Albert grew up in an Italian-American conservative Christian household[2][3] in New York, where he attended church with his younger brother Dan and friends Buka and Klank (who would collaborate with him on a number of future music projects).

[7] In his teenage years, Albert listened to a lot of metal, only later being introduced to electronic music through bands such as Depeche Mode and Skinny Puppy.

[8] All of these would influence Klayton's musical output in the early and mid 1990s, as he melded heavy guitars with layered samples and synths in the handful of industrial metal bands that he formed.

[citation needed] Despite heavy touring and some notable success in the underground industrial metal scene, Circle of Dust released only two proper albums, those being a self-titled debut in 1992 and a posthumous collection called Disengage in 1998.

[15] That same year, Klayton co-formed, along with the mysterious musician Buka, the supergroup Argyle Park, arguably the most controversial Christian industrial metal band in the short history of the genre.

[16] 1995 would prove to be a busy and chaotic year for Klayton; he toured and released a complete re-recording of the self-titled Circle of Dust album[15] while R.E.X., it turned out, was losing its distribution deal.

Essentially, Circle of Dust was trapped on a sinking ship, unable to record and release new music but also prevented from signing to any other label.

[3] It wasn't until early 2016 that Klayton bought the rights to his Circle of Dust music back from the record company it was owned by, and began remastering and re-releasing all of those albums, including the ones from Brainchild and Argyle Park.

[citation needed] While Circle of Dust was touring in 1994/1995, Klayton had been contacted on a number of occasions by illusionist Criss Angel, who wanted to collaborate on a magic show.

Klayton, previously having used Celldweller only as an occasional production moniker, turned the entity into a full-fledged solo band after parting ways with Criss Angel in 1999 and released a five-song limited edition teaser EP that same year.

A number of setbacks, including attempts to find backing by a major label that fell through, caused the debut eponymous Celldweller album to be delayed by two years.

[18] It was independently released in 2003 and has made a number of achievements such as reaching the 17th spot on Billboard's Internet Sales Chart,[19] winning a number of 2004 Just Plain Folks Music Awards,[20] and having every track present on the album being licensed to appear in movie trailers, television shows, or computer games, a feat only previously accomplished by Moby and Crystal Method.

[22] This approach is tailored to the "post-album" atmosphere of the modern music industry, and parallels similar movements by such high-profile artists as The Smashing Pumpkins.

Klayton has also produced a number of songs and albums for similar artists since starting Celldweller, most notably appearing on AP2, the resurrection of Argyle Park, on Tooth & Nail Records in 2000.

[23] Starting on July 24, 2013, Klayton, via his Celldweller social pages, began posting quotes and links to the video titled "What is the Salvation Code?

On November 11, 2016, Scandroid debuted a full-length, self-titled album, featuring all the singles released prior (including the two with Varien on the project), and continuing the futuristic Tokyo theme, though changing the specific year of the story from "2513" to "2517".

[31] In a March 2014 YouTube video titled "Cellevision", Klayton hinted that he is to announce a new clothing line, under the name of "Outland Industries".

[citation needed] For Argyle Park, Klayton appeared as two fictitious band members, Dred and Deathwish,[33] and also used the Celldweller moniker for the first time as the name of the album's producer.

The simple name of Klayton has stuck ever since, with the artist restating in newer interviews that he was done experimenting with musical personas and does not want to confuse his fans any longer: "I've been so guilty of doing a million side projects.