“I haven’t put one of those music posts on the blog for a while” I thought to myself, not realising that the last was actually in February. I don’t think it really matters – no one looks at this website, let alone reads the blog, so I don’t think anyone has been missing out. Anyway, here’s the top charts of what I listened to in May.
Top Artists
ESA (Electronic Substance Abuse) are not Esa, shown in the image above. Apple Music has messed that one up. The ESA I was listening too are very hard electronic industrial music and I really like it. It’s the sort of thing most people would write off as just noise.
Dawn of Ashes were an aggrotech band, then they went more black metal, and now they’re probably a bit of both. I prefer the earlier aggrotech stuff with two amazing albums – In the Acts of Violence (2006) and The Crypt Injection (2007) – but they weren’t what I was listening to. You’ll find out more below, how exciting.
In 3rd place we have Wet Leg. I had kind of heard some of their stuff and liked it, but not paid much attention. Then I saw they were playing live in London and I figured one of my friends would want to go see them, which we did, so that’s why I was listening to them a lot. More on that below as well.
I was also listening to Nitronoise again. I already talked about them in my 2024 in Music post, so I’m sure you remember what I said from when you read that before. You didn’t read it? Well it’s here.
Finally, we have Model/Actriz. I saw them at Wide Awake Festival in 2023 and liked them, and they were doing another gig in London which unfortunately I couldn’t make but it got me listening to them again. A good punky/rock band.
Top Songs
There’s not much to say about top songs – I listened to these albums lot and those songs were on those albums. Carry The Noose got the top spot because I put it on my Industrial Gothic playlist and it popped up on there a couple of times.
Top Albums
I was listening to a few things from ESA but That Beast (2018) got my attention and I listened to it a few times. As I said above, it’s loud, aggressive and probably a hard listen for some people, but I really like it. I find aggressive music a very cathartic outlet.
I listened to Wet Leg (2022) by Wet Leg as it’s the only album they have. Aside from my aggressive musical tendencies, I really enjoy a bit of shoe gazey post-punk and I’m particularly fond of female vocals, so I think it’s a great album.
I listen to Streets of Rage 4 (Original Game Soundtrack) (2020) far too often for a man who hasn’t played that game for a few years. It was on Xbox Game Pass, I enjoyed the game and the music was perfect for a modern callback to the music from the original 1990s Streets of Rage games. Some of it is very ‘computer game music’, some of it is genuinely just good music. And it’s a long album, so if I listen to it, it always creeps into Apple top charts as they do them by minutes.
I know what you’re thinking – earlier I said I didn’t listen to The Crypt Injection (2007) by Dawn of Ashes. And I didn’t! This is The Crypt Injection II (2019). A solid album where the band returned to their aggrotech roots but brought some of their black metal phase with them.
Last, but not least, we have Construct (2025) by VNV Nation. I don’t think I’ve listened to VNV Nation for years , but they were a big part of my full blown goth years so it was a nice surprise when they popped up on my New Music Friday playlist. After the hearing the song from the playlist, I jumped straight into the album whilst doing the gardening because I’m now on my full blown middle aged man phase.
Matt Hart 