Taking the postindustrial pulse

With 20 years' experience as the main driving force behind Front Line Assembly, Bill Leeb has become quite an authority on postindustrial music and all its weird and wonderful mutations.

Born in Vienna, but having relocated to Canada as a youngster, Leeb became infected by the industrial sound bug following a spell playing bass and contributing backing vocals for Skinny Puppy under the pseudonym of William Schroeder back in 1985. Inspired to take charge of his own destiny, he set up Front Line Assembly the following year.  

Rapidly developing an aggressive fusion of rock and electronic sounds, Leeb instinctively knew where he wanted to take postindustrial techno. Early releases like The Initial Command (1987), State of Mind (1988) and Corrosion (1988) came punctuated with heavily sequenced bass lines, chunky beats and a swath of synthesizers and obligatory samples. References to early industrial pioneers like Meat Beat Manifesto, Cabaret Voltaire and Test Dept were pretty evident, but Leeb's ability to think outside the box soon led to FLA becoming a major new force of its own.  

Gashed Senses & Crossfire (1989), with its pounding electro club hits "Digital Tension Dementia" and "No Limit," showed exactly what could be done, with FLA stepping into new dance territory and other postindustrial sub-genres of industrial metal and EBM (Electronic Body Music). Leeb's love of horror and sci-fi flicks - his favorites include Bladerunner, The Legend of Hell House, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and John Carpenter's Halloween - adds an extra, unsettling dimension that just can't be ignored.    

Personnel may have come and gone with alarming regularity over the past 25 years, but Leeb has remained mostly solid as the only surviving member of the original lineup. Apart from a few excursions with projects like Intermix, Noise Unit and Delirium - the latter allegedly making him rich when the track "Silence," featuring Sarah McLachlan on backing vocals, became a huge chart hit in 2000 - FLA seems to be deep in his DNA.

Now labeled by some as a veteran of the scene, Leeb brushes off catch phrases like "the grandfather of industrial rock."

"I just enjoy the moment and don't worry about the hype," he has said. "I go day by day and record by record. I don't want to be the grandfather of industrial rock. I don't feel that I need to do this. I could retire, but I still do FLA because I like doing it."

Indeed, one listen to FLA's latest offering, Improvised Electronic Device, and you immediately sense that there's still plenty of mileage left in the old dog and his band.

No less caustic and cerebral than anything that's gone before it, Improvised Electronic Device is, if you'll pardon the pun, quite an incendiary effort that manages to take in all the best bits of FLA's early releases and boosts them with a metallic guitar element. Tracks like "Hostage" and the dance-oriented single "Shifting Through the Lens" show a genuine return to form, as does the sonic meaty slab of "Stupidity," featuring Ministry's Al Jourgensen on guest vocals.

In the past, it's been mostly Leeb and his cohort Rhys Fulber steering FLA's material. But the new disc sees duties spread across the board, making the latest version of the band sound like a compact, solid unit. "We feel confident that this new album will sound great live," Leeb says. "And we can't wait to get out there and be creative with it."

The abrasive drama of performers like Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails may have stolen most of the thunder away from FLA in recent years. But with Leeb's dark, distorted vocal assault backed by all those pounding techno machines and metallic guitars, you really do feel like you've died and gone to hell. They're that good.

James Scanlon can be reached at
features@praguepost.com