Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments and punk provocation". The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by members of Throbbing Gristle and Monte Cazazza. While the genre name originated with Throbbing Gristle's emergence in the United Kingdom, artists and labels vital to the genre also emerged in the United States and other countries.
Dark wave is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as being dark, romantic and bleak, with an undertone of sorrow. The genre embraces a range of styles including cold wave, ethereal wave, gothic rock, neoclassical dark wave and neofolk.
Dark ambient is a genre of post-industrial music that features an ominous, dark droning and often gloomy, monumental or catacombal atmosphere, partially with discordant overtones. It shows similarities with ambient music, a genre that has been cited as a main influence by many dark ambient artists, both conceptually and compositionally. Although mostly electronically generated, dark ambient also includes the sampling of hand-played instruments and semi-acoustic recording procedures.
Sol Invictus are a British neofolk band formed by Tony Wakeford in 1987. Wakeford has been the sole constant member of the group since its inception, although numerous musicians have contributed and collaborated with him under the Sol Invictus name over the years.
Der Blutharsch was an Austrian martial industrial, neofolk and psychedelic rock project created in 1996 by Albin Julius.
A rivethead or rivet head is a person associated with the industrial dance music scene. In stark contrast to the original industrial culture, whose performers and heterogeneous audience were sometimes referred to as "industrialists", the rivethead scene is a coherent youth culture closely linked to a discernible fashion style. The scene emerged in the late 1980s on the basis of electro-industrial, EBM, and industrial rock music. The associated dress style draws on military fashion and punk aesthetics with hints of fetish wear, mainly inspired by the scene's musical protagonists.
Neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrumentation with various other sounds.
Pagan rock is a genre of rock music created by adherents of neopagan traditions. It emerged as a distinct genre from gothic rock in the 1980s. Bands in this genre will often use pagan and occult imagery and deal with pagan themes. In some cases the definition is stretched to include rock bands embraced by modern Pagans.
Tronus Abyss is a cult "electro-apocalyptic" band from Italy. They started out in 1997 with a quite plain symphonic black metal album, but in 1999 they recorded "Rotten Dark", an album crossing the boundaries of extreme music and redefining new styles. Rotten Dark was a mix of powerful black metal, industrial, medieval profane music, neoclassical and apocalyptic-folk.
Dark culture, also called dark alternative scene, is a mixture of thematically related subcultures including the goth and dark wave subculture, the dark neoclassical/dark ambient scene, parts of the post-industrial scene parts of neofolk and the early gothic metal scene. Dark culture's origin lies in followers of dark wave and independent music, but over the decades it has developed to a social network held together by a common concept of aesthetics, self-representation, and individualism. The musical preferences of the dark scene are characterized by a mix of styles ranging from gothic metal, to industrial dance music and dark ambient, to dark neoclassical, neo-medieval and dark folk music, to gothic rock, dark wave and post-punk, the darker ends of electropop.
Tesco Organisation is a German record label, mail order company and distributor, specialising in industrial, noise, neofolk and ambient music. Tesco has also organised music festivals in the past such as "Heavy Electronics", "Tesco Disco" and "Festival Karlsruhe"
Hyperium Records was a German independent record label specializing in darkwave, neoclassical, ethereal, gothic rock, and ambient music, founded by Oliver Roesch and Oliver van Essenberg in 1991. Roesch died on August 1, 2002, in a motorcycle accident.
The Trisol Music Group, GmbH, is a German business group and record label headquartered in Dieburg. Owning multiple sublabels, they specialize in producing musical works pertaining to darkwave, dark folk, gothic rock, deathrock, ethereal wave and other gothic genres of music. In general they are considered a major European label for works within the realm of Dark Alternative music.
Westwind is a musical project from the French post-industrial scene, created by Kris G.. It mixes influences from musics such as Martial industrial, Post-industrial, Dark ambient, Neofolk and Neoclassical music.
1476 is an atmospheric art rock duo based out of Salem, Massachusetts. Founded in 2007 by Robb Kavjian and Neil DeRosa, together they began writing songs which include various themes of Western esoterica, pre-Christian mythology/mysticism, chaos magic, nature, and philosophical themes. They had decided from the beginning to avoid confining themselves to a specific genre and when pressed by interviewers to define their style, they responded with the term, "Hermetic Death Rock."
Triarii is a one-man music project from the genre of martial industrial, whose name derives from the elite soldiers of the Roman battle order, the Triarians. Christian Erdmann is responsible for the music. The recordings of Triarii are published by the label Eternal Soul Records. Characteristic for the style of the project is the pathetic and sublime sound of the music and the use of samples. Erdmann himself contributes only sporadic vocals; according to his own statement, his goal is to "at some point dissolve into complete megalomania".
