Akira Yamaoka

Example Album: Silent Hill (Original Soundtrack)

Location: Japan

Years Active: 1991-present

Style: Machine samples, industrial noise, soundscapes, metal percussion, soundtrack

        Akira Yamaoka is a Japenese composer and musician from Niigata. He joined Konami in 1993, working on various video games, until Silent Hill went into production, where he volunteered to compose the score. The Silent Hill OST is a legendary moment in industrial music, as well as Japanese industrial in general. While the sound can be quite diverse, having more traditionally musical gestures, the soundtrack traverses moments of dark ambient, industrial soundscapes, sequenced scrap metal, atmospheric uses of machine samples, as well as straight up metal percussion at certain points, especially on tracks like "Until Death." A famous moment in the score is on the song "Over," which features the sound of a dentist's drill but slowed down significantly.

    After the first Silent Hill game, Akira Yamaoka went on to score several other Silent Hill games, including the soundtracks for other video games.

    At this time, I am only familiar with the first Silent Hill OST, so I am unaware of whether his other works have industrial elements in them.

Coil

Example Album: How To Destroy Angels

Location: UK

Years Active: 1982-2005

Style: Ambient industrial, noise, ritualistic

    Where to begin? Coil are one of the most legendary bands to ever come out of the English industrial scene. Started by Johnn Balance in 1982, and then joined for his boyfriend and near-lifelong partner Peter Christopherson, himself a founding member of Throbbing Gristle. Both Johnn and Peter also played in Psychic TV before leaving to focus on Coil.

    Coil's sound is probably one of the most diverse and hard to classify of any artist I've ever heard. They can never truly be pinned down, only thing you can say is they sound like Coil. Their early era, spearheaded by the two albums Scatology and Horse Rotorvator, clearly exemplifies their industrial sound at the time. Further on in their career you saw them mixing elements of acid house, harsh noise, drone, dreamlike electronica, and even elements of folk. Coil officially ended in 2005, after the release of The Ape Of Naples, following the death of Johnn Balance in 2004. However, Peter Christopherson continued to release unheard material, the last of which before his death was The New Backwards.

    Coming out of the industrial scene, you can hear Coil experimenting with purely early industrial gestures in their early work, the highlight of which is their first ever release, How To Destroy Angels. Featured here is an ambient industrial piece made of semi-percussive sounds performed with gongs and other metal objects. The end result is a deeply ritualistic, hypnotic, and dark piece of music which washes over the listener. Totally enveloping. This album was later expanded and featured several remixes called How To Destroy Angels (Remixes and Rerecordings), produced with Steven Stapleton from Nurse With Wound. Highly recommend that album if you like the original.

    As far as metal noises, machine samples, and general industrial sounds across the rest of Coil's discography, you'll find them scattered throughout their oeuvre. On Scatology, there are sounds like this littered throughout the album, on some songs more than others. There are standouts, however. The track "Aqua Regis" features some excellent haunted machine samples, as well as power tools. On the more clangorous end of things, "Solar Lodge," the track that comes right after also has scrap metal accents. On Horse Rotorvator, their second album, the track "The Anal Staircase" has some metal bashing samples as well. 

    On the harsher, noisier end of things, you'll find some metal noises on their split with Zos Kia, especially on the track "Silence & Secrecy." There are also some incredible metal noises on their three way split with The New Blockaders and Vortex Campaign, an album called The Melancholy Mad Tenant.

    When they were performing under the name Black Light District, found on the album A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room, you'll find some beautiful machine samples looped on the track Die Wölfe Kommen Zurück. 

    As far as their later era is concerned, there are some gorgeous metal objects played in a near-percussive way on the track "Copal" off of the Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) Bonus CD. This song reminds me a lot of How To Destroy Angels, though less harsh and featuring some spoken word of Johnn Balance talking about eating birds. On the album The Remote Viewer, specifically on the track "Remote Viewing 2," there are some excellent machine samples as well.

     Outside of these examples listed here, there may be more; these are just listed off the top of my head, as someone who has listened to practically everything done by the band. Highly recommend to anyone who has an interest in experimental music to check project out. 

Vortex Campaign

Example Album: The New Vortex Blockaders Campaign

Location:Belgium

Years Active: 1984?-???

