Some bands use electric guitars to make heavy metal riffs, while others physically abuse the instrument to make the harshest, roughest sounds possible.
In any case, industrial metal is much more aggressive than traditional industrial, which makes it appealing to metal and alternative artists who are used to the harsh guitar sound.
The lyrics of industrial metal mirror the darkness and ferocity of classic heavy metal, while also including the personal alienation characteristic of punk and alternative music.
Incorporating death, doom, and black metal into industrial music, the artists do not reject melodic riffs — “hooks”, melodized vocal parts (even if they are unrecognizably dissected by distortion), basic chorus and couplet patterns, hypnotic rhythms, etc.
Industrial metal bands are still the most uncompromising type of “alternative” music because they make industrial ideas popular.
Industrial Metal Bands
Their music is highly severe, harsh, and “military,” compelling the listener to practically stand at attention (Ministry, Fear Factory, Filter, Tool, Godflesh, etc.). Some of them don’t mind experimenting with the sound’s structure, luring the listener into the inner realm of “industrial psychedelia” (Nine Inch Nails).
However, only NIN, because of Trent Reznor’s knack for catchy melodies and the variety of his work, broke into the public with their songs in the early 1990s.
At the start of NIN’s popularity, many bands that sounded like them started playing on alternative radio stations. By the end of the decade, many alternative metal bands had taken ideas from several industrialists and made their own violent music.