Wisconsin Death Trip by Static-X

Wisconsin Death Trip, the debut from Los Angeles industrial metal crew Static-X, hit the racks on Warner Bros. on March 23, 1999, and it sounds like a factory floor with the safety rails torn off. The story starts in Chicago, where Wayne Static and drummer Ken Jay crossed paths in a Virgin Records store and, after Billy Corgan introduced them, lit out for the West Coast. In California they found bassist Tony Campos and guitarist Koichi Fukuda, who took over from original guitarist Emerson Swinford.

With Ulrich Wild producing, the four of them grind out riffs as rigid as a sequencer, Fukuda's keyboards buzzing underneath and Static barking over the top. "Push It", "I'm with Stupid", "Bled for Days" and "Love Dump" went out as singles, and the nu metal crowd took notice. It stalled at 107 on the Billboard 200 but topped the Heatseekers chart and kept selling until it went platinum in 2001. Machine followed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.