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Industrial metal is the fusion of heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating metal guitar , sampling, synthesizer or music sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Prominent industrial metal acts include Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory, Rammstein, KMFDM, and Godflesh.
Industrial metal developed in the late 1980s, as industrial and metal began to fuse into a common genre. Industrial metal did well in the early 1990s, particularly in North America, with the success of groups such as Nine Inch Nails, but its popularity began to fade in the latter half of the 1990s.
By the late 1980s industrial and heavy metal began to fuse into a common genre, with Godflesh's self-titled EP and Ministry's The Land of Rape and Honey at the forefront. Godflesh was founded by former Napalm Death guitarist Justin Broadrick. Drawing from a wide array of influences—power electronics forefathers Whitehouse, noise rock band Swans, ambient music creator Brian Eno and fellow Birmingham Black Sabbath—the Godflesh sound was once described as " Pornography-era The Cure on Methaqualone". Though not a top seller, Godflesh nonetheless became an influential act, their name mentioned by Korn, Metallica, Danzig, Faith No More, and Fear Factory.
Ministry emerged from the scene surrounding Wax Trax! Records, a Chicago indie label dedicated to industrial music. Ministry's initial foray into guitar rock happened during a recording session of The Land of Rape and Honey on Southern Studios, in London. The band's frontman, the Cuban-born Al Jourgensen, explained this transition:
Jourgensen seemed particularly fond of thrash metal. After the release of Land, he recruited guitarist Mike Scaccia from Texas thrashers Rigor Mortis. On one occasion, Jourgensen told the press that Sepultura was his favorite band. He also expressed the desire to produce a Metallica album. Jourgensen's interest in dance-oriented electronic music did not entirely fade, however; he also formed the side-project Revolting Cocks, a more electronic body music-inflected collaboration with Richard23 of Front 242.
German band KMFDM was another seminal industrial metal group. Although not a metal fan, KMFDM leader Sascha Konietzko's "infatuation with ripping off metal licks" stemmed from his experiments with E-MU Systems's E-mu Emax sampler in late 1986. He told Guitar World that,
A Swiss trio, The Young Gods, brushed with the style on their second album, L'Eau Rouge (1989). Prior to its release, singer Franz Treichler declared:
Canadian thrash metal band Malhavoc became one of the earlier acts of the genre when they began to mix extreme metal with industrial music in the late 1980s.
Pigface, formed by Martin Atkins and including Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin, emerged as an industrial metal collective of sorts, participating with many figures from the noise rock and industrial worlds. Nine Inch Nails, the "one-man-band" formed by Trent Reznor, brought the genre to mainstream audiences with albums such as the Grammy-winning Broken and the best-selling The Downward Spiral, accompanied by their groundbreaking performance at Woodstock '94. The rivethead subculture also developed at this time, along with the so-called "coldwave" subgenre, which encompassed Chemlab, 16 Volt, and Acumen Nation.Ilker Yücel, interview with Jared Louche, ReGen Magazine, 20 January 2008. Access date: 28 December 2008. Some electro-industrial groups adopted industrial metal techniques in this period, including Skinny Puppy (on their Rabies, co-produced by Jourgensen), and Front Line Assembly.
British band Pitchshifter, formed in 1989 by brothers JS Clayden and Mark Clayden, also started as an industrial metal band. The band later included elements of drum and bass. Frontman JS mentions:
Chemlab's 1993 album Burn Out at the Hydrogen Bar is often considered the album that defined the coldwave style.
Artists like the aforementioned Chemlab, 16 Volt and Acumen Nation exemplified this genre.
The coldwave style began to wane rapidly when industrial music in general started to lose popularity in the latter half of the 1990s-early 2000's. Many artists within the genre moved on to different styles that included Hard rock, heavy metal, nu metal, cyber metal, synth-metal, synth-rock, and synth-pop among other genres.
Coldwave today is a small, niche scene within industrial music. Very few bands today describe themselves or are described as coldwave. Bands like Cyanotic and Medicant Downline are perhaps the exception.
Despite sharing the same name as the French genre, it is otherwise unrelated.
