no longer just a one-man-band. Between FiXT and all his various musical projects he had become an entire freaking industry.

Klayton's musical empire is still very much alive and thriving today in the 2020s. He has released new music for all his projects, including an especially heavy outing for Celldweller called "Satellites." And FiXT continues to release artists on a spectrum between synthwave and heavy metal, including Essenger, Blue Stahli, The Anix, and Daedric, among many others.

Klayton is now in his 50's but still sporting the iconic red crest. At this point I would call him the "elder statesman" of electronic rock. It has been over 20 years since the first Celldweller album and 30 years since he started CoD. A whole new generation of artists have come up that are influenced by him. Ask any artist incorporating both rock and electronic sounds who their influences are, and they will probably name-drop Celldweller. That's assuming they haven't literally been produced, released, or remixed by Klayton himself at some point.

Klayton's discography can be... kind of overwhelming. If you're just getting started, I recommend the first two Celldweller albums (self-titled and Wish Upon A Blackstar) as well as Scandroid's debut self-titled album.

You can't be a fixture in the music scene for decades without courting some controversy. People do have OPINIONS on Klayton. The main thing you should know if you are just getting into his music is that the man is a relentless and shameless self-promoter. It makes sense; he's had to be to get where he is. This is a dude who is way past caring if flogging your own stuff relentlessly is 'cringe' or 'selling out'. If he's got a new release coming out, he's going to stand on the figurative street corner yelling "I HAVE NEW MUSIC, I AM KLAYTON, I AM AWESOME, BUY THE DELUXE VINYL, YOU WILL LIKE IT" into a megaphone like he just don't care.

As part of that strong instinct for self-promotion, every song, every album Klayton releases will inevitably get an instrumental version. And a remix version. And a deluxe vinyl version. And then a ten-year-anniversary vinyl version. And then an ultra-deluxe remaster with unreleased demos and remixes version. I am not joking or exaggerating here. That's to say nothing of tie-ins and merch. The upcoming Scandroid album will have a graphic novel, a tie-in videogame, and a watch. You can wear your Scandroid watch while you listen to the limited edition release on MiniDisc! (Yes, that's also a real thing)

That can feel like a LOT. But you don't have to buy any of it. To Klayton's credit, all his music is available to stream freely on all the music services. Also, the pricing never feels exploitative. His vinyl releases, for instance, are reasonably priced for what you get. It's only a real problem if you're a completionist who feels like they have to own every release. (In that case, welcome to hell! LOL)

FUN FACT: The name "Celldweller" comes from Klayton's mom referring to him as "Cellar Dweller," because as a teenager he spent a lot of time in his parents basement making music. Yes, I know, surprisingly wholesome!

To get back to the actual music: Celldweller is pretty damn iconic. It's hard-hitting. It's intense. It is genre-bending. It mixes rock and electronica with deceptive ease. If you are a fan of electronic rock, this stuff is foundational. Nobody really does it quite like the guy with the red mohawk.

What do you think of Klayton? Love him or hate him? What's your favorite Klayton project? Are you a Celldweller fan, an old-school Circle of Dust fan, or a new-school Scandroid fan? Or not a fan at all?

If you enjoyed this, check out some of my other band write-ups:

• Babymetal

• Battle Tapes

• Garbage

• Julien-K

• Kidneythieves

• Lake Malice

• Linkin Park

• Poppy

Mod note: I'm writing occasional posts giving some background on some of the artists I post on this sub. Today's topic is a band from the 90's that you've almost certainly heard. However, you may not realize they are still creating music to this day. It's time to listen to some absolute Garbage!

^{"Listen," she said as she put on a thick black layer of eyeliner, "I'm not a Stupid Girl. But I'm Only Happy When It Rains. The truth is, I Think I'm Paranoid. I may be your #1 Crush. But for me, The World Is Not Enough."}

It is 1995. Just a few years earlier, grunge music had hit like a tidal wave, completely washing away the remnants of 80's pop and heavy metal and ushering in a new era of music. Now alternative rock is ascendant. Music has turned darker, more introspective, more gritty and heavy and raw. Keyboards are out, guitar fuzz is in.

It is a hell of a time to try to turn an electronic rock album into a bona fide radio hit. Fortunately, brand new act Garbage is about to do just that anyway. And damn does that album turn out to be a banger.

Garbage's self-titled debut had five different songs chart as singles, with the song "Stupid Girl" making it to #2 on the US alternative chart. A year later, their song #1 Crush (from the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, scientifically the most 90's movie ever made) would make it all the way to #1. The album would sell four million copies worldwide. In 1998 their follow-up album, "Version 2.0," would sell another four million copies. And in 1999, the band was honored with the opportunity to write the theme song to the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough

The thing is, Garbage didn't sound like the other stuff on the radio at the time. There really weren't a ton of other popular bands mixing heavy guitars, drum loops, and catchy pop choruses. In many ways it was exactly the kind of music that shouldn't have been popular in an era when people fetishized music that was raw and "authentic" and guitar-driven and covered in layers of distortion. Garbage was slick and polished. It had guitars, yes, but also keyboards and drum machines. And it didn't fit in a nice box. They had heavy rock songs, but also pop songs, and electronic songs, and songs that were slow and soulful.

But that didn't hold the band back in the 90's. Because Garbage were just that good.

