Metal Techno, or Techno Metal

*practices 'Eruption' riff again*

I've made it my mission recently to get all my trading friends into shit like High Rise, Lightning Bolt, Pink And Brown, Merzbow, Fushitsusha, Arab On Radar, etc. Pretty much whenever I play that kind of stuff for them, it piques their interest.

Main reason why they don't listen to Wolf Eyes, Massona, etc; they don't know they exist.

Oddly, some genres are better received than others - ambient, punk,folk, orchestral music and jazz have all been accepted and successfully integrated in metal, but hiphop and electronic dance music the fit has not been as close.

The best band for the transcendent repetition thing has gotta be either Mortician or Ripping Corpse (circa Freaks).

I think Slayer were on it. It came out in 1992, I think.

I hardly think they beat "classic rock" lovers on that issue.

"Does is sound like The Beatles?"
"Er... no..."
"Does it sound like Pink Floyd?"
"Er... no..."
"Does is sound like Led Zeppelin?"
"Er... no..."
"Then fuck off with it."

If you ask me, there's a thousand times more techno in Slayer than in either Alec Empire or Ministry. I'm sorry. I'm really asking for something more than a hybrid. I want METAL played ELECTRONICALLY. No clever hybrids.

What if, say, Pantera dropped their instruments and tried to make a Pantera album with electronic gear only? That's what I want to hear.

I'm not asking you to like it. I want to know if there is any.

Speedcore/terrorcore and gabba would probably be your best bet then.

Which is a pity, because that whole side of things I'm familiar with, and have been for many years now, as it comes from techno producers like me. But what techno artists have grasped - the rhythms, production etc - may be saturated with metal nihilism and individualism, distortion and so on - but still, it has a solid base in house and that transcendental trippy hedonism we got from our club upbringing. But yes, it's close. I wish it had more songsmithery in it though, and more vocals.

What I don't hear is HEAVY METAL artists - you know, the dudes and dudettes with long hair and guitars - hitting the machinery and making it with electronics alone. Is it simply not possible?

This is where I need some guidance. I want to go out and buy some bona fide heavy metal - any style - that is made entirely with electronics. It must BE heavy metal. Lyrics, tunes, structure = 100% heavy metal. That's what I want. Sincerely, I'm not trying to antagonise anyone. Gabba, industrial, you name it... Young Gods, Empire, whatever... I've been listening to it for 20 years. That is NOT what I'm after. I want the heavy metal aesthetic, 100% - but with electronics.

It's surely possible in the technical way, just like the whole electro-punk movement has shown. But bands like Suicide are/were also appreciated for their 'we don't care what you think or how things should be' attitude. Punk tried to be revolutionary be any means, where metal wants and has to be guitar based music at first and may be revolutionary at second. I think lots of metal kids are a bit conservative in that way. They want to hear guitars on a metal album, not the sound of a synthesizer processed with a metal-attitude. And may these guitar sounds be processed electronically (what you don't know, can't hurt ya), on stage they definitely only accept the real six-stringed deal.

I really wonder what the regular Iron Maiden fan thought of the Powerslaves Electro Tribute to their favorite band, released last year. IMHO that disc did include the metal aesthetic.

I'm glad Suicide came up. They are the real visionaries I suppose, when it comes to electronic rock without guitars.

I think you're right about the metal kids being somservative, although I think there may be some open-minded kids out there - after all, if it feels right, sonically speaking, it must surely be hard to deny. Of course, maybe it doesn't feel right. On stage of course, it doesn't look right, as you say, Roger.

Thanks to you all. I'll check out all the suggestions posted.

I love Rage Against The Machine and Evanescence, both of whom chuck huge dollops of Hip Hop into their basically metal sound.

I _think_ this is what Young Gods sound like, but I've never heard them.

It's definitely what Anall Nathrakh sound like, but you might think their music was 'played' - it's not though.

Colin, when you refer to "techno" do you mean the more specific term as it's used nowadays? Like the idea of a metal band influenced by Jeff Mills or Model 500? Hmm.

How about Judas Priest's Turbo?

-- DJ Mencap (lackofinteres...) (webmail), February 22nd, 2004. (DJ Mencap)

No Mecap, what I mean is more what Roger surmised here:

Techno Metal meant bands like Sieges Even, Watchdog, Voivod and Mekong Delta. Very technical and math like in structure.
-- Roger in Mokum (rogerteelin...) (webmail), February 22nd, 2004. (Roger T)

I think that technical math metal is well suited to a sequenced approach. But I also think I mean what Phil was talking about here:

How about Judas Priest's Turbo?

-- Phil Freeman (newyorkisno...) (webmail), February 22nd, 2004. (Phil Freeman)

But I ain't heard that record (yet). It's the only Halford /Priest record I haven't heard apart from Ram It Down.

I understand that the drums and guitars were synthesised on Turbo - but this is quite a commercial record, so I hear. I would like to hear something a little more heavy than (what I've been led to believe is) the sound on that record, but yes, it would be great if it were guitar synthesizers and electronic drums all the way. It seems quite a courageous and futuristic way to go, fully in line with the Priest aesthetic, but perhaps they've been scared off by the reaction to that record - they may never do it again.

I would really, really like to hear the new, forthcoming J Priest album, with Rob Halford singing, to go back to that approach, but with the hardness of Painkiller. I think that would really be something (you may disagree).