Following Nine Inch Nails' success, Marilyn Manson, led by a protégé of Reznor's,Staff. (10 May 2000) Manson, Reznor mend fences MTV. Retrieved 1 March 2009. came to prominence. The group's live performance and its transgressive appeal was often more commented on than their music.
Industrial metal reached its commercial zenith in the latter half of the 1990s – according to the RIAA databases, its top-selling artists sold around 17.5 million units combined.Groups such as Fear Factory, Filter, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Orgy, Rammstein, Stabbing Westward, Static-X and White Zombie, plus Rob Zombie's solo career. Records by major industrial metal artists routinely debuted on the top spots of the Billboard 200 chart: Rob Zombie's Hellbilly Deluxe (No. 5), Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar (No. 3),. Allmusic.com. Retrieved 30 November 2010. and Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile (No. 1). A number of industrial metal albums performed well on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart: Filter's Short Bus (No. 3), Stabbing Westward's Wither Blister Burn + Peel (No. 1), Rammstein's Sehnsucht (No. 2), Orgy's Candyass (No. 1), and Static-X's Wisconsin Death Trip (No. 1).
During this era, Trent Reznor was chosen by Time as one of the most influential Americans of 1997. The genre's popularity was such that established glam metal groups, including Guns N' Roses and Mötley Crüe, began to dabble in the style.New GNR.com [8] Access date: 4 August 2008.Dave De Sylvia, Generation Swine review, [9] Access date: 4 August 2008. Figures from the hip hop scene also began to seek out collaborations with and remixes from industrial metal musicians.Nin Chan, Rap Reviews, 25 January 2005 Access date: 22 July 2008Dave Maher, Pitchforkmedia news, 16 February 2007 Access date: 22 July 2008
When industrial metal climbed the charts of the late 1990s, its sudden popularity was met with negative reactions from the early innovators of industrial music. Peter Christopherson told The Wire that he no longer felt any kinship with the industrial scene: "this is not me, this is not what I'm about". Lustmord, a prominent early industrial musician,John Bush, Lustmord, Allmusic bio. Access date: 21 February 2009. declared that "Ministry just doesn't interest him" and "he no time for all this rock and roll shit they're doing now." Skinny Puppy frontman Nivek Ogre dismissed Nine Inch Nails as "cock rock" but have since patched things up and have even performed on stage together.
Industrial metal suffered a critical backlash at the turn of the millennium. In an April 2000 review for the Chicago Sun Times, Jim DeRogatis dismissed Nine Inch Nails' new music as a "generic brand of industrial thrash" and accused Ministry of repeating an act that "was old by 1992". Archived at The NIN Hotline . Although The Fragile reached the top spot of the Billboard 200 and went on to earn double platinum status, DeRogatis considered it a "flop" nonetheless. Around this time, veteran industrial metal artists (Ministry, Godflesh, and White Zombie) began to repudiate the industrial label. Sales remained high throughout 2000–2005; at least 10 million records were sold during that time frame. Many groups began to take influence from hip hop and electronic music, in addition to industrial metal. As a result, acts like Powerman 5000 are often described as industrial metal as well as nu metal.
Sascha Konietzko reported that KMFDM was "sick and appalled" by the shootings, issuing a statement the following day saying:
Rammstein stated that they "have no lyrical content or political beliefs that could have possibly influenced such behavior"."KMFDM And Rammstein Speak Out About Columbine," MTV News, 23 April 1999. Access date: 27 February 2009. Rammstein have also been controversial for their use of Nazi imagery, including footage shot by Leni Riefenstahl for Olympia in their video for "Stripped".London Records press release, "Nazis? Hell No!" [15] Access date: 27 February 2009. Alec Empire, a German digital hardcore musician, declared that "Rammstein 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.""Atari Teenage Riot's Alec Empire Questions Rammstein's Sincerity." MTV News, 9 November 1998. Access date: 27 February 2009. In response to the controversy, Rammstein stated that "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 went on to create the song "Links 2-3-4", released in 2001, which responded to the Nazi allegations by insinuating that they reside left on the political spectrum.
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