Industrial metal is a mix of heavy metal and industrial music. It often uses repeated guitar sounds, recorded sounds, synthesizer or electronic music patterns, and distorted singing. Well-known industrial metal bands include Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory, Rammstein, KMFDM, and Godflesh.
Industrial metal started in the late 1980s when industrial and metal music combined into one type of music. It was popular in the early 1990s, especially in North America, because of the success of bands like Nine Inch Nails. However, its popularity decreased in the second half of the 1990s.
History
Electric guitars were used by industrial artists early in the genre's history, but groups like Throbbing Gristle often avoided rock influences. The British post-punk band Killing Joke helped blend industrial and rock styles, influencing later industrial metal bands such as Ministry, Godflesh, and Nine Inch Nails. Another early industrial rock group, Big Black, also inspired future bands.
By the late 1980s, industrial and heavy metal styles began to combine into a shared genre. Godflesh, whose self-titled EP and Ministry's The Land of Rape and Honey were key examples, was founded by Justin Broadrick, a former Napalm Death guitarist. Godflesh's sound was influenced by artists like Whitehouse, Swans, Brian Eno, and Black Sabbath. Their music was once described as "Pornography-era The Cure on Quaaludes." Though not widely sold, Godflesh influenced later bands such as Korn, Metallica, Danzig, Faith No More, and Fear Factory.
Ministry came from the Wax Trax! Records scene in Chicago, an independent label focused on industrial music. Ministry's first guitar-based work was during the recording of The Land of Rape and Honey in London. The band's lead singer, Al Jourgensen, was influenced by thrash metal. After Land was released, he hired guitarist Mike Scaccia from the Texas band Rigor Mortis. Jourgensen once said Sepultura was his favorite band and expressed interest in producing a Metallica album. Despite his love for electronic music, he also formed the side project Revolting Cocks with Richard23 of Front 242.
The German band KMFDM was another important industrial metal group. Although KMFDM's leader, Sascha Konietzko, was not a metal fan, he used E-mu's Emax sampler in 1986 to experiment with metal guitar sounds. He told Guitar World that:
The Swiss band The Young Gods explored industrial metal on their 1989 album L'Eau Rouge. Before its release, singer Franz Treichler said:
The Canadian thrash metal band Malhavoc was among the first to mix extreme metal with industrial music in the late 1980s.
Pigface, formed by Martin Atkins and featuring Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin, became a group that connected industrial metal with noise rock and industrial scenes. Nine Inch Nails, created by Trent Reznor, brought industrial metal to mainstream audiences with albums like Broken and The Downward Spiral, and with their performance at Woodstock 1994. At the same time, the "rivethead" subculture and the "coldwave" subgenre, which included bands like Chemlab, 16 Volt, and Acumen Nation, developed. Some electro-industrial groups, such as Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly, also used industrial metal techniques.
The British band Pitchshifter, formed in 1989 by brothers Jon and Mark Clayden, started as an industrial metal band. Later, they added drum and bass elements. Frontman JS said:
Industrial metal's popularity led thrash metal bands like Megadeth, Sepultura, and Anthrax to ask industrial artists to remix their music. Some death metal musicians, including Fear Factory, Nailbomb, Autokrator, and Meathook Seed, also experimented with industrial sounds. Fear Factory, from Los Angeles, was influenced by bands like Godflesh, Napalm Death, and Bolt Thrower. The German band Oomph! combined industrial metal with death metal and groove metal on their Plastik album. Sepultura's singer Max Cavalera, in his band Nailbomb, mixed extreme metal with industrial production. Obituary guitarist Trevor Peres suggested using drum machines on their album The End Complete, but other band members refused, leading him to form Meathook Seed.
In the early 2000s, black metal bands began blending industrial music. Mysticum, formed in 1991, was one of the first. Other bands like DHG (Dødheimsgard), Thorns, Blut Aus Nord, and N.K.V.D. from Norway and France were praised for mixing industrial elements with black metal. Other industrial black metal artists include Aborym and …And Oceans. The Kovenant, Mortiis, and Ulver also came from the Norwegian black metal scene but later experimented with industrial music.
Some artists from the progressive music scene, not usually linked to industrial metal, added industrial sounds to their work. Later-era King Crimson and OSI are examples of progressive industrial metal. Extreme metal subgenres also mix industrial with progressive and avant-garde styles, including bands like Thy Catafalque, Blut Aus Nord, and Shining, whose Blackjazz album combined black metal, free jazz, and industrial. Canadian artist Devin Townsend, who started the industrial thrash band Strapping Young Lad, later blended industrial with progressive metal in his solo work. The Danish band The Interbeing also fused industrial with progressive metal.
