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Heavy Metal Thunder Industrial Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Industrial Metal

Industrial Metal

Metal built like machinery โ€” programmed beats, samples and repetition, cold where the rest of metal runs hot.

Active years
1988 โ€“ present
Origin
USA / Germany
Family
Industrial / Post / Avant
Bands here
18

Before you press play

Explicit content

Graphic lyrics and artwork are a defining feature of this genre rather than an occasional accident โ€” which of violence, gore or sex depends on the band. Worth knowing before you put it on in a room with other people in it.

Start here

Four records in order of how easy they are to get into โ€” which is not the same as best first.

  1. Psalm 69 Ministry, 1992 The landmark

    undefined Its full title is Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs, and the only text on the sleeve is the Greek ฮšฮ•ฮฆฮ‘ฮ›ฮ—ฮžฮ˜. It is listed here under the name everyone actually uses.

    Listen to Psalm 69

  2. Mutter Rammstein, 2001

    The one everybody knows, and deservedly. Enormous, precise and considerably funnier in German than most listeners realise.

    Listen to Mutter

  3. Demanufacture Fear Factory, 1995

    Where the machine rhythms and the clean-and-growl vocal trade came from. Half of modern metal borrowed this and did it worse.

    Listen to Demanufacture

  4. Streetcleaner Godflesh, 1989

    A drum machine, two people and no relief whatsoever. The bleakest record in the collection and the most influential of these four.

    Listen to Streetcleaner

What it sounds like

Metal built like machinery. Programmed drums instead of a drummer, or a drummer playing with machine-like exactness; guitars used as a rhythmic slab rather than a melodic voice; samples, loops and electronic noise woven through. Everything repeats, and the repetition is the point โ€” where most metal builds and releases, this grinds. Vocals are often processed or shouted through distortion. It is the coldest thing here: no blues in it, little groove, and no interest in the guitar heroics the rest of the genre is built on. That mechanical quality is why it works as well in a club as at a gig, and why it has aged less than almost anything else from the late eighties.

  • Heaviness 4 out of 5
  • Speed 3 out of 5
  • Aggression 4 out of 5
  • Technicality 3 out of 5
  • Darkness 4 out of 5
  • Melody 2 out of 5

Where the name came from

'Industrial' was borrowed from the industrial music scene pioneered by Throbbing Gristle (UK, late 1970s) โ€” music evoking factories, machinery, and dehumanisation. Ministry and Godflesh married these electronic, mechanistic sounds to metal's heaviness in the late 1980s.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Ministry USA
  • Rammstein Germany
  • Godflesh UK
  • Fear Factory USA
  • Strapping Young Lad Canada

And 13 more

  • KMFDM USA
  • Static-X USA
  • Prong USA
  • Pitchshifter UK
  • Laibach Slovenia
  • Killing Joke UK
  • Revolting Cocks USA
  • My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult USA
  • 1000 Homo DJs USA
  • Accept Germany
  • Oomph! Germany
  • Equilibrium Germany
  • Tendencia Cuba

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

  • Chicago Chicago Industrial Metal 6 bands
  • Tokyo Visual Kei & Japanese Metal 3 bands
  • Japan Japanese Metal 5 bands
  • Germany German Power & Teutonic Thrash 4 bands

What it led to

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.