D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle

“What the hell”- Tim Robinson. Yeah I don’t get avant garde for the sake of avant garde. You can’t tell me these guys sat down to make this and went “holy shit we’ve done it. What great music we’ve made”. It feels phoned in, like a prank, wow no one’s done this before. Wack

Strangely compelling noise

Someone once said there is music all around us. Throbbing Gristle set out to disprove that statement. This album is a must listen to before you die, just so you can hear most unnecessary “music” ever created. 0.3/10

Not quite my thing. Seems edgy just to be edgy. 1.4/5

Oh I’m sorry, I thought I was supposed to be listening to music.

I don’t like it, but I think that’s the point. So I hope they don’t mind the 2 stars.

At time of writing, this album has the second lowest rating on the website, very quickly I realise why. This is very far from mainstream music, I’m sure a lot of low score reviews will say this isn’t music. My view is this album is a challenging but rewarding listen, as it showcases the experimental nature and the wide-ranging sound of Throbbing Gristle. Some of the songs are more accessible, like “AB/7A”, which has a catchy groove and a hypnotic vocal. Some of the songs are more difficult, like “Home Time”, which features a distorted voice and a chaotic noise collage. But the album is different and genre-defining, as it inspired many artists in the industrial and electronic music scenes, such as Nine Inch Nails. I appreciate the adventurousness and the innovation of this album, but I don’t think I will revisit it often. It deserves to be in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, as it is a landmark of the industrial genre and a unique musical expression. I give it three stars out of five, mostly for its originality and influence.

This album had its intended effect - it challenged me to let down my guard and open myself up to something different and it surprised me. I can't really say that I ENJOYED it but I didn't hate or dislike it either. It kind of grew on me and I never felt like I wanted to fast forward to the next number hoping for something better. It wasn't really music as I would define it but rather artistically fashioned sounds with musical elements. At times the "soundscapes" were jarring or discordant but it wasn't just random noise, it was manipulated in such a way as to make it interesting. I don't know if this makes any sense but this album isn't really something you listen to, it's more like something you experience. I wouldn't actively choose to listen to this but I was intrigued by it and I don't think I'm any worse off for having heard it.

I don't understand industrial/noise music, but props to them for inventing a whole genre.

Some interesting songs in here but couldn’t really get into it in it’s entirety

Listen, I don't have any issues with industrial music. But it DOES need to be at least reminiscent of actual MUSIC. Unfortunately, for the majority of this album, the actual music seems to be missing. It's been replaced by random samples of environmental noise and dialogue. I believe that the TG boys were TRYING to do something groundbreaking here. They just... failed. Not at making a statement. At making music. They definitely made a statement. I can only conclude that Throbbing Gristle seems to be one of "those" bands. You know the ones. The bands that the people "in the know" can't stop raving about but your average music lover can't stand. Sometimes, the critics are right and "those" bands are actually groundbreaking and important. This is not one of those cases, unfortunately. This is an "emperor's clothes" situation. Those who fawn over this album think they're covering themselves in an air of expertise and mystique by praising something so difficult to listen to but, in reality, they're just standing there with their ass in the wind. It's not a good album. It's just not.

Ekki skemmtilegt, en sem einhvers konar ambient er þetta áhugavert og á köflum jafnvel áheyrilegt, þótt það reyni að vera það alls ekki. Sumt er vissulega off, en umslagið er nostalgískt. Gaman að sjá að Ivar hillur voru til 1978. Ég sakna þess tíma þegar græjur máttu taka pláss.

Too abstract. 1/5

I have no choice but to steal another review that I found on this album. Massive banger after massive banger. Huge soaring choruses, exquisite melodies and perfectly polished pop hooks. An earworm if ever there was one.

There are two types of albums that one can find in the global lowest rated list: (1) daring, experimental albums that are not suitable for parties or the radio but are more interesting that at least half of the entire 1001 albums list. And (2) albums that are so bad they couldn't be called music. This one is on the latter camp, trying hard to be on the former.

Ain’t for me

Call me one of the unwashed masses, because this is just noise.

Ah….Throbbing Gristle…as art, or an artistic statement, this album a is 5/5. As a musical statement it’s a bit harder to assess. I definitely appreciate the desire to push the boundaries of music (and what can be considered music) as far as it will go and ‘D.o.A…’ does just that. It’s harsh and uncompromising, but there’s also a dark humour that runs through the album. It’s often very uncomfortable listening, and an effort to listen to in its entirety (which no doubt is the point). I like that it’s so dissonant and demands so much from the listener. Would I listen to this again? Probably not any time soon. Am I glad that I have though, and been challenged by something so avant-garde and experimental? That’s a big yes.

I would like to send a bag of gummy dicks packed in glitter to the person who wrote this list for making me listen to such nonsense.

i get it. i hated it.

Brutaali. Onneks en kuunnellut kuulokkeilla enkä pimeessä. Hieno creepy kansi. Mutta sisältö? Tulee olo, että Nine inch nails tekee tän paremmin rockina.

Siinä missä Einstürzende Neubauten ylittää riman sympaattisella rytmiikallaan, tätä bändiä ei vain tunnu kiinnostavan. Yhtye myy häiritsevyyttä vailla perusteita, ja rukoilee, että kuulija tulkitsee sen merkityksellisyytenä. Opetus: aidot kauhun tunteet eivät itsessään osoita niiden aiheuttajan arvoa.

interesting experimental sounds - I liked better than I thought.

Maybe art. Definitely not music.

I can see why this is so lowly rated and the reviews are how they are. It pushes boundaries sometimes to the breaking point of conventional recorded material. I felt like I was having heart palpitations at certain points due to the noises.

interesting title extremely industrial and loud this shit is ass dawg 🤗 couldnt bring myself to listen to the entire thing

If you want to feel the mania and anxiety of getting to an airport with an extra long security line as time clicks away and you ponder your meaning in this fickle world this album is just for you. For everyone just ignore this garage.

dio mio cosa mi tocca ascoltare

The cruelest irony here is that while the name “Throbbing Gristle” refers to an erect penis, the band’s music is hell-bent on encouraging anything but. In the 42 excruciating minutes of this 1978 [album? art-piece? installation?] I didn’t feel a single twinge down there. This is “music” to curl up, shrivel and die a lonely, flaccid death to. “D.O.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle” showcases the Throbbing Gristle collective as an avant-garde unit. By all accounts, it set a benchmark for industrial music and doggedly went against the mainstream. Many of the album’s tracks are instrumentals, as the band mess around with synths to create textured, foreboding sound collages. “I.B.M” opens the album with looping squalling feedback, dial-up tones and indecipherable layered spoken word. “AB/7A” is a basic, uncharacteristically listenable exercise in arpeggios with a drum machine ticking underneath. “E-Coli” is led by gloomy synth bass, long and low drones. In between these sequences, some tracks come slamming in as if to assure us that Throbbing Gristle are actually a band. In “Hit By a Rock”, anguished vocals bellow something like a tune, as the bass rumbles away with no clarity, care or craft. “Dead on Arrival” begins as an actual song, but is swiftly laboured with aimless sonic experimentation. And while “United” began life as one of the band’s only singles, here it is sped up to sixteen seconds. It’s a goading move, but to be honest I consider it a mercy. The album seems to hit its aims the most when it leans into straight-ahead horror. The infamous “Hamburger Lady”, the only Theobbing Gristle track I was aware of, recites a spoken word piece about the terrible condition of a car-crash victim. It’s a cheap and schlocky move which is then somehow upstaged by “Walls of Sound”, three minutes of aural torture. Squealing dentist drills, howling feedback, burning white-noise… the world crumbles. All that’s left to fill out the runtime are rambling taped conversations or field recordings with no discernible message or purpose. “Hometime” and “Valley of the Shadow of Death” achieve nothing besides weighing down the album further, and “Death Threats” is a forty-second voice message to band member Cosey Fanni Tutti, threatening to have her “well and truly done over”. “D.O.A” is a fearsome piece of art. It never stops pushing the envelope, exploring new ways of innovating, experimenting with the outer limits of what music can be. It’s bold, it’s pioneering, and it’s significant. Sadly, though, all of these things can be true, and it can still be the most insufferable bullshit I’ve ever heard. Consider my gristle lifeless and non-throbbing.