Style: Industrial, junk metal abuse, harsh noise, sound collage

    Vortex Campaign were an industrial and noise group from Belgium. Their discography is rather small, and not much information about them is available online. They play pure noise music made from metal noises and sound collages. All of their main recorded work are splits, usually with The New Blockaders, though they also did a split with the legendary Coil, called The Melancholy Mad Tenant.

    I chose this split as an example of their sound because it contains one track that is solely accredited to them. This is pure noise, made from metals and other electronics, looped and collaged together.

    If anyone has any more information about this band, please comment on this entry.

The New Blockaders

Example Album: Changez Les Blockeurs

Location: UK

Years Active: Early 1980's-present

Style: Industrial, junk metal abuse, harsh noise, sound collage

    The New Blockaders are an industrial and noise artist from the United Kingdom. Starting in the early 80's, they became well known in avant-garde and experimental circles for confrontational live performances and highly-esteemed recordings. Sound collage and noise is a general feature of their work, incorporating elements of scrap metal throughout their discography.

     Changez Les Blockeurs, their first release, is a top-notch example of junk metal abuse and sound collage, stitching together scraping and grinding metal noises with other sounds like dogs barking in an almost-but-not-quite rhythmic fashion. Experiencing this record is feeling the metal noises scrape against your brain, it feels quite visceral. Excellent example of junk metal abuse meeting sound collage.

    I've still yet to fully explore their discography, since it's massive and spans decades, but if you're looking for more like this I highly recommend their split with the legendary Coil and Vortex Campaign, an album called The Melancholy Mad Tenant. A powerful work of sound collage with metal noises throughout.

¡Tchkung!

Example Album: Dogs And Gears

Location: USA

Years Active: 1993-1998

Style: Post-industrial, world music, general percussion, metal percussion

    ¡Tchkung! were a post-industrial and performance art collective from Seattle. A huge part of grassroots and anarchist movements at the time, they performed large concerts with multiple vocals and several different forms of instrumentation and percussion. A huge part of the themes in their music deal with environmentalism and capitalism, so scrap metal percussion like oil drums and metal sheets were frequently used to bring out their sound and explore these ideas. I found the Dogs And Gears LP to feature metal percussion the most, though it's balanced pretty finely well elements of world music and other kinds of percussion.

    Looking at the rest of their discography, their album Incite also features some excellent metal percussion moments. ¡Tchkung! were well known for their live shows, which sometimes ended in police raids. On occasion they would perform street parades where audience members were encouraged to participate.

    They disbanded in in 1998, and some of their members went on to form the political marching band Infernal Noise Brigade.

Street Sects

Example Album: End Position

Location: USA

Years Active: 2013-present

Style: Sample-based post-industrial, synth punk, scrap metal accents

    Formed in 2013 by Austin, Texas DIY veterans Leo Ashline and Shaun Ringsmuth, Street Sects are a sample-based post-industrial project that truthfully share more in common with 00’s hardcore than most modern variations of industrial. Their specific brand of cacophonous plunderphonic-esque composition is equal parts blast beat overwhelm and pop hook mastery with song structures that swing violently between throat tearing screams backed by whirlwind metallic percussion and blissfully melodic walls of synth and post-punk guitars cascading over steady programmed rhythms. Though mangled scrap metal samples are prevalent across their work, they are rarely the focus and often serve the role of ear candy as a sort of “blink and you’ll miss it” sonic accent. This said, the scattered manner in which these scrap metal accents are layered and rarely repeated makes for a singular listening experience worth the time of any post-industrial fan. 

    The dense nature of their production makes their seamless song structures and dynamic range all the more commendable as their wide array of extreme music influences shine through in just the first quarter of any given track. Ringsmuth’s frantic compositions are complemented beautifully by Ashline’s tendency to oscillate between pained screams and dissonant vocal melodies as he delivers narrative driven lyrics recounting the effects of gentrification, systemic abuse and poverty. Although they occasionally flirt with the tropes of mainstream 90’s industrial acts (primarily on their Kicking Mule LP) they never end up falling prey to imitation or true homage.

    If you’re looking for a genuinely unique take on sample-based extreme music that draws influence from nearly every era and subset of industrial there is no better act to check out than Street Sects.