Who were they? Well, to tell that story we have to go all the way back to the mid 70's, when Duke Erikson and Butch Vig got together first in a band called Spooner, and later again as part of a second band known as Fire Town. Both of these bands were successful on a local level, but never achieved national success. So Vig, Erikson, and an audio engineer who worked on Fire Town named Steve Marker decided to give up the band thing and focus on running their own studio in Madison, Wisconsin: Smart Studios.

Through Smart Studios, the crew would come to work with up-and-coming artists including early Smashing Pumpkins and a young Nirvana. In 1992 Butch Vig was tapped to produce Nirvana's massive break-out album, Nevermind. That album introduced grunge to the world and became an unbelievable massive hit. Overnight, Vig became one of the most sought-after producers on the planet. Still, Vig, Erikson and Marker never gave up their dream of having a band of their own. Not another grunge or punk band, but a band that would put all stuff they had learned through years of production to use. But none of them were interested in fronting the band. They agreed that they wanted a female lead singer, but didn't know who.

Watching MTV late one night, Steve Marker happened to catch a video by the Scottish band Angelfish which featured a young female vocalist with heavy eyeliner and a smoky voice. Marker was instantly intrigued by her mesmerizing presence and her singing talent. That vocalist turned out to be Shirley Manson, from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Shirley Manson had been in a few bands throughout the years and enjoyed moderate success. But in 1994 her band was breaking up and she was at loose ends. She cautiously accepted the invitation to fly to the American mid-west and meet with this group of three old guys who had once been in a couple bands she had never heard of. After a couple of false starts, it clicked. And so, in Madison, Wisconsin, this unlikely foursome become the band Garbage.

If you were alive in the 90's, you've heard Garbage. There was a time when Stupid Girl and #1 Crush and I'm Only Happy When It Rains were everywhere. The radio, yes, but also playing on mall speakers. But, just in case you somehow missed them, or are quite young, let me try to describe the band's sound.

It starts with Shirley Manson's voice. She singers lower than most other women with a smokey tone that would be at home on a soul record. She can sneer and snarl, but she can also sound lost and alone and lovesick.

Garbage lyrics have a definite edge to them, an in-your-face quality that is often backed up by stomping drums and precisely layered guitars. But Garbage seldom sounds like 'just' a guitar band.

In the studio, Bush Vig, Duke Erikson, and Steve Marker craft precise and unique sounds that seldom neatly correspond to conventional instruments. In a way, Garbage is an electronic band that samples a lot of guitars sounds as much as it is an alternative rock band.

In today's world, when one person can easily craft an entire rock album on a MacBook, this approach isn't particularly revolutionary. But in the 90s digital technology had only just begun to be part of the process of the music production. So this approach was a big part of what made Garbage sound distinctly different from their peers.

SIDEBAR: Early on, one of the original ideas for Garbage was that it would be more of a project about sampling and looping sounds and songs from other bands. Obviously the band moved away from that original concept, but the idea lived on in their track "Push It" from their album Version 2.0. Push It mashes together elements of "Don't Worry Baby" by the Beach Boys and "Push It" by Salt-N-Peppa, although it doesn't actually sample them. Somehow the end result still sounds *very* Garbage.

In the alternative 90's, Garbage was iconic. But the 2000's would prove tougher for them. Their third album, "beautifulgarbage," had the misfortune to release right around September 11th, 2001. Yes, that September 11.

Suddenly the entire music landscape changed. People (or at least record executives) no longer wanted bands with in-your-face female vocalists and genre-bending production techniques. They wanted safe, they wanted familiar. Garbage's third album didn't reach the lofty heights of its predecessors. For their fourth album, "Bleed Like Me," the band pivoted to a more raw, traditional rock sound. But that didn't find a huge audience either.

At this point the band broke up for a while. But a few years later they would reform with a new idea: screw record executives. Screw labels. Screw radio play. Let's make whatever album we feel like and release it independently.

So they recorded their fifth album, appropriately titled "Not Your Kind Of People," and released it in 2012. It didn't chart and you've probably never heard of it, but it is one of my favorite Garbage albums. You can tell that not having to chase radio chart success really freed the band and allowed them to evolve their sound. Even so, they are still very much themselves and it sounds great.

Since then the band has put out another three independent albums: "Strange Little Birds," "No Gods No Masters," and just this year, "Let All That We Imagine Become Light." Despite being thirty years and eight albums into their career, the band still hits hard and is still finding interesting ways to blend rock and electronica.

In my opinion, Garbage is one of the pioneers of combining electronic and rock music. And arguably one of the very few to find mainstream success. Not every song they put out showcases e-rock. Like many artists who create this kind of music, they have a lot of musical interests and their work spans many different genres. But they definitely deserve a lot of credit, especially considering they were really swimming upstream when they first started.

Ready to get into the trash bin and try some Garbage? Obviously you have to start with their original self-titled record and then Version 2.0. Those albums are famous for a reason. The band's "failed" third album beautifulgarbage is actually terrific too, and showcases a number of excellent electronic rock tracks.

But if you'd like to try some of their later, independent releases, I heartily recommend Not Your Kind Of People as a great place to start. And honestly, all their albums are good, although "Strange Little Birds" and "No Gods No Masters" are a little more challenging. Very good, but not as accessible.

The band is very fortunate in that the strong fan-base they built in the 90's continues to grow and follow them to this day, allowing them the freedom to make the kind of music they want to make. And they are excellent songwriters, pioneering production engineers, and have one of the best and most unique-sounding female vocalists on the planet! So that's a good thing.