Hard pass

I can see how this would be influential, but not something I’m gonna ever listen to again

I don't understand why this was recommended. It just noise. Very annoying noise.

Bloody hell what a strange one, so happy to come across it though…. Totally unlistenable though😂

I don't get it. Just because something is novel and not done before, doesn't make it artistically valuable. This does not add anything significant to music. It is an experimental album, not one of the greatest.

Am I in a modern art gallery? For sure? Is my computer broken? No? Then what's wrong?

I really liked AB/7A. I would probably be more understanding of everything else if I encountered it in an art gallery as sound art or something. Not that I would actually sit 40 minutes in a gallery to listen.

This is not music. It shoudn't be on this list.

eh....

Kova

No nyt on kokeellista. Päätä särkee.

All hail Breyer P-Orridge!

These are they types of weird experimental albums I hope to find once and a while. I haven’t heard this one yet, but I recognize some of the things that they do and wonder how much that influenced bands that I’ve listened to.

Being influential is not a reason to rate it highly IMO. I had low expectations given the reviews and it probably wasn't quite as bad as I expected, however that isn't saying much. I have no idea when or why I'd want to listen to this, most of it doesn't resemble music, and I think people giving it 5* just want to look clever

pre industrial industrial. If this didn't exist, then NIN might not exist. I'm debating on if it's worth all that. This album is truly unlistenable, non-music.

No.

The emporers new clothes was an interesting idea once upon a time too. Utterly irrelevant and little artistic merit once you take away what was probably the shock of the new at the time. There is no way this is in the top 10,001 albums of all time, let alone 1,001. The beard weirdly dated nature of this play list keeps on coming through.

Very dark and very wrong album cover

This isn't music. It's the soundtrack to my kids being forced to do the dishes.

I mean...

1* for the dissapointment of no Manic Miner after the loading sound from track #1

Absolute garbage... My ears and sanity will never forgive me for subjecting them to this much tripe in such a short time.

Strange album, need to listen more

After this album, Spotify recommended Kollaps by Einstürzende Neubauten. Which. I. HATED. Not good, Spotify. Not good at ALL. I get that this was the precursor to a lot of industrial music. But having those short bits in there, like "Death Threats" will only get listened to once, right? It's like the skits on rap albums. Funny once but not over and over. I liked this a little better than Kollaps. Songs like "Weeping" had a nice opening, along with "Dead On Arrival" I kinda dug. But all in all it just made me think of "Sprockets" on SNL and the pretension of that kind of German art Mike Myers was making fun of (like "Blood On The Floor."). So I will give it a little leeway, but not much.

I was really hoping for an uptempo album today. Something that I could put on and rock to the beat with, and then let the suggested tracks to follow the album play out. Wash, rinse, repeat for the whole day. I love when that happens - a nice surprise. This was not that. It was cringeworthy from the beginning. Yeah, I get that the high pitched sounds were probably what they were going for with IBM (it sounded like what you hear when you call a fax machine, and this was before we would've known that sound). But man, the whole album was grating. And when it wasn't putting the weirdest objects together to generate the most unusual sounds, it was a bunch of Brits going on about drivel (Valley of the Shadow of Death, Death Threats), or it was both unusual sounds and drivel (Hamburger Lady, Hometime). Admittedly songs like Dead on Arrival and AB/7A were cool, but that was too rare an occurrence. I tried, I really did, to get through it all without skipping any parts. But I couldn't. That was terrible.

Do I get what it’s going for? Yes. Do I respect what it’s going for? Yes. Do I even kinda like it in concept and sometimes in execution? Yes. Do I ever want to listen to it again? ……no.

It’s interesting, I’ll give it that.

This is mostly noise. Unlistenable. 1/5

Throbbing Gristle is a band that’s remembered more for their historical importance than by how well their music holds up. I do enjoy this album, but by modern standards it’s a quite average industrial/noise/experimental album. Still, well worth listening to

Chill men inte lika greppande som annan industrial ja hört

Really? Why? It could be a good soundtrack for an art house movie. But as an album of music and nothing but music, it's awful.

The kind of music which must exist to push the envelope and test the listener - but it is a test I did not pass.

why. If this came out in the 1700s I would've understood that mankind had just discovered new ways to make new sounds and were trying to convince the general public that Mozart was overrated and this is the music of the people, but really it was just a bunch of street rats suffering from Long Plague who happened to stumble upon a melody. Just because it's melodic does not make it music. That being said, there is a place for this. Even if that place is the soundtrack to some dystopian cyberpunk game.

Detta e vel da verst ranka albumet på denna listo her, men eg sette i grunn pris på da. Har nok sammenheng med at eg hørte ein del på da i ungdommen, og at AB/7A e jævlig bra

Not a fan.

Blind album and artist. What. The. Fuck... this is garbage... I genuinely tried to listen to this and I have no clue what this even is. It makes my ears want to bleed. Good on this band for trying to be different and do something artistic but just cause it's artistic and creative doesn't mean it's good. There's 1 audible track on here and it's not even good.

Oh my god, fuck this shit so hard! No wonder everyone hates it!! Absolute, complete and utter nonsense. Straight up sonic torture. Frankly, it should be avoided if you'd like to keep on living and enjoying albums. This should be on the 1001 Albums to Definitely NOT Hear Because You Are Not Missing Out At All list. Jesus Christ, how could you let this happen? I'm holding you personally responsible for this.

At first, I thought I would really hate this album. The first song won me over about halfway through; but I still didn't love every song. Still a very cool album.

After listening to a couple of songs I said out loud that I would be very surprised if this album's global score was over 2. Do I know my 1001 or what?

These guys .03 behind Einstürzende Neubauten for the lowest score on 1001, which I agree with. I think EN still deserves the coveted #1 spot, since that LP, as I remember, was straight noise and this is mostly noise. There is a gap to Residents at #3 and Napalm Death at #4. I agree here as well since I think those guys are definitely more talented (at this point anyway - Throbbing Gristle turned to music a few years later).

This album is basically tied for the lowest score on this site, so you know its gonna be a wild ride. TG are indeed capable of making what actually sounds like \"music\" eg their ironically named album \"20 Jazz Funk Greats\", but here they really threw in the kitchen sink along with some stale dinner leftovers. I don't mind musique concrète but it has to sound somewhat coherent and have some sort of melodic beat tying it all together, eg KLF's Chill out is one of my all time favourite album with found sounds and I can listen to that repeatedly and not tire of it, whereas it would be a struggle to listen to this again given that it's so unsettling. The only redeeming song is their Kraftwerk-esque AB/7A. When TG broke up in 1981 two of their members, Chris and Cosey kept working together and they put out some very interesting electronic pieces that are much more accessible, check out \"Walking through heaven\" from their Songs of Love & Lust album, its just brilliant.