Sharkbait

Example Album: Blowtorch Face-Lift

Location: USA

Years Active: 1986-1996

Style: Metal percussion, noise rock, sound collage

    Sharkbait were an industrial group from hailing from San Francisco. Like many of their contemporaries in the late 80’s and early 90’s, flirted with elements of metal, techno, sound collage, harsh noise, spoken word and general avant-garde experimentation. It’s difficult to pin them down to a singular style as listening to an album from them is akin to listening to a “best of industrial” playlist. One moment it feels like you’re hearing an unreleased Godflesh song featuring pieces of metal pipe in place of the typical Alesis drum machine grooves, then it’s as if Gibby Hanes featured on a Test Dept. track as opposed to a Ministry song, and then five minutes later you’ll be treated to straight up Einstürzende Neubauten worship backing a series of radio broadcast samples. Overall, the closest band I can think of to their sound is the NYC band Missing Foundation, though Sharkbait's metal percussion is more pronounced. To me, Sharkbait sounds like a distinctly American take on metal percussion.

    Though they only released two LPs and two EPs (barring the compilation record that came just before their split), they left a big impression on the local industrial scene of their time, often ending shows by handing out their scrap metal pieces to audience members to take home. Their discography is like a crash course on every style of industrial up to the early 90s performed and recorded with incredible attention to detail and care. Blowtorch Face-Lift stands as one of my personal favourite industrial records of all time.

Nitzer Ebb

Example Album: That Total Age

Location: UK

Years Active: 1982-present

Style: EBM, scrap metal and industrial accents

        Nitzer Ebb are a British EBM band formed in 1982. They are known as one of the original EBM bands to help develop the style for what it would become. Nitzer Ebb's sound is largely based on intense, heavy dance-oriented rhythms, using drum machines and performed drum pads, intended to evoke physicality, muscles, and sweat. It's on their debut LP That Total Age, a classic in the EBM genre as a whole, where they use scrap metal sounds as accents to their pummelling dance beats. The song "Join In The Chant," probably their most recognizable track, features some intense rhythmic clanging which accentuates the physicality of the song.

    Nitzer Ebb are still performing and touring to this day.

Ministry

Example Album: Twitch

Location: USA

Years Active: 1981-present

Style: EBM, scrap metal and industrial accents

    Ministry is a post-industrial and metal band lead by Al Jourgenson from Chicago. They are known for being one of the founders of a genre known as industrial metal which they thoroughly developed in the late 80's and 90's. Early on, their music had a heavy synthpop sound, though it was during their second record, Twitch, where they leaned predominantly into EBM.

    Twitch is an excellent example of mid-80's EBM, but what piques our interest are the large amount of scrap metal and industrial samples used as accents throughout the record. These are some tasty sampled noises, which lends well to the EBM atmosphere on this record.

    Unfortunately Ministry never really explored this sound further on records, which makes Twitch more of a standout record of their discography.

Norillag

Example Album: To Elsewhere

Location: Canada

Years Active: 2018-present

Style: Metal percussion

    Norillag is an industrial project lead by Natalia Hatzi-Blaak from Vancouver, Canada. Different releases seem to focus around different expressions of metal percussion, some faster and more driving, and others more hypnotic. To Elsewhere has a slower, hypnotic, atmospheric expression to it, made almost entirely from scrap metal sounds, power tools, and beating metal percussion, both performed and sequenced. The middle track even includes some darkjazz influence. This release overall pulls influence from artists like Einleitungszeit.

    Recommended to anyone who loves the sounds of metal on metal. Norillag is currently working on new material.

    

Kollaps

Example Album: Mechanical Christ

Location: Australia

Years Active: 2015-present

Style: Post-industrial, metal percussion

    Kollaps are a post-industrial band from Melbourne. Their sound can be best described as dense, noisy, rhythmic. They also utilize plenty of sequenced and performed scrap metal percussion throughout their discography, though Mechanical Christ features it more heavily.

    Their influences appear to be obvious, taking their band name after Einstürzende Neubauten's first record Kollaps. Reading interviews with the band they mention Chu Ishikawa, the film Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and other metal percussion industrial artists as influences on their sound.

Babyland

Example Album: You Suck Crap

Location: USA

Years Active:1989-2009

Style: Metal percussion, electro-industrial, synth punk

    Babyland were a synth punk and electro-industrial outfit from Los Angeles. A heavy part of their sound is the use of found materials, scrap metals, power tools to create complex compositions of percussion over top an electro-industrial and synth punk foundation. Later on, they took on more synth pop influences, mixing it with the sounds of beating metal-on-metal percussion.

