It's that time of the year again, when the holidays come and go, when we look back and reflect on what we've learned and experienced over the last 12 months, when we think of all the good and bad things that have helped to shape us into the people we become. Music is a large part of that experience, and each year always leaves some sort of lasting impression as we think about those songs, albums, and artists that etch themselves into our minds forever. Last year, ReGen Magazine offered the readers the Top 10 Albums of 2007, eschewing our past method of simply posting a cross section of the staff's individual picks for the year. Continuing down that path, we now give you the Top 10 Albums of 2008 as selected and voted by our various staff and contributors. These are the albums that we as individuals and we as the whole of ReGen feel stand above the tremendous amount of music released in 2008, paving the way for newer and better music to make its way in the future.




10. Memmaker: How to Enlist in a Robot Uprising (Hive Records)
Montreal's Memmaker has certainly made an impression with a rousing brand of technofied EBM and hard trance that belies the noisier excursions of both Hive Records and band member Yann Faussier's work in Iszoloscope. Together with Guillaume Nadon, Faussier has crafted an album of pure, unadulterated electro energy that has taken clubs by storm, brushing similar acts like Combichrist and Modulate aside for supremacy of the dance floor. Part of the appeal of How to Enlist in a Robot Uprising is the humor employed as they take overly familiar samples from films like Total Recall and The Lost Boys and utilize them in ways that seem to revel in absurdity, as if to poke fun at the clichés of a scene that they are part of. Robotic synth and vocal effects combined with drum and percussive patterns that border on rudimentary would also seem hackneyed and lazy if not for the sense that Memmaker were deliberate in their use of such overused formulas, albeit given an acidic edge thanks to the band members' experience with rhythmic and experimental noise. One can hardly call the album a groundbreaking set of music, but one listen to How to Enlist in a Robot Uprising makes it clear that it was intended to be quite simply... fun. It's a party album, and every year, there should always be at least one of those that everybody can get into. This is it!




09. Bauhaus: Go Away White (Bauhaus Music)
They are one of the purveyors of goth rock, captivating audiences for decades with their sometimes sinister and surreal, always mysterious and enticing style. Bauhaus made quite the splash in 2008 with their fifth studio album, their first in 25 years, and what the band has stated will be their final outing... and what an outing it is, bidding farewell to their illustrious career with 10 songs that were recorded in 18 days in 2006. While the band's chemistry is unquestionably in action within these songs, Go Away White possesses a whimsical urgency that may seem unbecoming the band's past work to longtime fans. However, one simply can not deny the interplay between Daniel Ash's sonorous and ever experimental guitar tones with Peter Murphy's distinguished and impassioned croon, backed by the roaring bass of David J. and the deceptively simplistic percussion of Kevin Haskins; it's the Bauhaus we've all come to know and love over the years, tempered by maturity and experience, still pursuing their dark and bittersweet sonic designs. Perhaps this album should've been released more than two decades ago during their heyday; perhaps they needed that time to make an ultimate statement to encapsulate their legacy; perhaps they came full circle only to realize that time had changed them, their music, and the world enough that they dared not become anachronistic... who can say? If nothing else, 2008 can be remember as the year Bauhaus made their final fervent farewell to the world.




08. Angelspit: Blood Death Ivory (Dancing Ferret Discs)
Australia's Angelspit has been steadily making waves in the goth/industrial scene with their aggressive use of caustic beats and bass lines, topped off with an adrenalized delivery of playful vocals and lyrics. Some might consider it by-the-numbers club-style industrial, and it is not without that element of appealing to the dance floor-centered masses. However, the band expands on the fetishistic sexual energies exhibited by their debut, last year's Krankhaus, and drives their formula further to incorporate themes of society's obsession with self-centeredness, demonstrating a development of their lyrical qualities. As well, the duo of Destroyx and ZooG put all of their production and sound design powers to the fore, making Blood Death Ivory every bit as in-your-face as their debut. It's hard to say if they represent the future of the industrial/electro scene, but with their sophomore album coming so strong and so soon after Krankhaus, one can definitely tell that Angelspit's shining star remains bright.




07. Autoclav1.1: Love No Longer Lives Here (Tympanik Audio)
With the lines that differentiate genres becoming steadily blurred to the point of becoming nonexistent, it takes a certain kind of artist to make something really special that stands out in the field. Autoclav1.1 is one such artist as with Love No Longer Lives Here, Tony Young has taken his brand of glitch-laden ambient IDM into more organic territories, incorporating elements the heavy guitars and symphonic elements of dark metal with his usual experimental electronic modes. Sweeping strings and frigid pianos mesh with intricate beat structures, topped off by a healthy dose of sonic angst, creating a sound that is at once emotionally intense and technically complex. Released on Tympanik Audio, a label that has been making an impression in 2008 with their steadily growing array of adventurous and experimental artists in the field of noise, ambient, and all points in between, and with appearances by ESA's Jamie Blacker and Cradle of Filth's Dave Pybus, Autoclav1.1's Love No Longer Lives Here is a remarkable effort that stands as an example of what music in the post-industrial genre can achieve when more attention is paid to evolving the style and tearing down the barriers.




