Industrial Black Metal

Industrial black metal is a subgenre of black metal that replaces or augments the live rhythm section with drum machines, sequenced beats, samples and electronic noise, fusing tremolo-picked guitars and shrieked vocals with the mechanical pulse of industrial and techno. Formed in the mid-1990s by Norwegian and European acts including *Mysticum*, *Dødheimsgard* and *Aborym*, it typically treats dystopian, occult, Satanic or science-fiction subjects and favours a cold, synthetic production over black metal's usual rawness. Later acts such as *Anaal Nathrakh* and *The Axis of Perdition* pushed the hybrid toward grindcore speed and dark ambient dread.