    If you're looking for some well-produced metal sounds with electronic music this band will definitely appeal to you. Their first album You Suck Crap is a good example of this style. The vocals and fast drum machine parts really remind me of Ministry from The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste era. It's uncanny actually, this dude really sounds like Al Jourgenson. There's a 90's post-industrial vibe to this band in general.

Weiches Loch

Example Album: Live at Hokage 20210306 

Location: Japan

Years Active: 2020-present

Style: Metal percussion

    Weiches Loch are, outside of Japan at least, a criminally unknown metal percussion outfit hailing from Osaka. Their sound can best be described as "pure metal percussion," taking strong influence from Test Dept. and Crash Worship among others. What makes this metal percussion band stand out from others is they take a lot of rhythms from traditional Japanese drumming, going back to ancient times, as their foundation.

    So far they are incredibly prolific, having played several live shows in Japan. There is definitely more to be desired regarding their recorded output, currently only having a single live tape put out. Apparently they've been in the studio recording material so let's hope that surfaces soon.

    If you're looking for more from this band, they post several live clips and rehearsal sessions on their instagram @weichesloch.

A.I.Z.

Example Album: Excrementals

Location: France

Years Active: 1983-end of 80's

Style: Industrial, scrap metal accents

    A.I.Z. or Atrophisme Interne Z, were an industrial band hailing from France. It's hard to find much information about this band, other than the fact that they released two cassette demo tapes, a live cassette, and had a few compilation appearances before breaking up. They also recorded a full-length album, Chaos Primaire in 1982-1983, which went unreleased until 2016.

    They released a demo tape entitled Excrementals in 1985, which is an excellent representation of first wave industrial. Musically, they have a primitive electronic sound, quite reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle or early Esplendor Geométrico. Littered throughout this tape are some incredible scrap metal accents and percussion, lending well to the early industrial sound they have. Some tracks have it more than others, like the track Rouleau Compress Mental for example, but there's enough to keep a metal fetishist and early industrial fan happy. 

    If you're looking for more scrap metal sounds and accents from this band, their unreleased album from 2016 Chaos Primaire has some to be sure, and a little bit on their S/T demo too.

    Even though there are definite moments, metal percussion isn't really the centre point of their overall sound, so I haven't included it in the main General Metal Percussion category.

Laibach

Example Album: S/T LP

Location: Yugoslavia, now Slovenia

Years Active: 1980-present

Style: Martial industrial, metal percussion

    Laibach are an industrial and avant-garde music group formed in the mining town of Trbovlje, Yugoslavia. Early on they played in a martial industrial style, before eventually going into the forays of techno, pop, and rock music, though always with a political and avant-garde approach in their presentation, aesthetic, and performance. Laibach is a political statement and critique of fascism, Marxism-Leninism, and liberalism, though always cloaked in an esoteric mystique. They've accrued plenty of controversy for their aesthetic and presentation, evocative of militarism and fascism. In their home country of Yugoslavia at the time, they were banned and censored.

    The focus of this entry is their first S/T LP, released in 1985. Throughout the entire record you can hear some particularly chilling use of metal percussion, both performed and sampled/sequenced, as well as other machine and industrial noises. This album to me sounds like a more militaristic Test Dept., and indeed, both Laibach and Test Dept. were in close correspondence and had mutual respect for each other during the 80's. In the Test Dept. book "Total State Machine," it was said that "Test Dept. turned art into politics, and Laibach turned politics into art."

    As far as metal percussion and other Laibach material is concerned, their second album Nova Akropola has some good stuff. Though I am admittedly less familiar with their later output. In 2023 Laibach released their new album Sketches of the Red Districts, which features the track LEPO - KRASNO. This track is heavily based around scrap metal percussion and industrial rhythms, a return to form for the band.

    Laibach are the first and only Western band to play a concert in North Korea.

    

     

Missing Foundation

Example Album: S/T LP

Location: USA

Years Active: 1984-present

Style: Metal percussion, no wave

    Missing Foundation were an industrial and performance art group from New York City. The band was a huge part of grassroots social and political movements at the time of their original activity, especially the anarchist movement. Political themes are an important element of their music and art. They became famous in the local DIY scene, and had a huge cultural impact in NYC due to their logo, an upside down Martini glass, being spray painted almost everywhere around the city. Musically, they feature heavily with scrap metal percussion, a lot of oil drums and metal sheets, though half of their sound can be attributed to no wave or noise rock. 

