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| Industrial Metal GIF |
The fist band we can thing about regarding the industrial (rock) music, must be the British post-punk band Killing Joke.
Which is surely one of the pioneers to start exploring and playing with indus-like riffs.
The second exponent, here, must be the American Ministry band.
After a first excellent New-Wave album called "With Sympathy" they released "Twitch" where they started to experience with industrial sounds, repetitive musical formulas and a more aggressive, dark and twisted songs building up an interesting assembly found through albums like "The Land of Rape and Honey" ; "The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste" ; "Psalm 69" ; "Filth Pig" ; "Rio Grande Blood" and so on.
Featuring Justin Broaderick, as drummer, the British band Head of David it's a must in this gearing. A total underrated act, if you like, not to be ignored and quite inspiring for other, bigger bands within the genre.
Justin Broaderick of Godflesh must be a pivotal name in the whole development for this genre.
First of all, he played with a project called Final before joining Napalm Death as guitar player, where he was invited just because the guys in the band admired his previous work with Final.
Apparently, he was kind of terrified while playing the songs from the first part of the "Scum" album and that happened, especially when the ultra-rapid grindcore passages set in, as he was more into the long, crushing, type of riffs.
Albums like "Streetcleaner" ; "Pure" ; "Selfless" ; "Us and Them" must be the pin-points from the Godflesh very special and unique catalog to get into.
The french band Treponem Pal must be mentioned, as another great example of Industrial Metal, heavily influenced by Ministry, The Young Gods and Godflesh with works like "Treponem Pal" (1989) ; Aggravation (1991) ; "Excess & Overdrive" (1993) ; "Higher" (1997) or "Weird Machine" (2008) they cemented their status as an important player in the scene.
The American band Prong should be, also took as pioneers for the Industrial Metal subgenre, here, especially with their mid albums of their discography.
First of all, they started like a Thrash-Crossover Metal band and then developed their style adding more and more industrial sonorities and groovy riff-work, later on.
"Soul of A New Machine" the first Fear Factory LP created such a great sonic replica for metalheads worldwide, being an assembly of death metal meets industrial, growl meets clean voicals and an outstanding, original riff signature delivered by Dino Cazares.
The albums that followed incorporated more mainstream metal elements, but still remaining at the same level of creativity and authenticity and not altering their own musical identity.
We, also have to take in consideration Pitchshifter, the British combo, responsible for memorable albums like "Industrial" ; "Desensitized" or "Infotainment?".
Sadly, later on, their music moved more into the Alternative style of rock music.
Dead World band hailing from Colorado U.S.A. built an enjoyable Industrial Death Metal sound through albums like 1992 "Collusion" ; "The Machine" from 1993 and "Thanatos Descends" output on 1996, heavily influenced by Godflesh' music.
Nailbomb project is an interesting industrial project consisting of Max Cavalera and Alex Newport of Fudge Tunnel.
They released an album called "Point Blank" which was sustained live, also at Dynamo Festival in Eindhoven back in 1995.
As, for the German Rammstein band, could it be called the AC/DC of Industrial Metal?
Their music is simple, straight to the point, memorable and effective combining Industrial Metal with Neue Deutsche Härte, just like their co-nationals from Eisbrecher, for example.
From the 1995 "Herzeleid" to their last "Zeit" the band managed to capture attention with unforgettable tunes despite the German language used on most of their music.
The band gained international success from their second "Sehnsucht" issued in 1997.
This album was certified with platinum by the RIAA in the U.S. The single "Du Hast" hitting like a thunderstruck in the hearts of the metalheads worldwide, at that time.
Peter Tägtgren's project Pain must be counted here as well, as an original mix of Industrial Metal-Rock and Electro outputs that created a strong fan-base, starting from the second part of the 90's from the first self titled disc to the last "Coming Home" dated in 2016.
The classic Napalm Death line-up from the first part of the "Scum" album with Mick Harris, Justin Broadrick and Nic Bullen reunited in 1992 under the banner of Scorn in order to issue "Vae Solis"
Later on, the band moved to a more experimental music and becoming one of the first dub-step acts out there.
However, their first album is definitively an 100 percent Industrial Metal effort.
The german band Die Krupps plays, also a pioneering and significant role in the general mechanism of the early industrial gearing. Their catalog stretch from the 1981's "Stahlwerksinfonie" to the last "Songs from the Dark side of Heaven" dated back in 2021.
Their heydays are represented by albums like "II - The Final Option" released in 1993 "III - Odyssey of the Mind" 1995 or 1997's "Paradise Now". Their best received products at that time.
The swiss band Samael started to experiment with electro-metal admixture added to their basic groove Black Metal background.
Albums like "Eternal" or "Reign of Light" made them the Rammstein of Black Metal, so to speak.
Other Black Metal bands were experiencing with this kind of musical approach, such as the Italian Aborym, The Kovenant or Thorns from Norway, but that's another story and it belongs more to a Black Metal article.
Another stand out product is for sure "Embedded" issued in 1993 by the project Meathook Seed formed by Napalm Death's Shane Embury - bass, Mitch Harris - guitar plus the Obituary's Donald Tardy - drums and Trevor Peres as a front man.
A quite creative musical approach filled with interesting riffs. Their second opus called B.I.B.L.E. (basic instructions before leaving earth) has a more industrial rock direction, but still recommended for a listen, although.
Speaking about Napalm Death, they were inevitably influenced by this kind of sounds and contributed with industrial tunes from time to time within their quite rich discography they have.
The much praise "Fear,Emptiness,Despair" output is suspected to host indus-like riffage throughout its entire display,also tracks like "Morale" ; "Contemptuous" ; "The Lifeless Alarm" or "Inside the Torn Apart" and, of course the main riff from Greed Killing video are more than obvious examples, in that respect.
Fleshing some industrial samples to a Doom-Thrash Metal skeleton the swedish band Misery Loves Co. released some interesting albums like the eponymous from 1994, "Not like Them" in 1997 and "Your vision was never mine to share" by 2000.
The well known musician Devin Townsend the main composer and mastermind of Strapping Young Lad combined Thrash with Death Metal with industrial influences through "Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing" dated 1995 to "The New Black" album released in 2006 with such a corrosive and obnoxious atmosphere,very dynamic at times and obviously experimental and equal as unexpected, surprisingly good Industrial Metal to get into.
Up fronted by Jörgen Sandström founder of the legendary band Grave, the swedish The Project Hate MCMXCIX band produced an interesting and original mix of industrial, Death Metal and Gothic inflences throughout its very rich discography starting with 2000 "Cybersonic Superchrist" to the last "Spewing Venom into the Eyes of Deities" dated as of 2021.
The Floridian band Schnitt Acht, who was active in the first half of the 90's released two albums "Subhuman Minds" (1991) being more into EBM-electronic music, but their second effort "Slash and Burn" (1993) added a more metal substance and riffs to the general concept, resulting into an original and excellent album.
The music in this video being absolutely fantastic in terms of creativity and inspiration!
The contribution of bands like Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie and his band White Zombie, Front Line Assembly, Oomph!, Swans, The Young Gods, KMFDM, Revolting Cocks and Skinny Puppy or even Marylin Manson are surely the main Industrial acts, but they cannot be overviewed in this history, although, their music reach metal at times, all these well known and appeciated bands, balanced their musical content from rock to electronic, even electronic body music and they are not exactly anchored, so to speak, in the Heavy Metal musical spectrum, per say.
