1984-1986Canada

Electro-Industrial

A tough, metallic strain of industrial music that sharpened in the mid-1980s, especially around Canadian artists like Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly.

Origins and context

The genre is documented as developing from the 1980s industrial scene, with Vancouver-based acts such as Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly frequently cited as early and influential examples.

Canada

The sound

Characteristics

Sequenced synthesizers
Drum machines
Sampled noise
Distorted or processed vocals

How to listen

History

Electro-industrial emerged in the mid-1980s out of the wider industrial and post-industrial scene, with Canadian groups such as Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly becoming especially important reference points. MusicBrainz tags Front Line Assembly with electro-industrial and lists Skinny Puppy’s mid-1980s releases among the genre’s early milestones, while Front Line Assembly’s own history page describes the style as a branch that helped lead into dark electro in the 1990s. The sound grew by thickening industrial’s machinery with more sequenced electronics, dancefloor momentum, and a colder studio sheen. AllMusic places the style inside industrial’s later electronic-dance split, which fits the genre’s tense balance of aggression and pulse: it is meant to hit hard, but also to keep moving.