06. Left Spine Down: Fighting for Voltage (Bit Riot Records / Synthetic Entertainment)
Vancouver has been home to some of industrial music's most revered acts, most famously Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly. Now adding to the ranks is Left Spine Down, and with their debut album, Fighting for Voltage, the band ushers in a new brand of industrial rock, full of drum & bass textures, caustic synthesized atmospheres, and guttural guitar glitches - a combination the band has dubbed iPunk. Produced by FLA's Chris Petersen, Fighting for Voltage recalls all the belligerent and uncompromising spirit of ‘90s coldwave, complete with several distorted ambient interludes. Top it off with lyrics that touch on the most extreme ends of the sociopolitical climate, everything from the apocalypse to technology's grasp on modern society, and you have a recipe for what has become one of the most celebrated new acts to emerge in the last five years. Originally released via the Synthetic Entertainment label earlier in 2008, the album was reissued on Bit Riot Records soon after, joining alongside fellow industrial rockers like Cyanotic and mindFluxFuneral. If nothing else, this serves as an indication not for the resurgence of coldwave and industrial rock in the underground music scene, but Fighting for Voltage also proves Left Spine Down's potential to be among the next generation of industrial heroes, forging a new path that blends the best elements of the old and new.




05. Einstürzende Neubauten: The Jewels (Potomak Records)
Few bands have been as prolific and as forward-thinking in the industrial genre as Einstürzende Neubauten. With countless releases under their belt, Blixa Bargeld & co. have taken their creative process a step further than most with their online supporters program through which fans can participate in critiquing the band's new material as it is being written. Such was the case with The Jewels, originally released one track at a time as a digital only album, reissued in 2008 as a full-length release. While the band never strayed from their use of unorthodox instrumentation, always holding true to their industrial roots using everything from power tools to homemade objects, Neubauten had employed a greater use of melody and more traditional song structures since the mid ‘90s. As such, The Jewels presented a welcome return to their earlier work, relying less on accessible melodies and more on experimental and abrasive atmospheres reminiscent of earlier classics like Halber Mensch and Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T., albeit perhaps less caustic. Ever the avant-garde noisemakers, Einstürzende Neubauten clearly made The Jewels as much to satisfy their adventurous spirits as for those fans that have stuck with them just long enough to allow them to come full circle and offer up a work that was as transcendental as anything they released during their inception.




04. Amanda Palmer: Who Killed Amanda Palmer? (Roadrunner Records)
Who Killed Amanda Palmer? That is indeed the question, for this first solo outing from Dresden Dolls member Amanda Palmer is one of the most eclectic displays of dark cabaret and alternative pop music ever released. Palmer's vocal delivery is as erratic as the songs themselves, her voice running the gamut from restrained and brooding to vitriolic and biting to frantic and purely melodic, often times recalling Robert Smith at his best. Spinning eccentric and energetic tales that are lyrically often deeper than their titles would indicate, the music may seem stripped down at its core, never little more than piano, drums, and strings. However, it is this minimalist mentality combined with Palmer's penchant for seemingly flying off-the-cuff in a musical frenzy that allows this solo album to stand apart from her work with the Dresden Dolls. With appearances Rasputina's Zoë Keating, Dead Kennedys' East Bay Ray, and Ben Folds, Who Killed Amanda Palmer? is every bit as mysterious as the title would indicate, but as the essay by Neil Gaiman in the album's liner notes portrays, the music is not without an element of the quirky and even a touch of the psychotic.




03. Portishead: Third (Mercury Records)
More than a decade after their last release, Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley - collectively known as Portishead - returned with their long anticipated and appropriately titled Third album. However, those expecting the band to rehash its renowned style of audio noir and jazzy trip-hop were undoubtedly surprised to find that the band had a few tricks up its sleeves. Still as dark as ever and no less experimental with their sonic flights of fancy, but Third saw the band pursuing a much more electronic, even industrial sound, layered overtop their familiar beats adorned by the haze of a decrepit vinyl record. Gone are the turntable scratches, replaced by understated synthesizer flourishes and dreamy acoustic twinkles the likes of which would send chills down the most hardened soul's spine. But if that sounds like too much of a deviation in style for you, fear not, for Gibbons' voice is as cold and as brooding as ever, making it easy to imagine her on a smoky stage backed by a band sullenly playing at 2:00am singing her tales of heartbreak and bitterness. To hear her sing is a reminder to all of us that this is indeed the Portishead we've missed for over a decade, and that given enough time, a good band can surpass itself and live up to the promise made by their past successes.




02. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Dig, Lazarus Dig!!! (Anti Records)
One of the longest enduring acts in the alternative rock and underground goth scene, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have always defied strict categorization, infusing elements of rock, blues, vaudevillian cabaret, and dark jazz into a sound that is at once melancholy, capricious, and introspective. As the second album since longtime member and Einstürzende Neubauten front man Blixa Bargeld's departure, and the first since the release of the Grinderman side project, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is something of a rarity in the band's discography, possessing a much more stripped down, garage rock sound, not entirely devoid of their morose atmospheres, but injected with a bit of sonic haberdashery that finds the band at their most upbeat. While Cave has never shied from allowing glasslike shards of light to show through his lyrical and vocal darkness, he's rarely even sounded so enthused as he does on this album, at times even sounding like David Byrne with a slight case of smoker's cough. However, it is all of these qualities that help make Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! stand as an indication of the band's willingness to defy their own set of conventions and prove that their exploratory spirit has not waned with age, a trait that is so sorely lacking in today's goth underground scene. Bands and artists from all walks of life would do well to take a lesson from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' example.




01. ohGr: Devils in My Details (SPV Records)
Leave it to a living legend to produce a work so expansive and experimental that it not only stands out in his already impressive discography, but also manages to land the number one spot for 2008. With Devils in My Details, Nivek Ogre and Mark Walk left behind the pop musings of their previous two albums under the ohGr moniker in favor of something more in line with their collective musical adventurousness. Derived from a single extended jam session, the songs on this album forego linearity and familiarity, instead focusing on a sonic stream of consciousness that plays as a complementary mirror to Ogre's famous erratic and mind-altering lyrical skills. That's not to say that there aren't a few catchy moments on the record, although they are scattered amid the sea of macabre soundscapes and explosively dark energies, not unlike what one would hear in Ogre's work with Skinny Puppy, although thankfully, Devils in My Details retains an individual character separate from both Skinny Puppy and past ohGr releases. As if that weren't enough, cult horror actor Bill Moseley - with whom Ogre acted in this year's Oscar-nominated Repo! The Genetic Opera - lends his own brand of eccentricity in the form of several spoken word passages. It's no wonder Devils in My Details makes ReGen's number one album of 2008; not only did it transcend the trappings of convention (both those of the genre and those of the band's previous output), but it also found acceptance with an audience demanding something new and exciting.



Voting for a mere 10 albums is never an easy task, and it's fair to say that there are always many more great albums to be considered as being among the best of the year. Indeed, Aesthetic Perfection's A Violent Emotion and genCAB's II transMuter were among the highest rated releases, both full of blistering industrial textures with danceable rhythms, appealing to both the club crowds in search of abandon and those who prefer to listen intently through headphones. And then you have the more avant-garde and experimental releases from the likes of Iammynewt vs. Skullduggery with Ohaka, on which both artists duel in a series of frenetic glitch-laden industrial soundscapes, augmented by fractured breakbeats and subtle electro grooves. The same can be said of the furiously haunting The Angels of Prostitution by Worms of the Earth, a debut album that blurs the lines between dark ambient, power noise, and industrial in ways that could make even the most jaded horror film and music aficionado cringe in terror. There is also the belligerent EBM of Psy'Aviah's Entertainment Industries, blasting out their own brand of unapologetic industrial dance music, as well as the lush ambiences and melodic depth of Ascension of the Watchers' Numinosum. Tentative Response by Torrent Vaccine also deserves mention for its instrumental passages of ominous, gloomy, and sometimes oppressive atmospheres creating a sense of apocalyptic foreboding. On the other end of the instrumental spectrum was The Synthetic Dream Foundation' s Behind the Gates of Horn and Ivory, full of mystical excursions into trip-hop, classical, and hard electro for an eclectically enjoyable combination of sounds and styles. Other notable releases included Manufactura's Psychogenic Fugue, Avi Ghosh's Severing the Tie, and Uberbyte's Sic. Even the compilation releases of Extreme Women in the Dark Future and Gears Gone Wild by machinKUNT and Glitch Mode Recordings respectively deserve praise for their introduction of new and exciting acts to the goth/electro/industrial scene.

So there you have it. Another year has passed, and more music has made its way to our speakers. Some of it has perhaps been not up to par, and one could even say a fair share of it downright sucked. And some, like those albums that we've mentioned here, has been rather exceptional. As ReGen remains steadfast in its dedication to being the most informative resource for the underground goth/industrial/electro scene and in promoting creativity and innovation, the Top 10 Albums of 2008 will hopefully stand as yet another example of just how far the music and the scene have come, as well as inspire another year of better music to come in the years to come!

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