Listened while driving to work, weird driving music but didn't hate it, glad I've heard it once though

Experiments in noise.

Electronic industrial/noise music. I know that this is cult shit, but this is not for me. The song AB/7A is OK (loop that I could imagine as a part of a DJ set), otherwise not a single song that I found engaging.

I admire and appreciate the hell out of these guys for having the courage to commit this shit to tape back in 1978. It inspired a whole generation of industrial rockers and had a large say in the future of electronic music. Is it enjoyable to listen to in a vacuum though? No, absolutely not.

I skipped through it. I liked the idea but couldn’t listen to it. It’s still better than Eric Clapton and Finley Quaye though

Fuck it, I'm tripping.

Not my style

I thought some other albums have been a struggle on this list, but this one takes the cake. Maybe that's its purpose. Maybe its genius. Maybe it takes a genius to truly appreciate their work here. Any of those could be true, but I know one thing is true for sure, this album is not for me.

No thanks

I have never wanted something end so fast. Barely made it through two songs.

I don't know how this album can even be counted as music as it's just noise and screaming noises. If this was an art istalation I would understand but you can't really call this music. I can see what they were going for but it didn't really work.

Absolutely terrible experimental industrial rock album. No unintended absurdity to laugh at. An attempt to be serious gone wrong. A bit of musicality here and there. Mid 1.

Throbbing Gristle Genre: Industrial 1978 3rd Listen: 2, 2.5 Standouts: AB/7A Others: Weeping, I.B.M., Hit by a Rock, Valley of the Shadow of Death, Walls of Sound Love the child porn calendar...they have balls. 3.5

More noise than music. Really hard to get through this one. 1/5 Won't listen again

Boel geluid

Total shite - if I could score lower than 1 I would.

Ymmärrän kyllä mitä tää levy yrittää. Ja välillä onnistuukin siinä. Olla tosi ambientmainen, hämärä, tunnelmallinen, industriaalinen. Oikeastaan tämä ei oo niinkään musiikkia. Vähän samalla tavalla kuin Burialin jotkin kappaleet. Tavallaan ihan siisti kokemus. Ja vähän vaikea arvioida. En kuitenkaan ihan niin paljon nauttinut tämän kuuntelusta, mutta koska siinä oli niitä hetkiä missä se onnistui ihan hyvin niin ei kuitenkaan ihan 1 tähteä ole

A+ for the band name A+ for the confusion in the ratings/reviews A+ for really being an original album that should be listened to A+ for being experimental AF A+ for insane level of influence Guys, I had a great time. Y'all can go listen to another Britpop album.

Turned off. Would have made it 0 if able

Weird electronic noises and conversations you can't hear. Not really music.

Did not enjoy

That may be the worst one yet.

WTF is this?

Not music

I'm surprised at the sound of this album. For an Industrial album, I expected something loud, abrasive and noisy. And while there are moments like that, such as in the tracks Hit by a Rock and Walls of Sound, what underpins this album is an understated, unsettling ambience. Opener I.B.M is a great introduction, setting the tone with lots of random noises building tension around an underpinning signal. Weeping starts oddly serene with an echoing guitar, before quickly turning to that muted sinister sound. Most understated sounding song goes to Hamburger Lady, which somehow is the most famous song from this album as the lyrics are gruesome. It's this variety of sound that makes this album influential. I get flashbacks to Boards of Canada in Hometime, with its explicitly homely, childlike veneer over something dark, as well as Kraftwerk in AB/7A with its simultaneous chirpy and cold sound. And Steve Albini must've surely listened to those chainsaw guitars on Dead on Arrival. It's that focus on almost homely horror, instead of the baroque operatic shocking the genre would (d)evolve to in the 90s, that makes this album great and probably made Throbbing Gristle hit too close to home for all the conservative haters calling in in Death Threats. (Still, it still feels that with the original album art (and that includes more than the cover) it does cross a line like those acts in the 90s did. And a cursory Wikipedia read about it's members is... not reassuring) Light 4

An experimental album that sounds like it was experimenting for the sake of being experimental. If it brought anything new to the scene, it was lost on me.

QUE COÑO?!?!?

Who ever things this is remotely good needs a psychological evaluation

Bad

I like to be a contrarian for the lowest-rated albums here when I can, but I don’t think I have the heart for this one. Definitely the kind of art that’s meant to be in a gallery and viewed from a critical perspective, but music has never been about the ‘art’ for me. Without much context, I can’t really assign any kind of thematic thoughline here, and the tracks themselves vary so wildly there’s little to grab on to. For the time period this is an impressive piece of avant garde experimentation, but much like experimental film where nothing happens I really think this one is leaving me high and dry

I guess that was technically an album.

spiritual war is real, you must choose a side

Seriously, I would have been fine with dying without hearing this. But AB/7A was kinda cool.

worst i have ever heard

Not my style. Industrial has value, but it’s a tough listen. I’m sure this was much more innovative in its time when there was less stuff like it.

Undoubtedly pioneers in their field, but that doesn't mean it is pleasant to listen to, albeit with a couple of exceptions here and there.

Noises and people talking

wtf is this shit

Had never heard about it until now and it’s always cool to learn new things but I’m not impressed. Probably super revolutionary at the time but barely has any music, being mostly noisy sounds experiments.

Nope. I'm not listening to this trash.

It kinda made my head hurt, but like, in a good way? There were only two tracks I could do without (Valley of the Shadow of the Death and Dead On Arrival). The rest of the album was interesting, and I’d happily listen to it a few more times.

The list of artists that managed the jump for me from performance art to music I'd actually listen to on purpose is pretty brief. Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk... that might be it actually. I thought this was pointless pretentious garbage. Complete waste of time.

An album for people who claim Revolution 9 is their favorite Beatles song.

You think you've heard it all and then you find yourself listening to Throbbing Gristle. There were a few scant glimmers of hope in this album, but it was mostly an ocean of unpleasant more or less experimental noise. It was chewy and hear to get through but I slogged it out. Hope not to ever experience it again!

This could either be a soundtrack to a robot snuff film or the rise of living dead. Also, this is quite possibly the worst album I've been exposed to here. I'm all for noise rock, but this noise doesn't rock.

Throbbing Gristle brings us the second 1-star industrial entry on the list, joining The Young Gods in notoriety. Apparently I thought at the time that amongst the awful, The Young Gods had "some moments with some interesting music." Those are rarer on "D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle," although "AB/7A" was actually listenable. Genesis P-Orridge (actually) and the Gristle gang delivered possibly the worst album on the list, and the time spent listening (and reading P-Orridge's Wikipedia page) is time I'll sadly never have back. So industrial music is overrepresented. You know what's underrepresented? Emo. Emo might have been the butt of many jokes in the 2000s, but the genre's early days in the 80s and 90s and its heydey in the 2000s delivered several worthy albums. So I'll use this space to advocate for one of them. Jimmy Eat World "Bleed American" (2001) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It may be poppier and more mainstream than the forerunners of the genre, but it delivers with raw emotion through great lyrics, earnest vocals, and driving guitars. JEW were on an incredible run that peaked at "Bleed American" but continued on through "Futures," and their hits, talent, and longevity all merit an inclusion on the list. Hopefully there won't be any more industrial albums, but if there are I'll be back with Sunny Day Real Estate, The Get Up Kids, and more to give an underrated genre its due.

So many different ways to make noise that aren't at all what I would consider music.

. This had zero redeeming qualities

I’m not even sure what I just listened to. It’s not music. I can’t imagine why these noises were ever recorded for someone else to hear. The on exception is AB/7A. It reminds me of the Tron Legacy soundtrack, which is amazing…obviously. Still not enough to pull this irredeemable pile of shot out of the bottom.