    An interesting fact about the band is that they initially formed in Hamburg, Germany, and briefly had KMFDM members Sascha Konietzko and En Esch in the group before shortly relocating to NYC.

    Missing Foundation are still active and releasing music to this day.

Pod Blotz

Example Album: Light Mass Body

Location: USA

Years Active: 2002-present

Style: Experimental electronics, industrial, scrap metal accents

    Pod Blotz is an experimental electronics/industrial artist from LA. I've only heard the album Light Mass Body, so I can't be enough of a judge on the rest of her discography, but this is some excellent modern industrial utilizing heavy experimental, rhythmic electronics. On Light Mass Body there are quite a few scrap metal accents which really bring out the industrial atmosphere. Highly recommend this artist if you're interested in rhythmic industrial electronics.

Muslimgauze

Example Album: Hammer & Sickle

Location: UK

Years Active: 1983-1999

Style: Experimental techno, scrap metal accents

    Muslimgauze was an experimental electronic music project lead by Bryn Jones from Manchester. The project had strong themes about conflicts in the Middle East and the Muslim world, especially regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. His discography is bloody massive, ranging from all sorts of electronic sounds with so-called "ethnic" influence. Muslimgauze seemed to have a loose connection to the industrial scene, with Bryn Jones having seen Throbbing Gristle live, and Bourbonese Qualk organizing the first ever Muslimgauze show.

    Ultimately what is of interest to the Scrap Metal Archive is his first release, Hammer & Sickle, a rather stripped-down experimental techno release with a handful of songs. Punctuated throughout the record are occasional scrap metal accents. Enough to make note of, especially considering Bryn's loose connection to industrial.

    As far as the rest of his discography is concerned, I am currently unaware of other instances of scrap metal accents or elements.

    Bryn Jones passed away in 1999, bringing an end to Muslimgauze. 

Beinhaus

Example Album: Zaehne

Location: Germany

Years Active: 1994-present

Style: Metal percussion, electro-industrial, drum and bass

    Beinhaus are an industrial band hailing from Germany. A huge part of their sound is scrap metal percussion, both performed and sequenced, over top a foundation of electro-industrial with occasional drum and bass moments. This is a really exciting band with quality metal bashing. It's very obvious that they pulled influence from Einstürzende Neubauten, you can hear as much in the vocals. To me this band sounds like Einstürzende Neubauten from the digital age. A lot of pulsing electronic beats, mixed seamlessly with scrap metal, which makes them stand out from most electro-industrial acts.

    If you're looking to branch out into their discography you won't be disappointed to find that all their releases feature heavy on metal percussion, sometimes mixing it with other genres in interesting ways.

Hal Hutchinson

Example Album: Taste Of Iron

Location: UK

Years Active: 2009-present

Style: Junk metal abuse, harsh noise

    Hal Hutchinson is a harsh noise project from the UK. If you're looking for harsh noise made from junk metal abuse, this entire project should appeal to you. I chose Taste Of Iron as an example album because that's the first thing I heard from this project, and I think the cassette sound lends well to the noise. I think there may even be some rhythmic metal tape loops in his discography as well, though I need to explore it more. This is top-notch stuff.

This Heat

Example Album: Metal

Location: UK

Years Active: 1976-1983

Style: Metal percussion, tape loops

        This Heat were an experimental art-rock band from London. Most known for their incredible experimental rock album Deceit, which in its own right has elements of early industrial, utilizing tape loops, sound collage, and what could even be some metal sounds very sparsely, though I'm not entirely sure. The focus of this entry however, is the single Metal, which from what I'm aware of was released long after the band had broken up. 

    Metal was apparently recorded on self-constructed metal sculptures outside of their recording studio in 1980. Listening to Metal you will hear beautiful metal percussion and atonal rhythm explorations, stitched together and looped on tape. This recording has a remarkable resemblance to something you'd hear from Z'EV, it sounds deeply ritualistic and hypnotic.

    I'm really curious what was going on in these artists' heads, what their influences were, how connected they were to the early industrial scene in England. Either way, they produced something that sounds purely industrial, and belongs up there with Z'EV and other first wave industrial artists.

