Industrial metal developed in the late 1980s, as industrial and metal began to fuse into a common genre.[3] Industrial metal did well in the early 1990s, particularly in North America,[5] with the success of groups such as Nine Inch Nails. The industrial metal movement began to fade in the latter half of the 1990s.[6]
Though electric guitars had been used by industrial artists since the early days of the genre,[3] archetypal industrial groups such as Throbbing Gristle displayed a strong anti-rock stance.[7] British post-punk band Killing Joke pioneered the crossing over between styles,[8] and was an influence on major acts associated with industrial metal such as Ministry, Godflesh, and Nine Inch Nails.[9] Another pioneer industrial rock group, Big Black, also impacted some later groups.[8][10]
Ministry emerged from the scene surrounding Wax Trax! Records, a Chicago label dedicated to industrial music.[22] Ministry's initial foray into guitar rock happened during a recording session of The Land of Rape and Honey on Southern Studios, in London.[23] The band's frontman, the Cuban-born Al Jourgensen, explained this transition:[24]
Rediscovering the guitar on this record was almost like the first day I got my Fairlight. The possibilities just seemed endless on something that had seemed so limiting before. That's really funny. I started out as a guitarist, but I hadn't really touched a guitar in five years. Then I heard that first feedback come out of the Marshallstack and all of a sudden it was like there was a whole new parameter within guitar playing itself – especially in combination with sounds that you get out of a keyboard.
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's Emaxsampler in late 1986. He told Guitar World that,[3]
It was just interesting to use it as a kind of white noise reinforcement for our music. All of a sudden heavy metal was free from all those tempo changes and boring attitudes it always had. What I always hated most about heavy metal was that the best riffs came only once and were never repeated. So the fascination, actually, was to sample a great riff, loop it, and play it over and over again.
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:[29]
We just wanted to hear guitars. We missed the attack of 'Envoyé'. That's what we want to hear right now, pure power. A metal sound that isn't revivalist, isn't biker style, speed metal style, any style, just WHAP!
Canadian thrash metal band Malhavoc became another early pioneer of the genre when they began to mix thrash metal with industrial music in the late 1980s[30]
British band Pitchshifter, formed in 1989 by brothers Jon and Mark Clayden, also started as an industrial metal band.[37] The band later included elements of drum and bass.[38] Frontman JS mentions:[39]
[...]In the early days we were inspired by bands like Head of David and Swans and the like... coming out of punk into the weird, angry, total noise, kind of pre-industrial music. It gets called industrial but I don't know if it really is.
Industrial metal's popularity led a number of successful thrash metal groups, including Megadeth, Sepultura, and Anthrax, to request remixes by "industrial" artists.[40] Some musicians emerging from the death metal scene, such as Fear Factory, Nailbomb, Autokrator and Meathook Seed, also began to experiment with industrial. Fear Factory, from Los Angeles,[41] were initially influenced by the Earache roster (namely Godflesh, Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower).[42] The German band Oomph! after their second album Sperm started to play industrial metal combined with elements of death metal and groove metal until the album Plastik. Sepultura singer Max Cavalera's Nailbomb, a collaboration with Alex Newport, also practiced a combination of extreme metal and industrial production techniques.[43] A lesser-known example of industrial death metal is Meathook Seed, made up of members of Napalm Death and the Florida death metal group Obituary. An industrial music fan, Obituary guitarist Trevor Peres suggested drum machines for The End Complete,[44] Obituary's most successful album.[45] The other band members' refusal led him to form Meathook Seed.[44]
Several artists with their roots in progressive music, though not often associated with industrial metal scene, also incorporated industrial textures into their music. Later-era King Crimson, whose 2000s albums were referred as "industrial art metal"[56], and OSI can be named as examples of progressive industrial metal. Several acts associated with extreme metal subgenres also mix progressive and avant-garde metal with industrial, those include the Hungarian experimental metal act Thy Catafalque[57], Blut aus Nord and Norwegian band Shining with their critically acclaimed Blackjazz album, which blended progressive rock[58], black metal, free jazz and industrial[59]. Canadian artist Devin Townsend, the founder of industrial thrash metal[60] band Strapping Young Lad, later fused industrial with progressive metal during his prolific solo career.[61]