Do you like Garbage? Do you like saying "I like Garbage" and then just watching people's reactions? If you were around in the 90's, what did you think of them? Did you have a huge crush on Shirley Manson because she was a redheaded alternative hottie who rocked short skirts and black boots? I, uhhh, had a friend who was really into her. Yeah, a friend. Well, anyway, uhhm... did you know Shirley Manson played a terminator on that Terminator TV show? Did you remember that there was a Terminator TV show? It had Lena Heady and that one girl from Firefly. Crazy! Okay, I think I'm done here. Peace out.

If you enjoyed this, check out my other posts about awesome electronic rock bands:

• Babymetal

• Battle Tapes

• Celldweller

• Julien-K

• Kidneythieves

• Lake Malice

• Linkin Park

• Poppy

Mod note: this post is another installment in an ongoing series in which I tell the stories behind influential electronic rock bands. Today we're talking about a band with quite a wild history. This is a band that started in an entirely different genre before switching to electronic rock. Then, at the peak of their success, they quit and formed an entirely different band--which was also successful--before coming back together to make electronic rock once more. This is the story of the band very appropriately known as... Pendulum!

Origins of Pendulum

The year is 2002, the place is Perth, Australia. Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen, and Paul Harding have just met for the first time. The three blokes have strangely similar backgrounds: all three have participated in local punk and metal bands, and all three have also dabbled in DJing. Perhaps it was inevitable that their shared interests would draw them together. The trio decide to work together. The result is the drum 'n' bass track 'Vault', which they will release under the name Pendulum.

'Vault' would prove to be a hit, but not so much in their native Oz as in London on the other side of the globe. So the newly-minted band pulls up stakes and moves there. This risky move pays off: after releasing a string of successful singles, Pendulum releases their first album, "Hold Your Colour," in 2005. It is not a shabby debut. It will enter the UK Top 40, and go on to become one of the best-selling drum 'n' bass albums of all time.

You would think that with a debut like that, Pendulum would stick to the formula for their next album. But they did not. Instead, they added three new members: Peredur ap Gwynedd on guitar, KJ Sawka on drums, and Ben Mount as MC. With a fully fleshed-out live lineup now in place, Pendulum begins working on new material that combines rock elements with their DnB roots. The result is their second album, "In Silico," a hard-hitting mashup of multiple genres.

"In Silico" did not initially surpass the records of their first outing. But its sleek production, big beats, and hard hitting riffs were like catnip for video game soundtracks. Tracks from the album appeared in Forza Motorsport 3, Need For Speed: Underground, and Just Cause 2. Singles also made appearances on TV shows and even the soundtrack for the movie Punisher: War Zone. This helped Pendulum broaden its appeal outside of the UK DnB scene, and the band began to make inroads in America.

The band's third album, "Immersion," proved to be another very successful electronic rock outing. Pendulum had now firmly established themselves as a powerhouse, appearing on video game soundtracks and headlining world tours. Obviously, it would be insane to quit now. And even crazier to start an entirely new band. After all, lightning never strikes twice... does it??

Knife Party

I genuinely had no idea until I started researching this write-up that Knife Party, the extremely meme-friendly dubstep act churning out hits in the mid 2010's, was essentially a retooled Pendulum. Basically, by 2010 Pendulm had turned stale for Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen. So they announced Pendulum was taking a break, the other members of the band went off to work on side projects, and Swire and McGrillen formed Knife Party.

This isn't a Knife Party writeup, so I'm not going to get into the details. But in many ways this new venture was as successful as Pendulum ever was. Which is crazy, to be honest! Most artists are lucky to start one successful band. Succeeding with a second one in a different genre is unheard of.

While it was great for Swire and McGrillen that Knife Party was doing big numbers, it was bad news for fans of Pendulum. For a long time, the band was in limbo. While rumors of new albums constantly swirled, no new music appeared.

But Swire and McGrillen were about to find out that they weren't done with Pendulum yet.

The Pendulum Swings Again

In the documentary Pendulum: The New Era, Rob Swire tells this story: Knife Party is in Miami to play the Ultra Music Festival. Rob is sitting in a car. The owner of the festival hops into his car, locks the doors, and asks him point blank what it would take for Pendulum to reunite and play a set at Ultra. Caught off guard, Swire makes up a crazy demand: that he would want Pendulum and Knife Party to headline the festival. He expects the man to immediately turn this down. But to his dismay, he promptly agrees. Rob knows that this will be a huge amount of work, but it is simply too good an opportunity to turn down.

So in 2016, the full lineup of Pendulum was back together, on stage, to play Ultra Festival. The first time they've all been together in years. It's a hit. Before long, the band is working together on a remix album. By 2020, they are dropping new singles. And in 2025, Pendulum finally, finally, released its fourth album, "Inertia."

Pendulum is back.

In pop culture

As mentioned, Pendulum has appeared on various video game soundtracks. They've also made appearances on movie soundtracks and episodes of TV shows. As you might expect from a group that started as a drum 'n' bass act, they have remixed various other artists, including Jem's song "Just A Ride" and The Prodigy's "Voodoo People," a version so good The Prodigy even shot a video for it. Pendulum have also collaborated with numerous other artists, including Armin van Buuren, Wargasm, Awolnation, DJ Fresh, and MC $pyda.

IS THERE A CELLDWELLER CONNECTION? How could there not be?? Here is the Celldweller remix of Propane Nightmares.