Did not enjoy in the slightest

I’m perplexed how this album is currently the second lowest ranked on the whole list. I get that industrial is not for everyone, and I’ve never considered myself a fan, nor do I now, but this thing is actually just a captivating listen. Throughout D.O.A. the band creates so many moods ranging from confusion to discomfort to tranquil to overwhelming, and each is executed really quite well. I may not come back to listen a second time but I’m damn sure happy to have heard this album at least once. 7/10

I am so confused. Do I need to take LSD to enjoy this.

Ummm...I tried really hard to listen to the whole thing but yeah...that didn't happen. Not my cup of tea for sure.

Well, this is something. Experimental? It is perhaps another example of a gateway piece that opened doors for others, that established a foundation that others built masterpieces upon. In this time, and in this place, this album isn't for me. Perhaps it would have been in 1978. Now? I'll stick with Bass Communion.

This is a collection of sound effects, not something a rational person would listen to for pleasure. Let's all agree that even if we tried to listen to this with an open mind, it cannot be classified as "good music" under any rubric. The best thing you can say about this album is that "Throbbing Gristle" is a mildly amusing band name and "Hamburger Lady" is a mildly amusing song title.

Obviously, as “music” this leaves something to be desired. Which is why we must have to be able to appreciate it on another level to understand how it is one of the greatest albums of all time. Fortunately, I have figured out that that level is “sound to be forced into one’s ear holes as one lies on the floor of a sub-basement London rave twitching and spasming uncontrollably in a pool of the mixed bodily fluids of one’s fellow ravers while one hallucinates fragmented horror scenes too disturbing to recount here, all from the effects of whatever the fuck was in that shit one just bought from the sketchy creep at the door on the way down to this particular incarnation of hell.” In that context, this shit is fucking lit, I am sure.

I cannot imagine ever returning to this, however it was nice to experience an early entry in the industrial/noise genre, and it was well produced.

Goddammit! This is impossible to review. I am very annoyed that I can't just turn this album off and throw it in the trash after discovering the "hidden," extremely creepy artwork of the little girl on the cover (removed in subsequent editions, but... supposedly still on Spotify?!?!) That made me want to throw up. So the already chaotic and disturbing soundscapes went beyond the purely disturbing and acquired a feeling tone of, for lack of a better word, "evil," after that. But then I kept listening, and I heard... genuinely cool sound experiments, very compelling pieces of music. That was surprising. This already is leaps and bounds better than the other industrial records we've had. There are a few moments of pure brilliance and weirdness that was not just tolerable, but kind of cool. I can see why this was influential. Aaaand then I got to the interlude track with the kids and the creepy music. And the interlude of the people talking about infecting people with E. coli. Whelp. This is challenging me, because I'm getting a mix of REALLY COOL SOUNDS and GENUINELY VERY DISTURBED feelings at at the same time. And this is way, way, waaaaaay better than Kollaps, our other pioneering Industrial album on the list. That was a pure 1. I just don't like this, I'm sorry. I don't like the evil, I don't like the attitude of shock music, I don't like feeling that I did all the homework and passed all my classes and here's the art school kids back again at my house making me suffer through sweaty bullshit. I like... music. And annoyingly, there is some good music in here. Reminds me so much of my experience watching "Mad God" last year. Conceptually and artistically flawless... also made me want to throw up. Not a fun time. Ugh! Fine. 2/5. I can see why it's influential, I can't just write it off like my deep senses of disgust wanted me to, and that'll have to be where we leave things.

I didn't think it was the 2nd worst on this list. I got through it and certainly see its influence. My gristle however never throbbed.

Terrible!

I’ve actually heard a couple of albums like this on the list now (‘Kollaps’ by Einstürzende Neubauten comes to mind), where the spirit of experimentation isn’t in doubt and some of the resulting sounds are pretty cool, but I just don’t think there’s enough there to make a good album. It sounds like a collection of demos/jams, half of which could’ve be fleshed out into decent tracks (E-Coli and Hamburger Lady are genuinely unnerving, in a good way) and half of which should probably never have been taken any further, let alone released. 1.5

One of the best band names to surface as part of this experiment... The album opens with one of the hardest to listen to experimental songs I have heard in recent memory. Really testing the boundaries on who will stick around. I can only imagine how many highs were absolutely destroyed by this album; I hope it came with a warning sticker at least. Hit By a Rock kind of continues in a less in your face obnoxious kind of way. Warbling, feedback, and a distant shout track. This is some avante garde shit right here. I think I may have just been lobotomized by Untied. Was not expecting that. Valley of the Shadow of Death sounds like it was made specifically to induce nightmares. I'm impressed by how unnerving this all feels. Its like the musical equivalent to a carnival funhouse mirror. Hometime is the calmest of the unsettling tracks here... Features a bunch of warbling tones that evoke a horror movie vibe, with a sound of children laughing and chatting overtop. AB/7A is a surprisingly straightforward electronic song. I would go so far as to say it is pleasurable to listen to; a ray of sunlight in this so far house of horror. Ya know, few albums have surprised me quite like this one. It is truly all over the place and demands a LOT from its listeners. I, for one, am not a match. While I understand that this is experimental and probably pushing boundaries for others to succeed in the future, this is not exactly something I would willingly go through and listen to again. That said, while I do not classify this as "good music" I will say that it was incredibly impressive in a surrealistic sense. The sounds and atmosphere's the group created really get under your skin and make you feel uncomfortable in a non-organic sort of way. Would absolutely not do drugs and listen to this one. The only comparable modern act I can think of is Matmos, but even they make songs with rhythms... I'm a soft 2 / 5 here because I think they earn some credit for making me so incredibly uncomfortable.

???

These noises are all that I could hear the one time when I accidentally took way too many edibles and I felt like my brain was vibrating l. AB/7A was a pretty cool little beat that actually resembled a song My dog listened to this album with me and based on her pacing and nervous behavior while the album was on I going to guess she gave this a 1/5 Not what I really enjoy listening to, but it wasn't horrible this is a 1.500000001/5 so I'll round up to a 2, my lowest possible 2 score. Still better than whatever that trash was that Kate Bush put out

Oh hell yeah been waiting for some Throbbing Gristle! Oh fam this ain't it. What they just played is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in their rambling, incoherent response were they even close to anything that could be considered a rational song. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Não peguei o conceito, barulheira desagradável com raros lampejos

Never heard of these. It's just a load of noise... I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this. Not for me this. Rubbish

This has only the 2nd lowest overall rating. I'm not liking forward to what came last. This excrement is a waste of time.

Not for me

64/100

It is such a confusing album, but it's interesting to listen to but get boring on a second listen

Would actually probably like this But I don't have the patience 1

Exasperating, nauseating, pointless. This is not music to me.

This got 1 star because there is no option for 0.

Nope.

i rather enjoyed this. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, what with the industrial label being attached to these blokes and whatnot. I was startled by how varied the whole affair was, and yet there was definitely an overall aesthetic at work. Some of the tunes reminded me of Pere Ubu. Some sounded like "Revolution 9" meets Eraserhead. More surprising still, I found myself nodding along with some of these tracks. In fact, I was openly singing Blood On the Floor for several minutes after the song was over. I say, bravo, Throbbing Gristle!