    

raison d'être

Example Album: The Empty Hollow Unfolds

Location: Sweden

Years Active: 1991

Style: Dark ambient, soundscapes, scrap metal and industrial noises

    Started in 1991 by Peter Andersson, raison d'être is a dark ambient project from Sweden. I'm personally still getting into this artist and their beautiful discography, but here The Empty Hollow Unfolds is the best of his work that I've listened to. Released on the famous record label Cold Meat Industry, The Empty Hollow Unfolds is considered one of the best, if not the pinnacle of dark ambient music, especially from this label. 

    This record is huge, melancholic, deeply reverberating, as clanking industrial noises echo in what sounds like a massive, empty, lonely chamber. The dominant themes seem to be existentialism, loneliness, deep sadness, and the music captures this atmosphere perfectly, aided by impeccable production. If you're looking for dark ambient with scrap metal and industrial noises, this album has it from start to finish.

Haus Arafna

Example Album: Asche

Location: Germany

Years Active: 1990-present

Style: Metal percussion, electronic, hypnotic

    Haus Arafna are an industrial duo hailing from Germany. It seems that they have been pretty prolific since 1990. I'm still not super familiar with their whole discography since I've only recently heard of them, I have heard a little bit of metal samples on All I Can Give. However, metal bashing and percussion seems to feature heavily on their most recent work, Asche. This album is incredible, a lot of influence taken from early wave industrial with excellent hypnotic and dark atmospheres. This is top-notch industrial.

Scrap Metal Music

Example Album: S/T Cassette

Location: USA

Years Active: 1985

Style: Junk metal abuse, harsh noise

     Not much information seems to be online about this group, other than that they were from NYC, and their only release was recorded live during July 6-8th at the Nada Gallery in NYC. This is pure, lo-fi, demo quality junk metal harsh noise. Nothing rhythmic, just pure metal abuse. Pretty glorious.

    Later on, it seems one of the members drummed in the noise rock band Demo-Moe.

Product KF

 

Example Album: Songs of The Groves

Location: USA

Years Active: 2018-2019

Style: Post-punk, metal percussion

    Product KF were a post-punk band from Chicago. In the beginning their sound was pretty firmly post-punk, with an obvious influence from punk bands like Crisis. They put out two S/T demos in 2018. On their second demo, you can begin to hear the emergence of scrap metal percussion as slight accents to their music.

    It was only during their debut and final LP, Songs of The Groves, that they really plunged into industrial percussion, mixed seamlessly with their post-punk foundation. The end result is an extremely gothic, melancholic, frostbitten post-punk record with top-notch metal percussion for accents. 

    To me, this album is a significant release because it continues a rather obscure and relatively unknown tradition of mixing post-punk with metal percussion industrial, of which I'm only aware of two other artists in the style, The Ex on Dignity Of Labour, and Tools You Can Trust.

    Unfortunately since the release of their debut LP, they are no longer active.

The Ex

 

Example Album: Dignity Of Labour

Location: Netherlands

Years Active: 1979-present

Style: Post-punk, anarcho-punk, metal percussion, machine samples

    The Ex are an anarcho-punk and experimental music group from the Netherlands. Their sound is pretty diverse, especially with the backdrop of their entire discography. Early on, they played a very rhythmic, cold, bass-heavy style of post-punk, with a focus on anarchist lyrical themes. However in 1983, they put out Dignity Of Labour, an album which takes their early post-punk sound and mixes it with elements of scrap metal percussion, power tools, and recordings of bus engines, printing press machines, and more. The outcome is an extremely political and frostbitten kind of post-punk industrial sound. 

    The Ex continued to experiment with metal percussion noises on the wildly diverse record Blueprints For A Blackout, but aside from these two releases I am unaware of whether The Ex played with the sound ever again.

    An interesting fact is that in the 80's, they played a show with Test Dept. at a local squat in the Netherlands. I'm not sure the time frame of this; whether it was before or after this show that they started experimenting with industrial noises.

Tools You Can Trust

Example Album: Working And Shopping

Location: UK

Years Active: 1982-1988

Style: Post-punk, metal percussion

    Tools You Can Trust were a post-punk band from Manchester. I don't know if I've heard another band sound like they do.  They play in a unique post-punk style, usually centred around bass and drums, with grunted and whispered vocals, often having political lyrics. There are moments in their music where bashing metal percussion comes in to accent the sound, some songs more than others. There are some pure metal percussion tracks as well, too. Overall this is an incredibly weird band that I've totally fallen in love with.