How this Dark 1990 Album and Band Mangled the Mainstream Charts | Professor of Rock

I met Martin Gore on the MFTM Tour. I told him "World Full Of Nothing" was my favorite Depeche song, and that they should play it live. Two years later, World Violation Tour they play it. Met Martin again, I said, "you played my song". He told me, "I remembered our conversation". True story!

1989 was The Cure - Disintegration. Then in 1990 it was Depeche Mode - Violator! Great time for dark music!

33 years later and I still think it’s the most perfect album every recorded. Absolutely amazing.

Sounds as fresh today as it did in 1990. Play Loud

Easily their best album and one of the best albums of all time. “Violator” landed like an alien in the spring of 1990 given that since 1988, most popular music in North America was firmly in the grips of hair metal. I was graduating that summer but nixed going to my high school prom since it was the same night that Depeche Mode were playing Montreal that night for a sold-out—in-15-minutes show at the Montreal Forum. My high school was like a really bad John Hughes film and I would rather celebrate my favourite band of all time with 5th row seats instead of spending all this money looking my best on a bunch of people I couldn’t stand. It paid off. After the concert, we went to the hotel where they were staying and I ended up meeting Martin and Fletch, took pictures and I ended up chatting with Martin for about 10 minutes. He told us which goth club they were going to and invited us along. We met them at the club and I actually danced with Fletch and Alan. Come Monday morning and I find out that prom was a bust, everyone hated it. When people asked me what I did, I told them and eventually showed them the pictures. NOT going to prom was the best decision of my life.

When an annoying song gets stuck in my head, I sing "Enjoy The Silence" to myself, and the annoying song disappears. Magic.

Until I first heard DM, Violator, I had been a metal head. Although I loved metal and a lot of popular Top 40 music, I had never found music that really spoke to me until discovering Depeche Mode. It was 1991 and I was 16. A new friend I'd made asked me to have a seat in his room, put on some head phones, and just listen. He left for a while as he had to discuss something with his dad, and I listened thinking, "what in the world is this?" I went out the next day and bought the album for myself, and within a few months I'd located and bought all of their other albums to date. The rest, as they say, is history. I am to this day an unapologetic DM fan, and if I had to pick one album to bring with me to a deserted island it would be, you guessed it, Violator.

The Violator album is one of my top 5 albums ever ! I never get tired of listening to it.

Violater is one of my all time favorite albums. It baffles my mind how "Halo" was not released as a single, also the B-side tracks "Sea of Sin", "Dangerous" and "Happiest girl" are all killer tracks.

Depeche Mode is my favorite band, and I've been listening to them since 9th grade. Their music, especially this album and Black Celebration, is what got me through high school. Dave's voice, Martin's lyricism, and Alan's instrumentals together produce some of the darkest, but most beautiful and hypnotic songs ever!

It is a monster. Once the guitars were added, the album became a masterpiece. Very creative and Violator has some of the most slick production and mixing ever done. Hard to believe only 100$ SHURE microphones were used. Just goes to show you, technique is everything.

Violator is simply timeless. Even today, The production quality on this album is insane!

I don't know how I have managed to be a huge Kate Bush and Depeche Mode fan for nearly 40 years, and didn't know there was a sample from Kate on Personal Jesus...

I was in line at Wherehouse Records at midnight when Violator released. There was a long line for it and they were playing it on the sound system. I remember having goosebumps while I listened. I'm a HUGE music fan and love all sorts of music, but DM is my ride or die and Violator is their best. Best record of my lifetime. Thanks for this video, Adam! One more memory: I camped out overnight for tickets to World Violation Tour. After a long night we heard "Enjoy The Silence" thumping from a vehicle that was nearing us. I looked up and my Dad rolled down his window grinning and said he brought us breakfast. Someone in line asked, "That's your Dad?". I thought he was the coolest Dad ever at that moment.

How amazing it is when your three favorite bands all had arguably their best albums come out in the same small time period... Violator, Out of Time, and Achtung Baby. 1990-1991... what an era!

One of the very few albums where every single track is a masterpiece.

The phrase "soundtrack for a generation" sometimes gets used for certain albums and I believe it applies to "Violator." It opened up a new decade with a bang. I've known several people who point to this album as the one that influenced them the most and helped to shape the way they heard music. It's a touchstone for many folks and it still remains an impressive piece of work.

Violator was my entry point into Depeche Mode - these tracks were templates for so many other bands of the 90s. They still sound timeless and powerful. Martin Gore is a hell of a songwriter.

I heard Enjoy the Silence for the first time back in '91 when I was twelve. The song has been with me all my life in everything that has happened to me. Best song ever made.

An older brother of mine got me into DM at the age of 10. He bought the 12" of People Are People. Over the next 3 years, until his death, every time he bought a single by them, I would swipe it from his room to play it loud in mine. When he died, I claimed all of his Depeche Mode and A-Ha singles as my own, so no one else could claim them. When Personal Jesus came out, I felt like it ignited something in me, something my brother would have been proud of. I started listening to all of his old records and found my love for all things electronic and punk. Enjoy The Silence was the one song I think he would have loved as much as I do, and Violator would have probably been played relentlessly by both of us. MY love for DM is DEEP. I still buy their albums, have seen them 3 times live and still wish I could attend the shows with my brother, if he were still here with us. 1990 has a special place in my heart for music. I was 16, had left school and began listening to all of the indie and alternative music that was coming out around then, and I loved everything I heard. Thanks man. I appreciate this little nostalgia trip