I got through one song and said to myself I don’t HAVE to listen to this before I die.

easily the worst album i have ever heard

Sucesión de canciones sin ningún tipo de sentido, ni ritmo ni coherencia. El que lo incluyó aquí se cubrió de gloria. No vale ni una canción. Estilo indefinible

Äntligen något bra. Jag har fått lyssna på den ena dåliga plattan efter den andre. Hårdrock och Hip-hop. Blir förundrad över att den har så låga poäng. Folk har ingen kultur i kroppen. Har radar Throbbing Gristle med Genesis P-Orridge i spetsen hit efter hit. Ska jag försöka säga något negativt med plattan så ska det väl vara att de inte fick med singelversionen av United. 16 sekunder är lite för kort.

I actually thought I’d be into this, I enjoy the odd abrasive industrial album but this just didn’t hit. There were slivers of hope here, AB/7A and Dead on Arrival specifically. I get that they were ultimately aiming for a certain “anti-sound” but nah, not for me. 2 stars

Totaal niet voor in de stemming.

Dit deed mij bij vlagen denken aan de Bossche cult-band Power of Jism denken; Net zo intrigerend en slecht!

Wat is dit voor bizar spektakel

Lekker als muziekjournalist de pretentieuze stumper uithangen en dit promoten om op te nemen in de lijst 1001 albums die je gehoord moet hebben. Echt rot op zeg, dit heeft niet eens iets met muziek te maken. Dit is wat gerommel in de marge, waar toevallig 'geluid' uit kwam. 0/5 sterren! Opzouten!

Bah.

It really hurt my ears

What. The. Fuck. I think I figured out this list - Its not just like "the best albums ever that everyone should hear", its also "holy shit this is the worst album of all time and you have to hear it to believe it". This is the worst album I have ever heard, and possibly even the worst of all time. 0/5 (have to give 1 star, but its not even a 1 star album)

A weird and wonderful listen but a touch outside the enjoyable zone

This is one of those albums that's not music in any real sense - some of it was close, dead on arrival stuck out, but even that was more just rhythmic bleeps and bloops than anything. It had a strangely hypnotic quality to listen to while I dozed, but not quite enough to send me back to sleep. Intermittent shrieking and jarring noises disrupt anything that could be considered a tune. Hard to judge overall, but it gets a 2/5.

While I applaud a willingness to experiment, to challenge existing conventions and to push the boundaries of what is considered music, I did not enjoy the outcomes of these experiments in this instance. I only listened to the first half of half the songs on the album, but why I did hear was pretty much unlistenable. I guess that the influence this album had on later was music was mostly on music I don't enjoy.

Absolute fucking bollocks.

What the hell was this nonsense. Deserves a zero

1/5

4.2 - I'm a young boy again, laying in bed, feeling my eyes get heavy with sleep. My window is open and I can hear the cool summer breeze rushing through the trees, as well as the occasional car creeping by on the street. In the next room I hear the sound of a sitcom playing on the television, characters talking unintelligibly over a laugh-track. I'm hyper-aware of my surroundings and I haven't yet learned how to tune things out so I'm dazzled by how the strange, disparate sounds create a messy symphony in mind. That's sort of how I feel listening to this record.

The global score for this one sure prepares you for a wild ride into weird noisy experimental stuff. Only the score of Einsturdenze Neubaten's *Kolaps* (another early "industrial" landmark) is currently lower than the one of *D.O.A.*--a situation that I think is particularly unfair in my book, given that *Kolaps* is far more "musical" (or at least "rhythmical" ) than Throbbing Gristle's unsettling soundscapes. Still, that's quite a feat to be remembered for something that automatically elicits rejection on most listeners' part decades after your release. As the lyrics candidly go on "Hit By A Rock": "Makes me think you don't like my records". Indeed. That said, I'm still glad I've listened to this album, even if I could have lived without doing so. I might have my gripes with this list sometimes, but as I said elsewhere, I think it's important that said weird noisy experimental stuff can find its way in it. The thing is, should *this* particular experimental stuff be deemed as more essential than other examples of it? On which ground can one be selected and the other rejected? This is a difficult question and the jury's still out on this one... The answer may or may mot lie in the way Throbbing Gristle give hints here and there about their awareness that they're writing a future cult classic for a certain sub-type of listeners. Some of those hints are more subtle than the lyrics I've quoted up there (or say, the hilarious parody of the artwork in their other album *20 Jazz Funk Greats*). It's hidden in all the static. But it's there. And it gives the whole endeavor an aura of mystery, as dull as the music is most of the time. Maybe with the right drug, I could get immersed in those soundscapes a little more, however. And even sober, I can recognize the few merits of Throbbing Gristle's "music" once in a while: "Dead On Arrival" could be the soundtrack of a vintage sci-fi flick. "Weeping" (unwittingly?) uses a weird tuning for its different strings that sends you close to a meditative state of mind--yet it's a state of mind at odds with the miserable feelings expressed in the lyrics of this "song" about loneliness within couples or partnerships. I admit the whole thing can... strike a chord indeed. Even if the latter sounds out of tune. "Hamburger Lady" is yet another difficult cut, but sonically speaking, it's rather timeless. Don't get me wrong, it's still dull music, but it's the fact that said dull music was recorded in 1978 that makes it extraordinary: if you said it was an Arca track, no one would notice the difference, for instance. Conversely, "AB/7A" is regressive in the sense that it hearkens back to what Tangerine Dream were doing a few years before this album came out. The track is strangely soothing though. And accessible, which is a rare accurence in this LP. Finally, to end this list of compliments, "E-Coli" reminds me of droning interludes or transitory moments within compositions post-rock bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mogwai create once in a while--those recorded talking voices over it create a distinct mood like that... As you can see, I tried very hard to be positive here. But apart from this track sequence right in the middle of *D.O.A...*, the rest sounds utterly meaningless to me, though. Probably because, well, it just *is* meaningless--rationalisations of a couple of bad-faith "rock-critics" notwithstanding. Worse, the whole thing is rather unmemorable--apart from "Weeping" and "AB/7A", maybe--and when you try to shock your audience with how daring and uncompromising you are as an artist, that's a sign that you actually miserably failed at what you were doing. This here is the *worst* crime, and it has nothing to do with your noisy aesthetics. To be perfewctly candid, I really hope this LP can reach the bottom of this list again (it did so in the past), and thus replace Ensturdenze Neubatten's *Kolaps*, which is ten times better (some would say that doesn't make it a great album either given how bad *D.O.A... is, lol... yet I still think a one-star assessment is way too harsh for the German band). Speaking of the "unpopular" section of this app's global stats, there are two or three other acts unfairly stuck in it, by the way--Robert Wyatt and That Incredible String Band come to mind here. Yet generally speaking, when the people speak and express such a clearly *negative* consensus, it's because they have a point. And the fact that they can both reject Limp Bizkit and Throbbing Gristle is a reassuring thought, I have to say. If one day a found a very cheap copy of *D.O.A...* in a record store (strange miracles happen sometimes), maybe I would buy it to listen to it for a second time. Or maybe I would just do it to add a rare curio to my album collection. Just as I could do it for Captain Beefheart's *Trout Mask Replica*. Those sorts of record could have their own section: "the most hated albums of all time"... But let's be honest here, I would NEVER go out of my way to buy those records. And *that* is my own final report on how bad *D.O.A.* is. Number of albums left to review: 492 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 240 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 115 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 150 (including *D.O.A.*--and if *really* you want to select a Throbbing Gristle record, I feel like *20 Jazz-Funk Greats* is slightly more accessible, thanks to its more parodic intents. But that's as far as I'll ever go to "defend" this band...)