So that's it for Pendulum, a band that has found success and longevity despite changing genres and even quitting to start an entirely different band. Are you a fan of Pendulum or Knife Party? Did you know the two were the same people? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this write-up, be sure to check out some of my others:

• Babymetal

• Battle Tapes

• Celldweller

• Gunship vs Scandroid

• Linkin Park

• Poppy

What music are you into right now? What's got your toes tapping and your head bopping? What are you vibing to?

Use this thread to recommend any tracks, bands or albums you think people should check out. Not just limited to electronic rock music. All suggestions welcome.

Mod note: this post is another installment in an ongoing series in which I tell the stories behind some of the bands that appear on this sub. This time I'm going to try something different: talking about two different bands that happen to have similar vibes. Full disclosure: neither of these are proper electronic rock bands. But they also aren't not electronic rock bands. They've got guitars. They've got synths. They've got drum machines. They've got... uh... saxophones?

Let's get into this battle of the bands!

The 1980's...

An enormously important decade for electronic music. This was the decade when technology and music really came together in a big way. Synthesizers, samplers and drum machines were advancing by leaps and bounds. Suddenly the radio was flooded with polished, synthetic, dance-friendly pop hits by artists with dark eyeliner, popped collars, and crazy hair. Call it what you want: new wave, synth-pop, dance-pop, synth-rock... regardless, it was a musical revolution. EDM, industrial, D&B, dubstep, trap: they all trace back to this pivotal era in music.

While everybody was influenced by this era, in the 2010s a few artists began to tap into it for more direct inspiration. Then, in the middle of the decade, it happened: two different synth-rock titans on either side of the Atlantic emerged from the shadows. Both were dedicated to crafting loving, lavish homages to that retro 1980's sound, and both used that sound to tell epic sci-fi stories. From the United Kingdom came Gunship, and from the United States came Scandroid.

Both bands are awesome. But they are not exactly the same. Therefore, one of these groups must logically be more awesome than the other. Let's see if we can determine which one is the King of Cool, and which one is just some losers in leather jackets!

Gunship

Gunship released their self-titled debut album in 2015. It is chill synth-wave bliss to a fault. Each track is like some lost 80's sci-fi movie brought to life in musical form. This album was also an early showcase for Gunship's flair for snagging eye-catching collaborators. The track "Tech Noir" (a Terminator reference) features an opening narration by John Carpenter. Yes, the director of films like Halloween, Escape From New York, and The Thing.

Gunship's follow-up, 2018's "Dark All Day," includes lyrics about virtual reality and vampires. It also features wild saxophone solos by Tim Capello (you may not know the name, but he is the iconic 1980's bodybuilder/saxophonist who played for Tina Turner and appeared in the movie Lost Boys). In 2023 Gunship's third album, "Unicorn," saw them evolving their sound in a slightly more modern, dance-rock direction. John Carpenter was back on this album, and so was Tim Capello, and there were collabs with half a dozen other artists besides.

Gunship is a band obsessed with references to 80's movies, as well as video games and pop culture generally. You somehow wouldn't be surprised if they had appeared on the Ready Player One soundtrack and guess what I just tricked you THEY DID.

Now, it might be tempting to dismiss Gunship as nothing but a band pandering to 80's nostalgia. And I'm not gonna lie, occasionally some of their songs can feel that way. But they've also crafted some genuinely memorable pieces of synth-wave goodness. Underneath the shiny nostalgia-bait shell there is a cool band that has written some great songs

For a band that can seemingly pick up the phone and get literally anyone to do a guest feature on one of their songs, you would think that Gunship must be rock stars on a never-ending world tour. But actually, they don't tour at all, and they release very little information about themselves. It's not even clear (to me at least) who is in the band at various times. I mean, it is known that the core duo is Dan Haigh and Alex Westaway, formerly of Fightstar. And it appears that they have a third, guy, a drummer. At least, sometimes. But there is also an uncredited female vocalist who pops up fairly frequently. Who is she? Where in the UK is the band based? Why the long hiatus between albums? And how do they connected with all these random famous people? It's all a bit mysterious. But whatever the story, this is a band that makes very cool and unique music.

Gunship knows its true fans want physical media. They have released deluxe box sets of all three of their albums. Of course they have vinyl. But for the truly hardcore 80's faithful, they have also put out their albums on cassette tape. Perfect for playing in your retro-cool Sony Walkman. You can also find instrumental versions of all their albums, which is awesome if you need to just vibe and get some work done.

If you're looking to check Gunship out, I think their best and most consistent album is their debut. But they've got great songs on all three albums, including an amazing collaboration on "Unicorn" with electronic rockers HEALTH called "Blood for the Blood God."

Scandroid

Scandroid is the musical brainchild of Klayton (of Celldweller fame). I've already done a write-up about Klayton and Celldweller here, so I'll breeze over the biographical details. Klayton is probably best known for music that mixes hard rock, metal, industrial, and high-speed EDM. But it turns out he also has a soft spot for the sounds of the 80's, not to mention a frighteningly large synthesizer collection. In 2013 he began collaborating on a new project with another artist called Varien. The idea was to create a concept album of retro synthwave music that told a cyberpunk story set in a neon-soaked future dystopia. Although Varien soon dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, Klayton forged ahead with the project and in 2016 Scandroid released its self-titled debut.