Industrial metal blossomed in the early 1990s, particularly in North America,[5] where it would eventually sell close to 35 million units.[62][63] It first became a commercial force in 1992 when Nine Inch Nails' Broken and Ministry's Psalm 69 went platinum in America, though the latter took three years to reach that status.[63] Both groups were nominated for the Best Metal Performance in the 1992 Grammy Awards, with Nine Inch Nails winning.[32] Two years later, Nine Inch Nails released The Downward Spiral, which debuted at No. 2,[64] and would eventually go quadruple-platinum.[63] This record is considered by AllMusic as "one of the bleakest multi-platinum albums ever".[65]
Overall, popular heavy rock music has changed to become more "industrialized". This robbed the industrial hardcore movement of any hopes of establishing a new identity of its own. The style is dead (or at least dying); the elements of the style continue on in new musical settings. – David A. Locher, Professor of Sociology, Missouri State University, 1998[66]:115
Following Nine Inch Nails' success, Marilyn Manson, led by a protégé of Reznor's,[67] came to prominence.[68] The group's live performance and its transgressive appeal was often more commented on than their music.[69]
During this era, Trent Reznor was chosen by Time as one of the most influential Americans of 1997.[79] The genre's popularity was such that established glam metal groups, including Guns N' Roses and Mötley Crüe, began to dabble in the style.[80][81] Figures from the hip hop scene also began to seek out collaborations with and remixes from industrial metal musicians.[82][83][84]
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".[85]Lustmord, a prominent early industrial musician,[86] declared that "Ministry just doesn't interest [him]" and "[he has] no time for all this rock and roll shit they're doing now."[87]Skinny Puppy frontman Nivek Ogre dismissed Nine Inch Nails as "cock rock"[88] but have since patched things up and have even performed on stage together.[89]
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".[90] Although The Fragile reached the top spot of the Billboard 200[91] and went on to earn double platinum status,[63] DeRogatis considered it a "flop" nonetheless.[90]
Around this time, veteran industrial metal artists (Ministry,[92] Godflesh,[93] and White Zombie[94]) began to repudiate the industrial label. Sales remained high throughout 2000–2005; at least 10 million records were sold during that time frame.[63][70] 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.[95]
I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball Diaries or yours truly. This kind of controversy does not help me sell records or tickets, and I wouldn't want it to. I'm a controversial artist, one who dares to have an opinion and bothers to create music and videos that challenge people's ideas in a world that is watered-down and hollow. In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us. [...]
Sascha Konietzko reported that KMFDM was "sick and appalled" by the shootings, issuing a statement the following day saying:[119]
First and foremost, KMFDM would like to express their deep and heartfelt sympathy for the parents, families and friends of the murdered and injured children in Littleton. We are sick and appalled, as is the rest of the nation, by what took place in Colorado yesterday.
KMFDM are an art form – not a political party. From the beginning, our music has been a statement against war, oppression, fascism and violence against others. While some of the former band members are German as reported in the media, none of us condone any Nazi beliefs whatsoever.
Rammstein stated that they "have no lyrical content or political beliefs that could have possibly influenced such behavior".[120] Rammstein have also been controversial for their use of Nazi imagery, including footage shot by Leni Riefenstahl for Olympia in their video for "Stripped".[121]Alec Empire, a German digital hardcore musician, declared that "[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."[122] 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."[121] 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.[123]
^"Alternative Metal". Allmusic. All Media Network. Retrieved September 9, 2017. The first wave of alternative metal bands fused heavy metal with prog-rock (Jane's Addiction, Primus), garage punk (Soundgarden, Corrosion of Conformity), noise-rock (the Jesus Lizard, Helmet), funk (Faith No More, Living Colour), rap (Faith No More, Biohazard), industrial (Ministry, Nine Inch Nails), psychedelia (Soundgarden, Monster Magnet), and even world music (later Sepultura)...By the latter half of the '90s, most new alt-metal bands were playing some combination of simplified thrash, rap, industrial, hardcore punk, and grunge.
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