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37-599: Argyle Park was an underground industrial rock supergroup founded in New York City in 1994 and active until 1996. Members of the group reformed under the name AP2 in 1998, and were active under that name until winter 2000. Signed to Christian music labels, the band suffered repeated controversies within the Christian music scene for not being positive and evangelistic enough in its lyrics and outlook as well as for including contributions from non-Christian musicians. The project

74-823: A revving motorcycle whilst Pitchfork 's Alex Lindhart cited their 1968 follow up God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It as being "bootleg Einstürzende Neubauten at its grimiest atonality ". AllMusic critic Alex Henderson has stated that experimental group Cromagnon 's 1969 record Orgasm foreshadowed the industrial rock sound. Specifically, Pitchfork's Zach Baron noted their song "Caledonia" for its "pre-industrial stomp". Krautrock musicians Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger included industrial noise on their track "Negativland" (from their 1972 debut Neu! ) as well as krautrock band Faust on their track "Meadow Meal" (from their 1971 debut Faust ). AllMusic stated that Suicide's 1977 debut album "provided

111-469: A sampler , also took inspiration from both hardcore and industrial. In 1986, Canadian band Skinny Puppy released the album Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse , with its lead single, " Dig It ", seeing frequent airplay on MTV . The song was a major influence on Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor , who used it as inspiration when writing his first song, " Down in It ". Chicago's Wax Trax! Records became

148-404: A Christian record label, Argyle Park did not display any overtly religious themes on their album. The lyrics rather dealt with things such as suffering, pain, bitterness, violent emotions, being betrayed and taken advantage of, and losing faith in one's role models, themes summed up by Buka as "man putting too much faith in other men and men will always let you down". In so doing, Argyle Park flouted

185-403: A following primarily in central Pennsylvania (PA). Ghoti Hook signed to Tooth & Nail Records in 1996, then released four albums: Sumo Surprise , Banana Man , Songs We Didn't Write , and Two Years To Never . Conrad, the guitarist and a primary songwriter of the band, decided to leave Ghoti Hook after the release of "Banana Man" and the subsequent tour promoting its release. He left

222-459: A later interview, Scott Albert cited clashes with R.E.X. over lyrical content, unrealistic expectations within the Christian music industry , and negative or "holier-than-thou" fan reactions to lyrical content as reasons for shutting down both Argyle Park and his main music project, Circle of Dust. In a different interview, Buka also described much of the negative reactions Argyle Park faced from within

259-422: A major influence on Joy Division , who formed shortly before its release. Joy Division were signed to the industrially themed label Factory Records which had been founded in 1978; their albums Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980) heavily influenced the further development of industrial rock. Chrome has also been credited as the "beginning of industrial rock" and their 1978 Half Machine Lip Moves

296-513: A three-piece band, and as their last ever studio recordings, Ghoti Hook released a six song EP titled EP on Velvet Blue Music . The group disbanded in 2002. The band's last concert was at Cornerstone Music Festival on July 6, 2002, with guest performances by Conrad and Lacasse. The concert was recorded and released as a live album entitled Rest In Peace . The band played a reunion show on June 13, 2009, at Circle of Hope in Philadelphia, PA with

333-594: A vanguard for the genre in the 1980s and is credited for introducing it to the United States. Ministry 's 1988 album The Land of Rape and Honey , departed from the band's synthesizer-oriented sound for a rock style that drew from hardcore punk and thrash metal , while retaining electronic elements and samples. Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen was also involved in multiple industrial rock side projects that were signed to Wax Trax!, including Revolting Cocks , 1000 Homo DJs and Pailhead . Drawing heavy influences from

370-606: A variety of musical styles. Some post-punk performers developed styles parallel to industrial music's defining attributes. Pere Ubu 's debut, The Modern Dance , was described by Jim Irvin as "industrial", and Chris Connelly said the musical project Foetus was "the instigator when it comes to the marriage of machinery to hardcore punk ." Music journalist Simon Reynolds considered Killing Joke , which saw mainstream success with their 1985 album Night Time , "a post-punk version of heavy metal ." Others followed in their wake. The New York City band Swans were inspired by

407-559: The (also reunited) Huntingtons, Speedy Delivery, 274, and Main Line Riders. The performance was part of a benefit concert to support Jeannie Pierce, wife of Huntingtons' drummer Mikey Pierce, who was suffering from brain cancer. The band performed as the final three-piece lineup along with an appearance from Conrad Tolosa on guitar for five songs. In November 2022, the band posted pictures of themselves on their Facebook page rehearsing songs, leading to speculation that they had regrouped. This

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444-774: The 1995 Mortal Kombat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack , which was certified platinum by the RIAA in January 1996. Marilyn Manson released their album Antichrist Superstar in 1996, which was certified platinum by the RIAA two months after its release date. In the United States, Antichrist Superstar sold at least 1,900,000 units. Marilyn Manson's EP Smells Like Children was certified platinum in May 1998. The band's third album Mechanical Animals went to number 1, dethroning Lauryn Hill 's solo debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and selling 223,000 copies in its first week in stores. It

