Top industrial bands to watch in 2014

Dead When I Found Her
Portland one-man act Dead When I Found Her had been attracting attention for a while, and I recently got around to picking up their second album (released 2012), Rag Doll Blues. It was an enormously fresh and invigorating blast of wind into the musty air of EBM, and I'd say the best EBM album since Mind.In.A.Box's Crossroads in 2007 (or maybe even since their 2005 masterpiece, Dreamweb). Suffice to say I was very pleased that the hype was not misplaced. If you haven't already discovered Dead When I Found Her, go and check them out. I have a strong feeling that there are seriously great things to come from Mr. Michael Holloway. (Let's ignore for the moment the fact that he recently did a cassette only release of covers, sigh).

Stendeck
I don't have any particular evidence that Stendeck will be putting out any releases in 2014, but I really, really hope he does. Stendeck for me is now up there with Totakeke as one of the most exciting IDM / electronic artists around. I completely loved his last two albums (Scintilla and Sonnambula, both released on Tympanik Audio), I love his sound, and I can't rave enough about how good he is. Get on board goddammit if you haven't already!

Youth Code

Youth Code are a seriously hyped-up band at the moment. They’re a new two-piece from the US doing really raw minimal 80s style EBM and a lot of people like them. To further cement their “cult” and/or “underground” crediblities, they have released their debut album only on vinyl (le sigh). I’m not exactly a vinyl nut: I don’t even own a record player. But from what I’ve heard on bandcamp, they are actually pretty good and worthy of (at least some of) the hype. It remains to be seen if they will get swallowed up by hype and over-expectations, or if they will actually deliver... some people seem to treat them as the final divine salvation of EBM as a genre, but me? I’m actually more excited about the prospect of a new Seabound album coming out soon, as unfashionable as that might be in certain circles. Speaking of which...

Seabound
Seabound are great. I thought they were finished. But they have a new album coming out really soon. You should get it. That's all that needs to be said there really!

Nao
Nao are a French industrial band. They play crazy intense instrumental industrial music with drums and guitars, and they release albums on the Ant-Zen label. And they are really, really good. They have a new album, coming out on Ant-Zen, really, really soon. I am really, really excited about this. You really, really should go and check them out. They have their own unique sound and it is a Good Sound.
(update: since I started writing this post, it has actually been released, and from what I've heard on bandcamp, it is, as expected, really really good).