Is it music? Technically, I guess. Does it inspire, enrich, or connect with the listener? Not this particular human.

Dear god. I don’t know what to say. Anyway, this album which I’ll call DOA the Third is an industrial album? Experiment? Thing? The album cannot be described other than heavily distorted beats and/or very harsh, shriek-like ambient instrumentation. I can’t really describe it any more than that. It’s one or the other. Except for one track and I’ll get to it but firstly, Hamburger Lady is the most horrifying song I’ve ever heard, that has been made, and will ever exist. The songs starts off well enough with cryptic lyrics and a harsh if minimal beat that sounds like a car revving. However, the longer the track goes on, the more you begin to feel fear. The track describes the aftermath of a victim of a car crash, and it’s horrifying. The hazy vocals, the car beat, the fact that the word burned is repeated a lot of times. Even if you went into it blind like I did, you still feel fear. Dread. The melodic repeats of Hamburger Lady add to the dread as it feels out of place and it’s just so good. I don’t ever want to listen to this song again but it is a masterpiece. The next song, Hometime, is also horrifying but for less obvious reasons. The song is just a distorted beat over this recording of a young sounding girl. It’s sounds like she’s just messing around, doing whatever, but with the combination of the distorted beat and the previous track making me scared, I feel dread that something’s going to happen to this girl. Holy shit; how do they manage to get me this scared for two songs. However, the next track is a little happier. AB/7A is a synthy little track that’s just this up beat sounding synth and it’s just what you need after the two tracks. These three tracks are the highlights for making me scared and also making me feel better after those two other ones. This ambitious and experimental record is straight genius and I don’t know how they do it. But, the original release did apparently contain child pornography in the form of a calendar insert, so I’m going to deduct point. Also, that is completely true, a calendar was included that contained photos of a kid on a bed in a calendar thing. It was dropped from later presses but I can’t rate it too high considering this fact. Still, I liked it. I’d give it a 6/10 all in all.

it sounds like two children playing in the garbage

Utter durge!! Why is this on here ?

No, just no. This album was absolutely awful. If I could give it a 0, I would have.

It was very strange and I dont know if I actually liked it, but I also could not stop listening to it 2/5

I am left feeling conflicted, which is not something I expected to say about an album that is such an easy 1 for most people. Some of the songs, if you can truly call them that, had this haunting sound that I liked. I wouldn't listen to it as music, of course. But still, when I did find something I liked in some of the album, it's hard to then give it a 1 star. I guess it gets a 2. I never would have seen that coming. My favourite "songs" were Weeping, Hamburger Lady, and Hometime.

Fantastic sound, love the noise.

Un trabajo sumamente interesante por el colectivo de arte experimental Throbbing Gristle. Con unos tintes de Noise, otros de No-Wave y muchos de Industrial, el proyecto nos transporta por paisajes apocalípticos, sacados directamente de películas de terror. Esto queda evidenciado en el track “Hamburger Lady”, y “E. Coli”. Un indispensable de la música alternativa.

Is this album a collection of songs? Is this a song? Am I listening to a song or working in a factory in 1980? Is this reality? What I'm doing listening to it? Who am I? I need to give this album an extra star for predicting 1978 how AI-generated songs would look like in 2023. Impressive.

For having the second-lowest rating on this site (as of writing this), I expected it to be a lot worse. It turns out it’s just…boring. It reminded of Boards of Canada but industrial. It was very light on any actual music or rhythm but I didn’t mind it at all. It’s interesting this is from the late 70s; I would have guessed mid to late 90s. Consider me confused why this is so hated.

Awful, just awful

This album is so ridiculously ahead of its time that it is absolutely staggering that they pulled this off in the 70s. It is disconcerting, perspective shifting industrial/experimental music that I hear in so much of what came later. As the originators of the industrial genre (even having a record label named Industrial), Throbbing Gristle's influence can be felt across genres. It may be an uncomfortable album, but it is certainly essential.

As if I just listened to an entire albums worth of pearl jams "heyfoxymophandle" and nirvanas "endless nameless" except this is the extent of their ability and they're actually serious. Why am I listening to this and why is it on this list??

ass cheeks. just sound :/

Industrial music just not my cup of tea.

Don't know what to expect here but at least it doesn't seem like country. Okay this is super trippy. Very experimental. No real melody or tunes. I'll give it a 1.

Hard to listen to, BUT it succeeds in painting a mood, a scenery, an unpleasant feeling. Unrelenting in its rhythms and screams and blabbering. + Hit By A Rock + Dead On Arrival + Weeping + Hamburger Lady + Hometime (reminded me of Starfox Adventures and something else)

A daring foray into experimental musical stylings. Bold. Brave. I absolutely hated it.

Random noise bull. Definitely doesn't NEED to be heard by anyone. This is like modern art in music form. The illusion of something clever and artful while offering no actual substance.

Another bit of wierd serendipity, I get this the day after going to see cosey fanni tutti talking in my local library....this is pretty special and wonderfully odd. All the negative comments make me love it more. I'd rather listen to this back to back than more MOR classic rock that makes me want to claw my eyes out.

My ears!!!

Some of the tracks are just people talking. The other ones would make a pretty annoying arcade game soundtrack at best.

Grinding, burbling synths and processed vocal samples. Yet surprisingly soothing. Maybe there’s something wrong with me.

When this album started, I thought I was having problems with my Spotify. After I realized it wasn't a technical glitch and listened a few more minutes, I wished I had problems with my Spotify. I made it through the entire album. This was brutally bad. Just terrible. Won't re-listen or revisit. Negative rating. I was trying to come up with funny stuff to write, but decided to focus my attention on something and music close to my heart. Prince Rogers Nelson was born June 7th, 1958. I'm going to spend the week honoring my fellow Gemini brother by listening to him and his music through the end of the week. (Although I still listen to Prince quite often!) Open your heart, open your mind A train is leaving all day A wonderful trip through our time And laughter is all you'll pay. God bless you Prince and Rock in Peace, brother.

Fuck this.

1 I saw that this is supposed to be some kind of industrial, experimental album, so when my Spotify glitched and the first song was entirely silent, I thought that might be a part of it. Turns out, I was actually better off when the album was playing with no audio. Look, after The Residents, I just don’t have time for this shit. At least those guys tried to write music. There isn’t even an attempt at songwriting here. 1. Say it with me kids: “There’s nothing profound about making your music unlistenable.” Ok no I’m back with a final thought. After reading the Wikipedia article, the song United is apparently a re-recording. The original version was considered their best and most accessible tune, so in an attempt at being avant-garde, they sped it up to a runtime of 16 seconds for this album to make it entirely unlistenable. There’s a punk spirit in there somewhere I appreciate, but… yeah this album sucks.

This album is wild and definitely way out there at the edge of anything I normally listen to. Even though my ears are not used to anything resembling this when it comes to my usual musical tastes, I can admire what they were doing here in terms of challenging expectations, going against convention, etc.

Whew. Ok. I get it but at the same time it ain't for me.

Voin kuvitella kuinka aikaansa edellä tämä(kin) on ollut. Aika ei ole tainnut vieläkään tosin tulla.

Mitäs ..tua tässä oikeen kuunneltiin?

makes me feel sick in the head, i like it ### interesting listen! i can really see how this would've been a big inspiration for industrial and noise, it remind me of a lot of more modern stuff i've heard

i mean. yes it's influential I'll give the credit when it's due and yes it's pretty much unlistenable. and i have rather high tolerance for music that is just sound collage of someone's grandma talking over construction site sounds, it's just not even interesting in that aspect. i assume that tg's stuff just doesn't work as an album on streaming, i think the performance aspect of it all is what resonated with people sparked inspiration in industrial acts that came after them and build on it's foundations. curious to hear once but listen to one tg album and you've heard it all etc. it's not an album you listen to on regular basis and like that probably wasn't the intent anyway

Not even my strongest urges to be contrarian helped me enjoy this one.