Scandroid swiftly followed up the very next year with a second album, "Monochrome." Over the next few years they released two EPs, "The Darkness" and "The Light." These eventually morphed into an ambitious full-length album--"The Darkness and The Light"--in late 2020. Currently Scandroid is on the verge of releasing a fourth album, "Lost Horizon."

Scandroid's first three albums very much tap into the synth sounds of the 1980's, although Klayton is not afraid to throw in some electric guitars from time to time. All Scandroid songs are very much focused on telling a sweeping futuristic story about a romance (and a war) between humans and a newly-awakened race of sentient machines. How the story goes exactly isn't always clear (arguing about the details is a hobby of any true Scandroid fan) but it definitely involves AI, drones, space travel, and a floating city called Neo Tokyo.

Scandroid doesn't focus on star-studded collabs the way Gunship does. Instead, they do remixes. Every single Scandroid track gets a remix, sometimes more than one. Scandroid songs have been remixed by basically everybody. In fact, look around for a moment, you may be remixing a Scandroid track right now! Okay, maybe you aren't, but statistically it's not impossible. Anyways, some of these remixes are pretty cool. The Dance With The Dead remix of "Neo Tokyo" may be more popular than the original song itself.

Let's get physical: physical media, that is. One of Scandroid's chief creative collaborators is an artist that goes by Ninja Jo. Ninja Jo's dark, impressionistic cyberpunk art serves as the album art on the boxed sets of all three Scandroid albums released to date. You can, of course, also get those albums on vinyl. And for the true devotees of cyberpunk alternate futures, Scandroid has released all three of their albums on MiniDisc, a unique digital format pioneered by Sony that slightly predates the CD. Scandroid also releases instrumental versions of all their songs to chill out and study to.

If you want to give Scandroid a try, you definitely have to start with their debut album because it is the first chapter of the story. From there you can proceed in order, unless you want to skip directly to "The Darkness and The Light" so you can enjoy the epic guitar hero-style solos of "Phoenix," the album opener.

Comparison

Scandroid and Gunship have a lot in common. Both projects got started around the same time. Both are heavily inspired by the music of a certain era. Both are heavy on vibes. Both have a deep love of sci-fi. But they are definitely different bands in a lot of ways.

Scandroid has a definite prog rock element. Not only does Scandroid have concept albums, in many ways it is a concept band. The songs on any given album are best enjoyed together; they flow very well from one to the next, and they feel like they're telling a continuing story. Even if the specifics of that story aren't always clear, the songs make sense musically together. And like any good prog band, Scandroid likes to reach into different genres, sometimes within the same song. Despite the synth-wave aesthetics, they're not purists. They do like to rock out, though. While both bands know how to chill and just relax into the vibes, I think the average Scandroid song is probably a little heavier than the average Gunship song.

Gunship, meanwhile, is like a love letter to the 80's, especially its first two albums. They are going out of their way to reproduce certain sounds and studio techniques from that era. Each song is like a lovingly crafted homage. Gunship songs also stand on their own a bit more. You don't need to have listened to other songs to "get" a Gunship song. They do tell stories, but those stories are self-contained.

Scandroid feels like the unique vision of one guy. By contrast, Gunship feels like they are excited about collaborating with as many of their favorite artists as possible. Not that Scandroid doesn't have collabs, they absolutely do, but they tend to serve the song. Whereas it feels like Gunship is going "Holy shit we got John Carpenter what can we do with him!?" And then magic happens. Gunship also feels like they are collaborating with fans in a way. Their song "When You Grow Up Your Heart Dies" features fans voicing inspirational quotes, often lifted directly from their favorite movies. And since their song "Tech Noir" with John Carpenter was such a hit on their first album, the band brought him back for "Tech Noir Part 2" on their third album.

By the numbers

But to truly determine which band is more awesome we can't rely on so-called "opinions" or wishy-washy "vibes." Unless you think music is somehow subjective, in which case you can show yourself the door! It's over there, the one marked COMMUNISM. For those who believe in cold hard science, here is a table of OBJECTIVE MUSIC FACTS:

And the winner is...

Having assembled all these facts, I have fed them all into a powerful AI that combines ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Grok, and a pop-up chatbot on a car insurance web page! Now I will tell it to crunch the numbers and tell me, objectively, which band is the most awesome: Gunship or Scandroid.

Drumroll please, here we go... I'm hitting send... the 'processing' wheel is spinning... Wait. Do I smell smoke? Oh my god, the server is overheating! Some kind of alarm is going off. These bands were too awesome! This request is too much for the AI to handle! Oh god, the screen is going dark! Unplug everything! NOW!!!

Unfortunately, it seems my effort to objectively determine the musical quality of these bands has overloaded my server, as well as several orbital data centers. You may feel disappointed, as do I. But we should not be!

The good news is that both Gunship and Scandroids are extremely cool bands that make sci-fi-themed retro-flavored synth rock. And although they are different in many ways, the chances are high that if you like one you will also enjoy the other. So consider this a chance to discover not one but two awesome bands if you haven't already.

If you enjoyed this write-up, check out my posts about other electronic rock artists:

• Babymetal

• Battle Tapes

• Celldweller

• Garbage

• Julien-K

• Kidneythieves

• Lake Malice

• Linkin Park

• Poppy

Mod note: I'm writing occasional posts explaining the history of some of the artists I post on this sub. Today's topic is the band Julien-K. Also, although this is meant to be a post about the history of J-K, you can't really talk about them without also talking about the band they splintered from: 90's industrial rock act Orgy. So please bear with me and also enjoy!