I don't think of techno in the new, resitricted sense - fast house beats, one bar loops etc. I think of it in the older school sense - techno music is music made with synthesizers and a modernist, non-nostalgic vision. Hasn't metal allowed itself to become nostalgic? It might blunt the edge of this powerful musical form.

Lots more names have been thrown into the mix. I haven't heard any of them except The Young Gods. They used to put gutiar samples through amps, and had live drums. Good, but not quite what I'm talking about here - more industrial/arty, with a European aesthtic and sense of humour - not a million miles from Rammstein.

Metal and techno can (I think) be seen to be the same thing from the point of view that says they are both explicitly allied to, and affirm, the use of modern materials - metal and electricity. I hope that's not too abstruse a point to make. They both value the sheen and hardness of modern materials, and of sheer construction.

Try the Dark Noerd the Beholder song on the Gummo soundtrack, or the 12" EP on Flapping Jet.

Godflesh's "Streetcleaner" is pretty spiffy as well.
And Samael's later albums might be of interest.

I'm not sure if I've heard any full-out bun-bun-bun-bun dancetechno meets metal things though, except through remixes. The Berzerker might be the closest... Sort of gabbametal. They're boring though.

"Satanic Art" is probably the better record and it's faster too, but I think "666 International" blurs the line between genres a bit more. Dodheimsgard seem to be one of the few ones really interested appropriating techno sounds and tricks and turning them into metal rather than treating metal chugs like sample fodder for 4/4 gothic big beat.

Mysticuum, Arcturus, and a few guest-produced Gorgoroth tracks on Incipit Satan make techno and metal kiss. It's a delicate but rewarding realm. Burzum's Filosofem always reminded me of Aphex Twin Ambient Works II.

The Ulver remixes of Emperor suck. The Kid 606 and Fennecz remixes of Ulver on "Decade of Machines" rule.

I hope I spelled all that quargly language correctly.

mark e's comments on the young gods take me back. the first time i saw them was on their tour for l'eau rouge. i had just bought the album that day and pretty much played it non-stop all day (bad idea before a concert by the very same band i know, but i was hooked). i remember being utterly thrilled when they came out and the band consisted of a drummer, a singer, and a guy with a sampler. all of the samples mapped to the keys were tight loops so when he played, it was all one finger nick rhodes style. brilliant. and all of the loops were either melodramatic classical strings or insane heavy guitars or drums. needless to say i was horribly hooked on them for the next few years. kinda lost interest after t.v. sky, but the memories are so so good.

As far as Metal Techno, does anyone remember Crowforce? Really, truly like an acid techno record synced up to bad Xentrix style thrash metal.
Any fans of OLD here btw?

tee hee ;-)

Strapping Young Lad might fit in this category too, specially the second album

a few months ago i found the desert engine release of their first one. wow! it's great overall, but the best bits are when it movies over the line between 'industrial' and into amebix territory. specifically i'm thinking of "dawn." i can't believe i didn't like this when red decibel reissued it.

(and this guy has some downloads of their later stuff, which sounds more rhythmic but still ok. i'm wondering if the 10" is worth pursuing.)

(The first album -- the one in the blue cover -- is probably still their best record, though. The later one where they are wearing new waveo colored sunglasses and which I own on CD is also worth looking around for. As is their *Back From Hell* 12-inch EP from 1999.)

This may or may not make sense, I'm trying to argue very simply and clearly but dammit I don't know if I'm really succeeding.

Something else: this one is Electro Static Discharge from Portland, and they seem to take their cue from Children of Bodom, who actually don't appear in their influences so maybe I am wrong about that. Also, they're influenced by Sega and Nintendo, and you can definitely hear that. They use electronic sequenced drums and have a bit of bleepy action in there. My, don't they look indie though? I like this shit though, I think it's grand.

http://www.myspace.com/esdftw

any chance we could hear some of the stuff you were/are working on in this vein, moley?

a homeboy, a hippie & a funkie dredd 'total confusion'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRxAkORaDZg&feature=fvw

good timing for reviving this thread!
dan & jj, a while back i said i had a single by a german/american industrial band that i couldnt remember the name of , well here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7L5t7mgj-w

you guys know it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDTh13Akdjg

uh and there's also this kind of techno metal, lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O75mx0YFcqs

scary

are dan & jj around?

woah. i thought i'd be into a lot of what this thread was laying down, but thus far, i'm a bit 'uh///'

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn

jooooooohhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnn

I've heard of these guys but I don't know that I've actually heard them before.

hello!

that one is a mystery to me

I like this though, it's like a more successful version of KMFDM's full-on metal mode

I have that CD and the 12" of Die Krupps "To The Hilt".
Filed under What Was I Thinking.

i do not like it.

also i am mad at both of you because my first reaction to that was to look up Bile youtubes.

oh man that band is no good.

ok i will slightly modify that argument, that band is NOW absolutely no good but plenty laughable so that has some worth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzEjPkG1iss

BUT
i am kinda certain that the first album suck pump was some kinda sorta awesome throwback skinny puppy deal, might investigate further and see if i should in fact be filled with shame

i think you guys should show more youtubes of the industrial bands of your youth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Ec81NuvPA

i thought we should have a new thread for this
A thread of Youtubes for Hi Dere, JJusten & Pfunkboys (and anyone elses) Dodgy Techno/Industrial/Metal Past