481-465: The Christian alternative music scene, as well as several from cult-status mainstream industrial rock bands of the time. These appearances include Mark Salomon ( Stavesacre , The Crucified ), Dirk Lemmenes ( Focused , Stavesacre), Jeff Bellew (Stavesacre, The Crucified, Chatterbox ), Jim Thirlwell ( Foetus ), Klank , Jyro Xhan ( Mortal ), Tommy Victor ( Prong ), Chris Donohue ( Vigilantes of Love ), and Lauren Boquette and Marco Forcone (Drown). In

518-515: The Christian music scene. In 1996, Buka had planned to start up his own record label called Backwoods Records. The first release was to be a split album that would feature songs by Klank, Buka's new project Soil, and Argyle Park. However, the record label and the split album never saw the light of day. A single song attributed to a band called Backwoods was then released later in 1996 on a Christmas compilation put out by Flying Tart Records . The two members of Backwoods were Buka and Level, thus pointing

555-565: The New York's no wave scene, Cop Shoot Cop incorporated two bass guitars with no guitars. In the 1990s, industrial rock broke into the mainstream with artists and bands such as Nine Inch Nails , Orgy , Rob Zombie , White Zombie , and Marilyn Manson . In December 1992, Nine Inch Nails' EP Broken was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) . Nine Inch Nails gained further popularity with

592-562: The United States. A large Industrial metal scene also emerged in Europe in the 20th century. The Industrial Metal band that manages to appeal to the largest audiences worldwide is Rammstein . Other names have also proven successful in the European scene, including Pain , Deathstars , Dagoba , Eisbrecher , Gothminister and Godflesh . Ghoti Hook Joel Bell, Adam Neubauer, and Justin Levy formed

629-403: The band are listed here. Albums Compilation appearances Industrial rock Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music . It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Throbbing Gristle , Einstürzende Neubauten and Chrome . Industrial rock became more prominent in the 1980s with

666-468: The band when the band began to tour full-time so he could finish seminary and continue with his accounting career. His last show was in the fall of 1997 at a show promoted by Javacasa in Lebanon, PA. Mark Lacasse joined on lead guitar in 1998 and helped to write and record "Two Years to Never". Ergueta left the band sometime after the recording of "Two Years to Never" with Lacasse leaving a few months later. As

703-504: The blueprints for post-punk , synth pop , and industrial rock ." In 1976, English musician David Bowie collaborated with American musician Iggy Pop on his 1977 solo debut The Idiot . Musically, the album is said to contain elements of industrial rock, notably the closing track, "Mass Production", which contains numerous "proto-industrial noises" created using tape loops , and is described by Hugo Wilcken as "early industrial electronica". The Idiot has been described as having

740-426: The general expectation within the Christian music industry that bands will be positive and evangelistic. This, along with the generally dark image of the band, led to much of the criticism that Argyle Park faced from within the underground Christian music scene and music press. Listeners heavily and openly criticized the band and band members in online message boards and via email, causing the members personal insult to

777-540: The genre and subgenres of Christian industrial and electronic music. A wide variety of bands that have appeared on the scene have cited Argyle Park and AP2 as influences in their biographies and press releases. Tribute albums have been proposed at various times, with at least a handful of cover songs recorded. The more recent success of Klayton's Celldweller has also resulted in renewed interest in his older projects, including both Argyle Park albums. Note that Argyle Park included numerous guest contributors. Only core members of

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814-434: The group in 1991. Conrad Tolosa and Christian Ergueta, who also went to the same youth group, joined the band shortly after. Levy left the band after one year to pursue other interests. Conrad's cousin, Jamie Tolosa, was asked to join the band soon after. In 1994, they started to develop their pop-punk sound. The group released two independent EPs in 1994 and 1995, both produced by Kevin 131 at Assembly Line Studios. They built

851-530: The local no wave scene, notably Glenn Branca's band Theoretical Girls "You Got Me" as well as punk rock, noise music (particularly Whitehouse ) and the original industrial groups. Steve Albini 's Big Black followed a similar path, while also incorporating American hardcore punk . Big Black has also been closely associated with post-hardcore and noise rock , though their ties to industrial music are extremely apparent. The Swiss trio The Young Gods , who deliberately eschewed electric guitars in favor of

888-434: The point that they disbanded. These same issues arose again when the band reformed as AP2. The members expressed disappointment, puzzlement, and frustration at the constant criticism of Argyle Park, which they said came only from within the Christian music scene, but were never apologetic, stating "there are enough fluff bands out there anyway [...] We're writing about real issues that have a real impact" and even anticipated

925-537: The project open and release additional albums, but again shut down later in 2000, this time due to low sales through Tooth & Nail and a resurgence of the criticisms that dogged the band the first time around. Argyle Park courted controversy from the time of their first appearance, on the Steve Taylor tribute album, being criticized for their subtle changing of the meaning of the song by way of leaving out significant portions of Taylor's original lyrics. Though signed to