Coldwave is a subgenre of industrial metal that began in the 1990s. It was influenced by bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. Coldwave music uses heavy, punk-style guitars, sampled rock guitar sounds, synthesizers, and acid house elements. Lyrics often focus on cyberpunk themes with pop influences.
Chemlab's 1993 album Burn Out at the Hydrogen Bar is often seen as defining the coldwave style. Bands like Chemlab, 16 Volt, and Acumen Nation helped shape the genre.
Coldwave declined in the late 1990s and early 2000s as industrial music lost popularity. Many artists moved to other styles, such as hard rock, heavy metal, nu metal, cyber metal, synth-metal, synth-rock, and synth-pop.
Today, coldwave is a small, niche part of industrial music. Few bands describe themselves as coldwave. Examples include Cyanotic and Medicant Downline.
Although the term "coldwave" is also used for a French genre, the industrial metal subgenre is unrelated.
Cyber metal is a subgenre of industrial metal that includes elements from EBM and aggrotech. It uses more melodic guitar riffs and less repetition than traditional industrial music. Fear Factory coined the term in the mid-1990s. The Kovenant was the first band to develop cyber metal, using harsh vocals, extreme guitar melodies, and symphonic keyboards. Other cyber metal bands include Deathstars, Mnemic, Sybreed, Turmion Kätilöt, Illidiance, Cypecore, Mechina, A Dark Halo, and Neurotech.
Industrial metal became popular in the early 1990s, especially in North America, where it eventually sold close to…
Film and video
Several industrial metal groups have created attention-grabbing music videos. These include Godflesh's work with artist Andres Serrano, Aidan Hughes's designs for KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails' collaboration with Mark Romanek, Rob Zombie's visual contributions for White Zombie (for which he won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Hard Rock Video), and Marilyn Manson's videos made with Richard Kern and Floria Sigismondi. Nine Inch Nails later worked with Bill Viola to provide live music. Trent Reznor also created the soundtracks for the films Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway. He also worked as a musical consultant for Man on Fire. Rob Zombie has directed three films. In 2009, Marilyn Manson was working on directing Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. The movie has not moved forward in production. Other films that include important contributions from industrial metal artists are The Crow, Johnny Mnemonic, Hideaway, (Mortal Kombat / 1997 sequel), The Matrix, Blair Witch, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
Controversy
Some industrial metal music groups have faced criticism from American social conservatives because of their focus on controversial or extreme topics. For example, Senator Bob Dole, who was then the leader of the Republican Party, strongly criticized Time Warner after a meeting with Michael J. Fuchs (head of Warner Music Group), William Bennett, and C. Delores Tucker. During this meeting, Tucker and Bennett asked Fuchs to read lyrics from the band NIN's song "Big Man with a Gun." A year later, Bennett, Tucker, and Joseph Lieberman criticized MCA Records for distributing music by Marilyn Manson. Many of Manson's concerts were canceled after this controversy.
Dennis Cooper mentioned that the band Ministry's music video for "Just One Fix," which included footage of writer William S. Burroughs, was an early example of a style called "heroin chic." Some early reports said that the Columbine High School shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were fans of Marilyn Manson. However, they actually preferred the bands KMFDM and Rammstein. Another school shooter, Asa Coon, was a fan of Marilyn Manson. After the Columbine shootings, Manson, who was once a journalist, wrote a detailed response to the controversy in an article published in Rolling Stone.
Sascha Konietzko, a member of the band KMFDM, said the group was "sick and appalled" by the shootings and released a statement the next day expressing their shock. Rammstein stated that their music and political views had no connection to the violence. The band has also faced controversy for using images linked to Nazi Germany, such as footage from Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia in their music video for "Stripped." Alec Empire, a German musician, said, "[Rammstein is] successful for all the wrong reasons. I think they're not a fascist band at all, but I think in Germany there's a lot of misunderstanding and that's why they sell records and I think that's dangerous."
In response to these controversies, Rammstein clarified, "We are not Nazis, Neo-Nazis, or any other kind of Nazi. We are against racism, bigotry, or any other type of discrimination." The band later released a song called "Links 2-3-4" in 2001, which suggested they support left-wing political ideas and addressed the Nazi allegations.