Metal Rhythm is the 11th studio album, and 9th under his own name, by electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 pioneer Gary Numan

Gary Numan

Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...

, released in 1988. It is his first album released through IRS Records.

Overview

Numan's previous three albums had been released on his own record level, Numa Records. However, the disappointing sales of those albums led to Numan closing down the label and signing to IRS Records. Most of the album had, in fact, been recorded before Numan signed with the record label. IRS therefore had little opportunity to make changes to the recorded material, but the label was still able to exert influence on the album's release. Numan wanted to call the album Cold Metal Rhythm after its song of the same name, but IRS believed that the shortened title sounded less negative and more commercial.

Musically, Metal Rhythm represented a move by Numan into a more commercial sound, although it preserved continuity with Numan's previous albums. Metal Rhythm made liberal use of female backing vocals, which Numan had incorporated into his four previous albums; also, the futuristic funk that characterised Numan's previous albums remained on Metal Rhythm, but the programmed beats, hustling vocals and rock power chords gave the album an edgier, more psyched-up vibe. The album's sense of aggression is present lyrically as well as musically; on the liner notes for the album's 1999 re-release, Steve Malins writes that "like Trent Reznor

Trent Reznor

Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...

's NIN debut

Pretty Hate Machine

Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released October 20, 1989, on TVT Records. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of reworked tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after its recording...

, the persona projected on Metal Rhythm is restless, emotionally unstable, scathing about human frailties and flaws, self loathing about his own." In the songs "This is Emotion", "New Anger" and "Devious", Numan lashes out at the emotional desolation and manipulative personalities he had encountered throughout his career, and "Respect" is rumoured to be about Numan's falling out with Hohokam, a band signed to Numa Records and Numan's support act during the 1984 Berserker tour. Numan himself remarked:
Metal Rhythm was released in September 1988 and although its edgy, industrial-funk sound met with favour from fans and some positive reviews in the UK music press, it sold poorly. The album charted at #48, while its singles, "New Anger" and "America", charted at #46 and #49 respectively. The album's sales were arguably confounded by the lack of strong promotion and IRS's inappropriate choices of singles. Of the latter, Numan later recalled:
For its American release, and against Numan's wishes, the record label changed the album's title to New Anger, changed the artwork colour shade from black to blue, remixed several of its tracks and even replaced two tracks ("Respect" and "Young Heart") with tracks originally recorded for Numan's 1984 album Berserker

Berserker (Gary Numan album)

Berserker is the eighth studio album, and sixth under his own name, by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1984. It was his first album to be released under Numan's own record label, Numa Records.-Overview:...

.

Numan would only release two more albums with IRS - The Skin Mechanic

The Skin Mechanic

The Skin Mechanic is a live album released by British electronic music pioneer Gary Numan during his stint with IRS Records. The album was recorded in 1988 and released in 1989....

(1989), a live album from the Metal Rhythm tour, and the studio album Outland

Outland (Gary Numan album)

Outland is the 13th studio album, and tenth under his own name, by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1991. It was Numan's second and last studio album to be released by IRS Records, reaching #39 on the UK charts...

(1991) - before quitting the label and reactivating Numa Records.

Numan supported Metal Rhythm with an 18-date UK live tour (September–October 1988) from which the live album The Skin Mechanic

The Skin Mechanic

The Skin Mechanic is a live album released by British electronic music pioneer Gary Numan during his stint with IRS Records. The album was recorded in 1988 and released in 1989....

was released in 1989. Culled from two shows at the Dominion Theatre, London in September 1988, The Skin Mechanic charted at UK#55, and was followed by a 1990 video release of the tour.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Gary Numan.

All timings are approximate and will vary slightly with different equipment.

1988 Illegal Records UK CD release (ILPCD035)

1. "This is Emotion" – 4:05
2. "Hunger" – 4:30
3. "New Anger" – 3:22
4. "Devious" – 4:19
5. "America" – 3:32
6. "Voix" – 5:00
7. "Respect" – 4:10
8. "Young Heart" – 5:04
9. "Cold Metal Rhythm" – 4:28
10. "Don't Call My Name" – 3:42

1999 EMI UK CD reissue (7243 5 22133 2 0)

1. "This is Emotion" – 4:05
2. "Hunger" – 4:30
3. "New Anger" – 3:22
4. "Devious" – 4:19
5. "America" – 3:32
6. "Voix" – 5:00
7. "Respect" – 4:10
8. "Young Heart" – 5:04
9. "Cold Metal Rhythm" – 4:28
10. "Don't Call My Name" – 3:42
11. "I Don't Believe" - 3:22
12. "Children" - 3:10
13. "My Dying Machine (William Orbit Mix)" - 6:33
14. "Devious (Andy Piercy Mix)" - 3:37
15. "America (Remix)" - 2:50

1989 IRS U.S. CD release as New Anger (IRSD-82005)

1. "Devious" (Andy Piercy Mix) – 3:37
2. "America" – 3:32
3. "Cold Metal Rhythm" – 4:28
4. "This is Emotion" – 4:05
5. "Don't Call My Name" – 3:42
6. "Voix" – 5:00
7. "Respect" – 4:10
8. "New Anger" – 3:22 (Listed as 'remixed by Andy Piercy' but is identical to the UK version.)
9. "My Dying Machine" (William Orbit Mix) – 6:33
10. "A Child With the Ghost" – 4:04

• "A Child With the Ghost" was originally released on Gary Numan's 1984 Berserker
  Berserker (Gary Numan album)
  Berserker is the eighth studio album, and sixth under his own name, by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1984. It was his first album to be released under Numan's own record label, Numa Records.-Overview:...
  
   album, as was the original version of "My Dying Machine"
• "America (Remix)" was released as a single on both vinyl and CD. The CD version contains three bonus live tracks - "Respect" and "New Anger" being recorded on the Metal Rhythm tour at The Dominion Theatre London on 28 September 1988 and "Call Out The Dogs" recorded on the Exhibition tour at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 25 September 1987.

Personnel

• Gary Numan
  Gary Numan
  Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...
  
   – vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  , keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , drum machine
  Drum machine
  A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
  
   programming
• Keith Beauvais – guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Peter Haycock – guitar, slide guitar
  Slide guitar
  Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
  
  
• Rrussell Bell – guitar
• Ian Herron – percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  
• Mike Smith – keyboards
• Andy Coughlan – bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Martin Elliott – bass
• Dick Morrissey
  Dick Morrissey
  Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
  
   – saxophone
  Saxophone
  The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
  
  
• Chris Payne – violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
  
• Tessa Niles
  Tessa Niles
  Tessa Niles is an English singer, best known as a backing singer for a wide variety of artists.-Early life and career:Born in Kent, Niles began her professional singing career, as both a lead and a backing vocalist, in 1979...
  
   – backing vocals
  Backing vocalist
  A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
  
  

Cover Performances

• Electroindustrial artist Der Osnec (band) covered the song "Voix" on her album "Justicssus" in 2009.