2/10. Wasn't as aggressively bad as the site rating made me think, but it was like a whole album of the talk-y parts of The Wall, so it just ended up being rather boring, and didn't really feel like listening to music?

Made my teeth itch. 1/10

Horrible to listen to, but historically interesting. I don't even really know how to properly rate this.

That was just experimental noise. You couldn’t call it music. If possible I would give no stars but in order to vote 1*

Not good cycling music.

Sounds a bit too much like noise

This might serve as suitable background to some modern art exhibition, but as music to be listened to in its own rights? Nah

this album is everything that punk pretends to be.

I found this to be a challenging listen, but I also found it to be rewarding and very interesting.

I'm ok with trying new things, pushing the envelope. This is annoying as hell, but worthy of two stars.

Not my thing

I’m glad this album exists. I’m also glad that I never have to listen to it again. Sounds like a soundscape for an art installation that I don’t *quite* understand. Just when a sign starts to form, it disappears. Better than another Maroon 5 album though.

Industrial. Le pongo un 2 porque alguna no es ruido sin más...

Why is this called music and who would purposely listen to it?

Industrial music without the music

nope

I was uncomfortable the entire time

Wow… I love cryptic static with little to no substance that was produced so late into the 70’s experimental era that it begs the question ‘where tf were you guys a decade ago.’ Landmark only in its complete obscurity. “Only people in the biz will get it” - give me a break. Pass me another tab so maybe I’ll find something redemptive.

Omg. This has been the lowest moment on the list. Minus stars “captured conversations to thoroughly composed creations“ Who writes this waffle. Tone deaf

That sure throbbed my gristle.

I am going to scream. When you leave the threshold of music so often like this, it feels frustrating to review it as such. Some okay Kraftwerky type songs that I did enjoy, but too many unforgivables. Sti better than John Zorn.

Very experimental. Perhaps it was influential at the time of its release, but I don't think I'll be listening to this one again.

It will never become my favourite album, but I don't have these feelings of hatred this seems to flame in some others in the reviews here. In the afterwaves of Punk, several new forms of music emerged. In Britain it was mostly the post-punk and in the US it was the art-rock that came about. But from around the years between 77 and 82 the whole music scene around the world found new ways to express itself. Restless, experimental, searching for new boundaries. And Throbbing Gristle is no exception. It really feels these are visual artists that try and put their ideas to music. Disturbing, bleak ideas. With imagery to match. And inadvertently lay the foundation that would later become a million selling music-style dubbed Industrial, named after Throbbing Gristle's own record label. A highly influential album, and something that's not supposed to be pretty, but made to disturb you. And that's probably why this is never going to be anything other than divisive. My wife on the other hand was physically relieved when I turned the album off though.

I'm never ever going to say "Oooh you know what, let's listen to that Throbbing Gristle album while we cook dinner, yes I'd love a glass of Rioja please". That's not to say it wasn't an interesting listen. Definitely one that goes down as an experience!

Not very easy listening, but enjoyable.

Highlights: "Walls of Sound," "Weeping" There's a fair amount of range, more than you'd expect of a group that calls itself 'experimental' or 'avant garde'. We definitely hear some of Eno here with the gliss touches and sour ambience. 1978 is probably the earliest we're going to get for this use of rhythmic noise, or at least the use of this timbral palette to express this morbid and devastated mood. This was not what people like Daphne Oram or Tom Dissevelt were going for. It is truly and deeply edgy. The purest musical and sociopolitical expression of someone climbing up the walls and snapping their fingernails off in the bricks to fall back to the bottom. And now what. Musically, I'd prefer the people they influenced, Depeche Mode or NIN or even Xiu Xiu, ten times out of ten.

Cool for what it is, a la Suicide, and I'll probably never listen to it again

Disturbing and strangely soothing at the same time. Those looking for songs will be disappointed but as a collection of industrial atmospheres, this does the job really well.

It's interesting, but that's gonna be a no from me.

Probably not the best album to listen to while having a ear infection.

There are 2 or 3 very nice moments, but overall there's really nothing there that I would want to listen again. Doing experimental things can be cool, but the listener must be able to feel something through it, which didn't happens to me here.

Ooh, valley of the shadow is my favourite, you know the one where no one is playing any music and someone just left the recording equipment on for a few minutes while people sat around finishing off their bacon and eggs. Ooh I love that one. Give me strength. Actually with hindsight, it is one of the stronger tracks on the album. Hometime is similarly stupid. Ab/7A was ok. The rest just sounds like accidental recordings in haunted forests or photocopiers.

I was expecting worse after everything I’d seen here. But tbh, there were moments that didn’t feel too far off a film score or some ambient music, which is to say, not unpleasant. That being said, most of the album was challenging, and I don’t really want to listen again. But it was artistically interesting, particularly considering when it was released.

Listened to like one song almost gave me a headache

god, what is this?

no

Experimental

It's piss poor. Experimental...yes, a good album?....absolutely not.

I’ll ‘probably’ never listen to this again. I say ‘probably’ because there’s always an off-chance I’m kidnapped and my captors put this on repeat to drive me insane within 24 hours.

What the actual heck did I listen to? Not the whole album that’s for sure. It’s like jazz, the people most entertained by this album are surely the people who made it. Certainly not me.

I know that must have been cool at and groundbreaking int he 70's, but ow my ears. No thank you.

A collection of pocket dials, drones and tones.

Genuinely don't understand what this was about. If this was a movie or video game soundtrack it would've been completely fine, but its not, and that's the problem. Some of the tracks are interesting but I can't even see it as musical instrumentals. It's just sound. No fave track.

The best song on the album….isn’t really on the album: United. It sounds like Kraftwerk. The rest of the album is a difficult listen. It is interesting, but not something I’d ever recommend to anyone. This album might put you in a trance, or cause you to slowly go insane. Either way, it could be the soundtrack to your nightmares. 2.5/5.

Noise.

Maybe for tripping in a basement, but this album just doesn't hit at 10am on a Tuesday.

its experimental and such but i dont call this music, some of it is literally recordings of people but poorly

Thats LSD music : )

experimental, unpleasant random noises

Music for sleep paralysis.

Noisy and beepy

This is not music.

Really make u think.

A terrible effort trying to make music out of random noises, strident voices, and what I assume is the elevator music as you're going down to hell.

Interesting early instrumental/electronic album

D.o.A: The Third and Final Report is the second album by English industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle. In this album the band continued toying with industrial music - which is a genre of music that uses harsh, mechanical, transgressive, or provocative sounds and themes. Defined in simple terms, industrial music is the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music". The genre began as a blend of noisy patterns from electronic devices and punk rock. This album was one of the early works of industrial music and was an "essential, nauseating masterpiece". I'm not sure I would echo that previous sentence, but this was an interesting album. Less music and instead more random sounds strewn together in rhythmic patterns. It was definitely trippy, but not something I would ever go out of my way to listen to. Also, what's with the little girl on the album cover? I read they gave away a calendar of her with the first 1,000 album purchases. That's more than a little weird - but I guess it wasn't weird for the late 70's.