962-503: The project. Guest appearances were made once more, but not nearly as numerously as on Misguided: Klank returned, as did Mark Salomon , and Joel Timothy Bell of the Tooth & Nail punk band Ghoti Hook also provided some vocals. The music on Suspension of Disbelief was just as varied as that on Misguided, with the band this time experimenting with gabber techno , pop dance, drum'n'bass , R&B, punk rock, and metal. The members planned to keep

999-586: The release of their 1994 album The Downward Spiral , which was certified 4× platinum by the RIAA in 1998. The band's 1999 album The Fragile was certified 2× platinum in January 2000. With the success of Nine Inch Nails, the band's debut album Pretty Hate Machine was certified 3× platinum by the RIAA. In the 1990s, four Nine Inch Nails songs went on the Billboard Hot 100 . Several industrial rock and industrial metal artists such as KMFDM , Fear Factory , Gravity Kills and Sister Machine Gun appeared on

1036-492: The return of these criticisms with the release of AP2's album. Online debates and slander continued long after the disbanding of AP2, causing former members to occasionally post angry retorts and chastisements on the message boards and, if one post by Buka was to be believed, caused the band to scrap a proposed tenth anniversary remix project in 2004. Apart from all the controversies surrounding both incarnations of Argyle Park, however, their albums have been massively popular within

1073-620: The success of artists such as Killing Joke , Swans , and partially Skinny Puppy , and later spawned the offshoot genre known as industrial metal . The genre was made more accessible to mainstream audiences in the 1990s with the aid of acts such as Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson , both of which have released platinum-selling records. Richie Unterberger assessed the Red Krayola as "a precursor to industrial rock" with their 1967 record The Parable of Arable Land exhibiting music made by 50 people on anything from industrial power tools to

1110-520: The summer of 1995, Argyle Park made their only live appearance at the Cornerstone Music Festival in Bushnell, Illinois . The musicians onstage included Dan Leveler, who would later become a full member of AP2 under the alias Level. Argyle Park made one more recorded appearance in 1996, this time with a song on a tribute album to Stryper . Then the band announced that they were shutting down. In

1147-455: The way to the resurrection of Argyle Park in 1998. Argyle Park "reopened" in 1999 under the name AP2, signing to alternative Christian music label Tooth & Nail Records . AP2 released one album called Suspension of Disbelief in 2000. Scott Albert, now using the name Klayton, produced the album and wrote only two of the songs while his younger brother, Level , did the bulk of the actual song crafting and Buka provided thematic direction for

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1184-555: Was certified 2× platinum by the RIAA in March 1996. White Zombie's vocalist Rob Zombie began creating pure industrial metal albums in his solo career. Rob Zombie's 1998 solo debut studio album Hellbilly Deluxe was certified 3× platinum by the RIAA less than two years after its release date. In November 1999, Powerman 5000 's album Tonight the Stars Revolt! was certified platinum by the RIAA. The album sold at least 1,316,172 units in

1221-709: Was certified platinum by the RIAA in February 1999 and sold at least 1,409,000 copies in the United States. Orgy also experienced mainstream success during the 1990s. The band's 1998 album Candyass was certified platinum by the RIAA in July 1999. Orgy's cover of New Order 's song " Blue Monday " went to number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the Dance Club Songs chart. White Zombie experimented with industrial metal on its 1995 album Astro-Creep: 2000 , which

1258-416: Was credited in the liner notes to three pseudonymous individuals: Dred, Deathwish, and Buka. Dred, Deathwish, and Celldweller, another individual credited as the album's producer, were all aliases for Scott Albert of the underground industrial metal band Circle of Dust . Buka was the alias for Chris Martello, at the time a producer for MTV Sports . Misguided also featured a myriad of guest appearances from

1295-508: Was later confirmed with an announcement that the group would be participating at Furnace Fest in September 2023. The band played a small-club reunion show on September 9, 2023, at Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA, with The Throes as an opening act. The word " ghoti " is a phonetic spelling of "fish", invented in the 19th century as an example of the irregularities of English spelling. Pronunciation:

1332-553: Was listed on Wire 's "100 Records That Set The World On Fire (When No One Was Listening)". Industrial rock was created in the mid- to late 1970s, amidst the punk rock revolution and disco fever. Prominent early industrial musicians include Throbbing Gristle , Cabaret Voltaire , NON , SPK and Z'EV . Many other artists have been cited as influences such as Kraftwerk , Gary Numan , and Tubeway Army as well as Einstürzende Neubauten and Fad Gadget . Many other musical performers were incorporating industrial music elements into

1369-510: Was named after an actual park in Babylon, Long Island , where the members of Argyle Park grew up together. Argyle Park first appeared on a tribute album to 80s contemporary Christian music iconoclast Steve Taylor in 1994. The full-length Argyle Park album, Misguided , was released later that year on R.E.X. Records . The album was musically varied, combining elements such as techno, metal guitar, ragtime piano, horns, samples, and dark vocals and

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