Combichrist’s ‘Making Monsters’ turns 16 on 27 August
Combichrist released “Making Monsters” on 27 August 2010 through Out of Line, a 12-track album written, recorded and produced by Andy LaPlegua.
Combichrist, the American aggrotech and industrial metal project built around Norwegian vocalist Andy LaPlegua, released its fifth studio album “Making Monsters” on 27 August 2010 through Out of Line. The album turns 16 this year. LaPlegua wrote, recorded and produced all twelve tracks himself, with Tom Meyer mastering.
The album arrived nineteen months after “Today We Are All Demons” and reached number 7 on the German Newcomer Chart. Metropolis Records handled the North American edition, which followed on 28 September 2010.
Sources differ on the exact European date. Wikipedia’s Combichrist band entry gives a digital release of 31 August 2010 and a CD release of 28 September 2010, while the dedicated album entry and the Discogs listing for the German Out of Line pressing both state 27 August 2010.
‘Making Monsters’ tracklist, formats and credits
The CD ran twelve tracks: “Declamation”, “Follow the Trail of Blood”, “Never Surrender”, “Throat Full of Glass”, “Fuckmachine”, “Forgotten”, “Just Like Me”, “Slave to Machine”, “Through These Eyes of Pain”, “Monster:Murder:Kill”, “They” and “Reclamation”. Total running time was 56:48. Brandan Schieppati of Bleeding Through guested on “Follow the Trail of Blood”, the only outside vocal on the record.
Out of Line issued the album on standard CD, on double vinyl, as a digital download, and as a limited digipak-in-slipcase edition pairing the CD with a DVD. That DVD collected five live recordings: “Electrohead”, “Get Out of My Head” and “Without Emotions” taped in Russia, plus “Scarred” and “I Want Your Blood” taped in Germany. Totprod Media LLC handled artwork and layout, Gili Shani shot the photography for Liquid Photo, and Universal Music International Division distributed the European pressing.
Two singles came off the album. “Never Surrender” arrived on 6 August 2010, three weeks ahead of the record. “Throat Full of Glass” followed on 4 March 2011.
Where ‘Making Monsters’ took Combichrist on tour
Combichrist opened a North American run in late 2010 with Aesthetic Perfection and iVardensphere in support. In December that year the band played Madison Square Garden as an opener for Rammstein, and both acts confirmed shortly afterwards that Combichrist would join Rammstein’s 2011 North American tour. LaPlegua scheduled a second headline leg, “Monsters on Tour Part II”, around those dates, again with Aesthetic Perfection and iVardensphere, and with Angelspit and God Module added on selected shows.
Two tracks from the album later turned up in Capcom’s “DmC: Devil May Cry”. “Never Surrender” ran in a gameplay demo and “Throat Full of Glass” plays over the opening sequence. LaPlegua’s wider involvement produced a full soundtrack album, “No Redemption”, released on 25 January 2013.
The Combichrist touring lineup at the time centred on Joe Letz on drums, Z. Marr on keyboards, Trevor Friedrich on percussion and Abbey Nex on bass and guitars, with Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit playing guitar on the 2009 and 2010 runs.
About Combichrist
Andy LaPlegua started Combichrist in Atlanta, Georgia in 2003, several years after founding Icon of Coil in Norway. He had already used the monikers D.r.i.v.E and Hudlager for the same material before settling on Combichrist, a name lifted from a character in a fanzine he ran in the 1990s. The project has always been LaPlegua alone in the studio, with a rotating cast of live musicians on stage. He also founded Panzer AG, Scandinavian Cock and Scandy.
The debut album “The Joy of Gunz” came out on Out of Line on 1 September 2003, followed at Halloween by the “Kiss the Blade” EP in a run of 667 copies. The 2004 EP “Sex, Drogen und Industrial” held the top of the DAC chart for several weeks. “Everybody Hates You” arrived on 8 March 2005 and served as the project’s US debut on Metropolis Records, carrying the club tracks “This Shit Will Fuck You Up” and “This Is My Rifle”. The 2006 EP “Get Your Body Beat” put Combichrist on Billboard’s Top 10 Dance Singles chart for the first time, and a North American tour with KMFDM followed.
“What the Fuck Is Wrong with You People?” was released on 6 March 2007. Z. Marr joined on keyboards in January 2008 to work on “Today We Are All Demons”, which came out on 20 January 2009 and led to a North American tour with Black Light Burns and a European run with Rammstein. “Making Monsters” followed in 2010, “No Redemption” in 2013, “We Love You” on 25 March 2014, “This Is Where Death Begins” on 3 June 2016, and “One Fire” on 7 June 2019, covered here in All new Combichrist album ‘One Fire’ comes in 3 formats: 3CD boxset, 2CD and a 2LP (incl. picture disc) vinyl – more details here. Out of Line reissued the first three albums on coloured double vinyl in 2019, reported in Combichrist gets vinyl back catalogue treatment: 3 double coloured vinyl reissues.
The double album “CMBCRST” appeared on 17 May 2024 and was covered in Combichrist returns with all new double-album ‘CMBCRST’, also on zoetrope vinyl. LaPlegua’s earlier project returned to print in 2025, reported in Icon of Coil’s ‘Serenity is the Devil’ reissued as 25th-anniversary transparent-orange 2LP out now. The current lineup is LaPlegua on vocals, Eric13 and Jamie Cronander on guitars and Elliott Berlin on keyboards.
Sixteen years after “Making Monsters”, Combichrist released its eleventh studio album “The Venom in the Mouth of God” on 24 July 2026, announced in Combichrist announce new album ‘The Venom In The Mouth Of God’ via Out Of Line Music.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