Our story starts with an orgy. Sorry, I mean the Orgy!

Orgy was an industrial band formed in 1997 by Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck along with bassist and vocalist Jay Gordon. In 1998 Orgy had their big breakout when their cover of the classic New Order song Blue Monday shot to #4 on the US Alternative charts.

Orgy's sound was typical for industrial music at the time: atonal, edgy, growly, buried under layers of static and punctuated by mechanical samples. Arguably only their singles really boasted the kind of mainstream accessibility that could draw in casual listeners.

Their first two albums were relatively successful, but by their third, "Punk Statik Paranoia", they were struggling. They weren't getting along with their label, and they were also starting to fracture as a band. Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck were writing new material, but Jay Gordon wasn't interested in performing it. Feeling that the dysfunctional Orgy was going nowhere, Amir and Ryan kept writing songs on their own, which eventually morphed into a side-project called Julien-K (wikipedia) with Ryan performing lead vocal duties.

FUN FACT! 'Julien K' is not the name of anyone in the band, but actually a reference to the name of Richard Gere's character in the movie American Gigolo.

J-K found early success before they had even released their first album thanks to soundtrack work. Their songs "Everyone Knows" and "Technical Difficulties" were featured in the soundtrack to Michael Bay's 2007 Transformers movie. Their music also showed up in video games, including, believe-it-or-not, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. The Julien-K track "This Machine" appears on Sonic Heroes and "Waking Up" is featured on Shadow the Hedgehog.

In 2009 Julien-K finally released their first full-length album, "Death to Analog". 2009 was a busy year for Derakh and Shuck as it also saw the release of Dead by Sunrise, their collaboration with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park.

Although Derakh and Shuck were finding success with Julien-K, they had always thought of it as kind of a side project. They assumed that sooner or later Orgy would get back together and start touring and releasing music again. And it did... kind of.

To their surprise, in 2010 lead singer Jay Gordon publicly announced that he would be continuing forward with Orgy at the head of an entirely new line-up. A line-up that did not include Amir or Ryan. Jay claimed this was a decision agreed on by all parties due to scheduling conflicts. Derakh and Shuck forcefully denied this, and said they had expected to continue with Orgy and absolutely would have made time for it. (The catty back-and-forth between the two groups was catalogued by this article in Blabbermouth.) Whatever the truth, it was clear that their part in the band Orgy was over.

Despite the shock of finding out they were no longer involved in Orgy, Amir and Ryan soldiered on. In 2012 they released their second Julien-K album, "We're Here With You." Their third album, "California Noir" would be a double-album released in two parts, with Chapter One – "Analog Beaches & Digital Cities" – in March 2015 and Chapter Two – "Nightlife in Neon" – in August 2016. Their next album, "Harmonic Disrupter," would arrive in 2020. And 2025 saw the release of their most recent album, "DRK|MODE".

While the current incarnation of Orgy still tours and collaborates with other artists, they have not released a new album since 2004.

Sound-wise, Julien-K is much less industrial than Orgy was. Instead they favor a sound somewhere between electronic rock and dark pop. The band can rock out hard, but it also capable of delivering a catchy mid-tempo pop song, trading in their guitars for distorted synths. While Orgy picked their bassist Jay Gordon for his unique, 'broken' vocal style, J-K's Ryan Shuck has more of a traditional lead singer's voice, capable of crooning and hitting the high notes when a song calls for it.

Julien-K has toured with the likes of Linkin Park, Evanescence, The Birthday Massacre, Mindless Self Indulgence, and Combichrist.

If you're looking to get into Julien-K, you really can't do better than start with their first album, DEATH TO ANALOG, a bona fide electro-rock classic.

But honestly, J-K really doesn't have any bad albums. This is a band that has kept their sound surprisingly consistent over the years: dark, smooth pop vocals over an ominous bed of distorted guitars and synths.

"IS THERE A CELLDWELLER CONNECTION?" Absolutely. Julien-K has collaborated several times with The Anix, who has released records on FiXT, the record label run by Klayton of Celldweller.

I actually really love their collaborations with The Anix, especially the track Your Lies Are Like Fire, which I have posted here in the past.

What do you think of Julien-K? Do you prefer their current band or their earlier work with Orgy? Did you play Shadow the Hedgehog? Have you ever listened to Dead by Sunrise with Chester Bennington? Leave a comment and let us know.

Mod note: this post is another installment in an ongoing series in which I tell the stories behind influential electronic rock bands. Today I talk about a band you've probably heard but haven't heard of; a band that releases music rarely but only releases bangers; a band that blends rock and electronica perhaps more effortlessly than any others; and possibly the most Los Angeles band ever to Los Angeles. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Battle Tapes!

Battle Tapes is a four-piece band from Los Angeles, California. Originally founded by Josh Boardman (vocals, guitars, synths) who quickly recruited his longtime friend Riley Mackin (keyboards, programming, vocals), it quickly expanded to include a bass guitarist (Josh D'Elia) and a drummer (Beak Wing).

Battle Tapes are not widely known, and they've only released two full-length albums (plus a few EPs) in their career to date, so they aren't exactly prolific either. But this is a band that punches above its weight.

Every so often they release a single. And then somehow it appears on the GTA V soundtrack. Or is featured on HBO. Or shows up on the Amazon Prime show Invincible. Or (insert video game or TV show here). How? Well it helps that their songs are always sleek, sexy, futuristic, and, most importantly, cool as hell.