Wow. D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle. Where do I start? I really wish the music was as impressive as the album name itself. I can imagine that the people that think that this is a revolutionary album are the very same people that go to "conceptual art exhibitions" and rave about how "the urinal centerpiece moved them". Let's be real here - this album is nothing but noise. It's not even carefully arranged noise that's been used to produce some sort of music or even a melody, it's just a hodgepodge of random sounds that seem to have been recorded by a mere accident. Somebody brought some sort of recording contraption to work, pressed record and then that was that. I'm sorry, but Throbbing Gristle's third and final report most definitely did not make my gristle throb. In fact, by the end of the album, the only realization I had was that this album, along with my gristle, could both have been pronounced D.O.A. as soon as the album started playing.

A hard listen with small nuggets resembling proto industrial, I guess

Fax noises at first but improves to something interesting

Fuck off.

One of the worst things I've ever heard. Very occasionally, it sounds like it might turn into something interesting, but the vast majority of the time it's just incoherent noise that doesn't flow, doesn't say much, and is downright weird. Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough for this, but it gave me absolutely nothing. 1/5.

Eh...I can appreciate that there is some avante guarde merit there but not for me.

I found nothing enjoyable, admirable, or redeemable about this. It's just a bunch of noise, talking, yelling, etc.

Can't listen to this shit.

This album made me physically ill to listen to. It's genuinely off-putting. By the time you get to ab/7a you're relieved to hear a little bit of a melody. That's probably because the first half of the album just assaults you with dissonance. I appreciate that this was probably technically harder to accomplish in an analog world but I still hate it.

I don't want to like this because I feel like only a pretentious music snob would like this just to prove they are smarter than everyone else. They "get it" and you don't. Well, I don't "get it" either, but somehow this "music" tickles my ADD infected brain just right. I listened to this 3 times, and it somehow got better each time. It somehow has a calming effect on me. I feel like I could sleep to this twisted shit. The only part I didn't like was when the kid yells "mama." That's probably just because I have PTSD from having a toddler. I don't know if or when I'll listen to this again, but I liked it. 7.5/10

Hard to rate this one... It's for sure music for an art installation at a modern art museum. A dark room, weird video, crazy dancing, or maybe a mechanical clock shortly turning as someone fixes a lift. +1 for the band name.

😳 Throwing in an extra star on the assumption that they pioneered something.

I dig it. this speaks to the robot in me.

Let’s keep it in last place. OMG. I can’t believe I wasted time listening to this. Throbbing Gristle in a word is “moist.” Wish I could give negative points but I will settle for 1/5.

No. Just stupid and pretentious. Yes the king is naked and we all see it, stop it with your alternative takes on art that are shit to begging with

Won't ever get back the 40 minutes spent on this album. Hard for me to find anything to like about this difficult to listen to album. 1 star

Aan de hand van de reviews verwachtte ik vervelende drukke herrie (een soort Black Midi - Hellfire) en dat is het helemaal niet. Het is redelijk minimalistisch en rustig juist. Dit bevalt me onverwacht goed. De meeste nummers klinken alsof ze uit soundtracks komen van films/games die ik goed vind. Misschien dat het me daarom bevalt. "Hit by a Rock" past in de film 'The Sound of Metal'. "Dead on Arrival" past in 'Requiem for a Dream'. "Hometime" en "AB/7A" zouden zo toegevoegd kunnen worden aan 'The Fountain'. En "E-Coli" zou mooi passen bij 'The Last of Us'. Als het album was gestopt na track 11 had ik zelfs 5 sterren gegeven, maar de laatste twee nummers zijn kut, dus wordt het een 4.

What a noise

Hamburger Lady is a true masterpiece. I appreciate this as an art piece, but not really a regular listening kind of thing.

Just plain weird

Not much to say.

Put me in the list of folks that doesn't understand this. AB/7A is the only track that actually sounds like a song and is fine. I also found United in its slowed down state (as opposed to the 16 second version), but it nothing too noteworthy. Certainly a challenging listen and nothing that i could understand revisiting.

Ruidos aleatorios. Insufrible. Lástima que no se pueda dar un 0.

This is by far the worst album I've listened to in this project. This isn't music so much as it's ethereal mumbling and randomness. I can see why some might call it music, but I disagree. Wish I could give this a full 0.

Je sais pas quoi en penser. Intriguant comme noise, clairement avant-gardiste, mais trop purement noise pour mon goût, manquait de musicalité.

This record, more than Kraftwerk, has the DNA of all the great industrial bands of the 90s and 2000s. NIN has been my favorite band since 1994 and while this is no Downward Spiral, I get the reference.

It's not the worst of the avant garde this experience has offered, mainly noise and not all atonal or shouty. But it's still a 1.

When I read the reviews I was expecting the worse and it was slightly above that

Sorry but I do not appreciate your music. Say one good thing: I’m trying but I don’t know

Some cuts on this record are quite enjoyable, but some others are almost unlistenable for me. I feel I didn't completly get this thing, but on the other hand I didn't dislike it at all.

garbage noise

I prefer '20 Jazz Funk Greats' for its humor and diversity, but a Throbbing Gristle record is always a dark cacophony. Favorite track: 'E-Coli'

Very influential album

Unlistenable

Wtf. Why is this album on this list? It literally sounds like a 2 year old hitting random keys on a keyboard with industrial sound effects. Yes, some might fight me for this, I don't care, this is not music.

unohti laittaa musiikkia tähän albumiin.. kivaa aa rsmr kontenttia silloin tällöion. varmaan on joku tarinoiden tarina tämän takana viiden tähden arvosta mutta en tykkää industrial vitun kling klangatuksesta hamburger lady.... on a

In September of 2019 I had an abscess in one of my front teeth. Even the slightest breeze wisping past my tooth caused immeasurable pain and I couldn’t speak or eat for 2 days. After emergency root canal surgery (which left me £360 lighter) my face looked like I’d been beaten with a bar of soap in a sock. I was woozy and in agony for a further three days. I would gladly repeat all of that rather than have to listen to a single second of this record ever again. One star because while I was listening to it my son farted and it made me laugh.

This has its moments I guess

What the hell was this mess? I mean seriously, this sounded like a 2000s noise rock album. How is this even considered music? It was just noises. Its albums like these that me want the music industry to have a test and make sure potential musicians can actually make music, and not noise. Really, I hate this album! I'd rather listen to Lady Gaga than this again.

Throbbing Gristle is funny as hell. Oooo look at this ART. Do you see how ARTSY we are? Let's mumble incoherent nonsense over a track of somebody having sex with a tuning fork - truly the MODERN Mona Lisa. Let's dedicate a track to a young kid speaking about god knows what for 4 minutes because that's what BEETHOVEN did. Man, fuck these guys. ... Strong 3/5. Has some cool ideas, I'll definitely return to this one in the future.

Awful

This album should be a litmus test for music critics: if you recommend this, it's clear you've lost the plot. There's nothing Important or Significant about it at all. It's just garbage. Best track: AB/7A is the closest thing to a song you can find on this thing

The name "Throbbing Gristle" makes me recoil and shudder every single time I encounter it. I think that's what they were going for. Well done. This was not a popular morning drive accompaniment, and the passenger kept turning the volume down during the first two tracks. I sort of appreciate this more that it's from 1978. It seems a little more daring in that context than even if it was from 10 years later. Was this an enjoyable listen? No. But did I have genuine reactions? Yes. Each track was a different experience! It must have been a good day because I was intrigued and engaged all through. Wow.

I didn’t really enjoy listening to any of this and it almost left me weeping on the floor. I guess I found it conceptually interesting, but not really something to listen to for entertainment or comfort.