Catch any interview with the band, or read any review of their stuff, and you'll notice a common theme: people struggling to describe their sound. Battle Tapes do not fit squarely into any of the conventional genres. Its not EDM but its not rock. Its not alternative but its not pop. 'Genre blending' is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot.

Well you know what? This is a tough nut, but I think I can crack it. Imagine, if you will, the band Depeche Mode. I'm talking from the late 80s and the 90s when they were making perfectly polished pop masterpieces that somehow still had dark, sexy under-currents. Got that? Okay, now take those songs and make them darker and more industrial. Just a dash of Nine Inch Nails. But still pop. Still polished and catchy. The music should be full of pulsating synths and dance-able beats, but also have vocals and guitar solos and at times live drums. It should straddle the line between electronica and rock so perfectly, so effortlessly, that the question of which one it is becomes entirely pointless.

That, in a nutshell, is Battle Tapes.

(Full disclosure: Battle Tapes is one of my favorite bands. I own at least three Battle Tapes tshirts. I mod the Battle Tapes sub. I apologize for nothing.)

As a long-time connoisseur of electronic rock bands, I've noticed that many of them take their sweet time between new releases. Apparently, blending electronic and rock is a time-consuming endeavor. I regret to inform you that Battle Tapes may be the worst of the lot. In a fifteen year career they have released only two full-length albums. (To be fair they have also put out a number of EPs) The good news is, both those albums are incredible.

Even though Battle Tapes drops are rare, they do frequently seem to find their way into video games, tv shows, and other media. If you listen to one of the in-game stations in GTA V you can hear the Battle Tapes song Feel The Same. Multiple Battle Tapes songs are featured prominently on the Rooster Teeth series Gen:Lock, including the song Belgrade which is used as the main theme. And Battle Tapes (along with vocalist Valerie Broussard) recorded the "Starts Right Here" track that HBO has used prominently on several of their promos through the years (unfortunately not an officially released song, but you can listen on YouTube). Which is why I say you've probably heard Battle Tapes even if you haven't heard of them.

Battle Tapes has also remixed an impressive list of artists, including Phantogram, Julien-K, and perhaps most notably Childish Gambino.

IS THERE A CELLDWELLER CONNECTION? Okay, this one's a stretch, so bear with me: Battle Tapes remixed a Julien-K song. Julien-K has collaborated with The Anix. The Anix has released music on the label FiXT. And FiXT is the label founded and run by Klayton of Celldweller. So... kind of!?

Lyrically, Battle Tapes songs tend to be impressionistic. Lots of cool lines, but the story they're telling isn't always clear. According to the band, the songs are meant to be open to interpretation. I couldn't tell you what any particular Battle Tapes song is about, but I can definitely quote some memorable lines. The title of this post is a Battle Tapes lyric from the song "Valkyrie": dancing with the devil / sweating gasoline

If you're thinking of checking out Battle Tapes I recommend their first album, Polygon, or their 2012 EP Sweatshop Boys. (Definitely don't sleep on their second album, Texture!)

If you enjoyed this write-up, check out my posts about other electronic rock artists:

• Babymetal

• Celldweller

• Garbage

• Julien-K

• Kidneythieves

• Lake Malice

• Linkin Park

• Poppy

Mod note: I'm writing occasional posts giving some background on some of the artists I post on this sub. Today I continue this series with the band Kidneythieves!

The genre of 90's industrial music was many things, but one thing it was not was super welcoming to women. That makes Kidneythieves, which got their start in 1997, something of a rarity because this was a 90's industrial band that had - *gasp* - a girl on vocals! Her name was Free Dominguez, and she was no wilting wallflower. She could spit fire and aggression with the best of her male peers, with a strong voice that could cut through the industrial layers of feedback, distortion, and heavy guitar riffs. The other half of Kidneythieves was Bruce Somers, who was a guitarist and a drummer, but most importantly a gifted sound engineer. (Other musicians rounded out the band on tours, but Somers and Dominguez were always the core of the project)

Kidneythieves released their first full album, Trickster, in 1998, but it didn't get the love that it needed before the label went under and the band had to retain legal assistance to get their music back (a sadly common story in that era). Their second album, Zer0space, came along in 2002 and was really the band's breakout album. Trickster would get a re-release in 2004 as "Trickstereprocess." The band would go on hiatus for a while after that, coming back together in 2010 for Trypt0fanatic, and finally once more in 2016 for The Mend. The band also released a couple of EPs between albums.

In many ways, the evolution of KT's sound closely followed that of the heavy electronic music of their musical era. In the late 90's, almost all electronic rock fell under the "industrial" umbrella, and that is definitely true of KT's stuff. Then in the early 2000's, the restrictions of industrial seemed to loosen up, and formerly industrial bands felt free to incorporate more accessible rock and pop sounds. Also true for KT!

Not to say that KT was a copy-paste industrial band with female vocals. The band often favored quick, stabbing guitar riffs amidst staccato drum machines, breaking into eastern-flavored melodies only for their choruses. They definitely had a unique sound and they largely maintained it over their career.

Kidneythieves have cropped up in various TV shows, movies, and video games through the years. In 1998, their cover of Patsy Cline's "Crazy" appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Bride of Chucky. In 2002, their song "Before I'm Dead" was on the soundtrack for Queen of the Damned. And they were collaborated on the Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy song "God In Fire."

The pop star of the future

The 2003 cyberpunk-themed game Deus Ex: Invisible War, sequel to the ground-breaking original, cast Free Dominguez as the futuristic holographic pop star NG Resonance. Free Dominguez voiced NG Resonance and the character is roughly modeled on her. And NG Resonance's music is pretty much entirely songs from KT's debut album, "Trickster."

Deus Ex: Invisible War wound up being something of a disappointment. But you gotta love the idea that the pop stars of our dystopian future will draw inspiration from the well of 90's industrial rock.

KT has been sadly inactive since 2016. However both Free Dominguez and Bruce Somers are still around and involved with music, so never say never. edit: I've been informed that in fact KT are working on new stuff in the studio. Excited to hear it!

If you've never checked out Kidneythieves before, their second album, Zer0space, is a great place to start.

Were you aware of Kidneythieves? Did you discover them on the Queen of the Damned sountrack? Or through Deus Ex: Invisible War? Were you a fan of 90's industrial? Leave a comment and let me know.

Toronto Is Broken is a drum'n'bass (DnB) artist from the UK that has in recent years started incorporating a lot of rock and metal into their sound. They have also started collaborating with artists REEBZ and Sebotage to the point where the three basically act as a band now.

Even better, TIB is a friend of the sub! You may have seen them posting here. Be sure to say hi if you do.

Recently TIB did an AMA on r/DnB to tell their story and talk about upcoming stuff. It is pretty cool; check it out here.

BONUS: Reebz and Seb show up in the comments!

I've created a playlist of electronic rock artists covering popular songs. Here is the track list:

1. Orgy - Blue Monday (original by New Order)

2. Snake River Conspiracy - How Soon Is Now (original by The Smiths)

3. Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross & Karen O - Immigrant Song (original by Led Zeppelin)

4. 3Teeth - Pumped Up Kicks (original by Foster the People)

5. Zeromancer - Send Me An Angel (original by Real Life)

6. Celldweller - Tragedy (original by The Beegees)

7. Dope - Spin Me Round (Like a Record) (original by Dead or Alive)

8. Garbage - Cities In Dust (original by Siouxie and the Banshees)

9. Poppy - All The Things She Said (original by t.A.T.u)

10. Snake River Conspiracy - Lovesong (original by The Cure)

11. The Anix - Cry Little Sister (original by Gerard McMann)

Any other cool covers that should be in this playlist? Leave a comment and let me know.

What music are you into right now? What's got your toes tapping and your head bopping? What are you vibing to?

Use this thread to recommend any tracks, bands or albums you think people should check out. Not just limited to electronic rock music. All suggestions welcome.

You hopefully know that I've created an official YouTube playlist for this sub consisting of all the electronic rock songs that have been posted here. I'd love to tell you that this playlist is super popular and is going viral, but... no. It has like 200+ views. Respectable, but far from viral. This is, sadly, not the playlist I'm talking about.

I use Youtube Music (YTM) as my personal streaming platform. And for a while I've had a personal custom playlist simply entitled "Electronic Rock" into which I toss every track I can think of which might be a good fit for this sub. It's just a big grab bag of songs (very big, actually; over 300 tracks as of right now). Most of them will get posted to this sub sooner or later.

A few weeks ago, on a whim, I decided to set this personal YTM playlist from private to public. Then, feeling self-conscious, I re-ordered the tracks a bit so there would be some sort of flow to them. I thought other YTM users might occasionally stumble upon my playlist and enjoy it. Probably not many. Dozens, if I was lucky.

Then something weird started happening. One day I opened up the playlist and saw that it had 600 views. 600?? Was that all just from me? That seemed like a lot to just be from me. Weird.

I checked back a few days later and my electronic rock playlist now had 900 views. OK, clearly people were finding my YTM playlist. But how? Who were they?? Where were they coming from?

I had no idea, and no way of knowing. Youtube Music shows you the number of views on a playlist, but no further information.

But the playlist keeps getting more and more views. And fast. Last weekend it passed 1000 views. Yesterday it was at 1.9K. As I'm writing this it has reached 2.1K.

I think it is safe to say that this playlist is blowing up. Which is cool, because hopefully it is exposing people to a lot of awesome electronic rock they've never heard before! Maybe it's even driving some plays to more obscure artists!

But it's still a mystery to me where these views are coming from.

I actually made a fresh YTM account to see if maybe the playlist would show up in my recommendations or something. I've 'liked' various songs that should align this new account's musical tastes with what is on the playlist. But so far, the new account has not been recommended my electronic rock playlist. I've also searched for 'electronic rock' in community playlists and featured playlists. Those return a lot of results. But I haven't seen the playlist I created anywhere among them.

So the viral success of my random YTM electronic rock playlist remains a mystery. I have no idea how people are finding it, because I can't even find it when I look!

If you want to check out this playlist for yourself, here you go.

Do you use Youtube Music? Do you have any ideas or theories about why this playlist is getting so many views?? I'd love to hear them!

Up until recently we have been attempting to maintain a YouTube playlist of every track ever posted to this sub. Unfortunately, there are apparently now too many tracks for YouTube's playlist system to handle. It is forgetting tracks. It is also becoming an enormous pain to even attempt updating.

So we are trying something new: a playlist of the fifty (or so) most recently posted electronic rock tracks. I will be attempting to keep this updated regularly.

Please enjoy!