Born as one of the sub-genres of the new wave, industrial music had explored a wide and wild spectrum of styles, from dance music to white noise.

Throughout the 1990s, the brutal style of Nine Inch Nails (NIN) was pervasive in the USA. Industrial music became a mass phenomenon with NIN's visceral punk ethos applied to mechanical rhythms and arrangements. At the same time, the influence of KMFDM' "aggro" style was less obvious but no less ubiquitous, with most bands trying different variations on the idea of fusing heavy-metal guitars and machines.

San Francisco's Grotus were among the few to try new ways of fusing industrial music and rock music by utilizing a battery of synthesizers, samples, turntables and real drums on Slow Motion Apocalypse (1993).
Chicago's NIN followers included: Filter, i.e. Richard Patrick and Bryan Liesegang, who were most derivative on Short Bus (1994); Stabbing Westward, with Ungod (1994); Acumen (1), who unleashed the industrial-metal fury of Territory = Universe (1996) and then mutated into DJ? Acucrack, who unleashed the industrial-metal to experiment with a brutal, all-electronic, version of techno and drum'n'bass, best on Mutants Of Sound (1998).

Skrew (2) in Texas, formed by Angkor Wat's frontman Adam Grossman, devoted Burning In Water Drowning In Flame (1992) and especially Dusted (1994) to a heavier and more frantic sound.

New York's Sister Machine Gun (1), the project of keyboardist Chris Randall, offered a more melodic version of KMFDM on Torture Technique (1994).

Around the country, Nine Inch Nails and KMFDM imitators included: Los Angeles' Ethyl Meatplow , with Happy Days, Sweetheart (1993), Chicago's Electric Hellfire Club, with a classic of satanic rock such as Burn Baby Burn (1993), New York's Chemlab, with Burn Out At The Hydrogen Bar (1993), San Francisco's Hate Dept, with Meat Your Maker (1994). Oregon's 16 Volt (Eric Powell), with Skin (1994), Seattle's SMP (1), or Synthesia Murder Program, with Stalemate (1995), Los Angeles' Kevorkian Death Cycle, with Collection for Injection (1996), Missouri's Gravity Kills (1), with Gravity Kills (1996), New York's Bile, with Teknowhore (1996), Colorado's Society Burning (1), who produced one of the most violent works, Tactiq (1997), Oregon's Hell3ent (Bryant Black), with Helium (1998), Arizona's Machines Of Loving Grace, Ohio's Prick, i.e. Kevin McMahon, etc. Los Angeles' Drown (1) wed the genre with prog-metal on Hold On To The Hollow (1994), Pennsylvania's God Lives Underwater wed it to Depeche Mode's synth-pop with the all-electronic Life In The So-Called Space Age (1998). In most cases, industrial-metal had simply become a pretext for producing dancefloor grooves.

The most original group was Girls Vs Boys (11), formed in Washington by Soulside's guitarist Scott McCloud, drummer Alexis Fleisig and bassist Johnny Temple, plus Edsel's keyboardist Eli Janney (Silas Greene). Their hardcore roots were erased by Janney's bleak, noir, jazzy soundscapes on Tropic Of Scorpio (1992), a work that explored the morbid, expressionist backdrop of industrial music rather than its brutal undertones. Janney doubled on bass for the more cohesive Venus Luxure No.1 Baby (1993), which alternated between calm, atmospheric meditations and devastating bursts of power, the former radiating infernal spleen and the latter charging with atonal guitar and dissonant keyboards on top of spasmodic rhythms (hammering bass lines and catastrophic drumming). Nick Drake' mortal anemia met Big Black's harsh, abrasive psychodramas. Cruise Yourself (1994) and House Of GVSB (1996) focused on the ugliness of that sound, leveraging denser kaleidoscopes of sound effects.
McCloud pursued his sonic research with a new project, New Wet Kojak (2), whose New Wet Kojak (1995) and Nasty International (1997) were dark, textural studies that mixed electronic and jazz to create eerie atmospheres reminiscent of Robert Wyatt and Morphine.

In Europe, KMFMD's aggro progressed thanks to works such as Excluded (1990) by Denmark's Klute (Claus Larsen of Leaether Strip); Pariah (1991) by Denmark's Sloppy Wrenchbody, Combat Shock (1994) by Switzerland's Swamp Terrorists, Assassins Dk United (1994) by Denmark's Psychopomps Transmission Pervous (1995) by Germany's Steril (1), Misery Loves Co (1995) by Sweden's Misery Loves Co, etc.

In Britain, Cubanate (1) blended Anthemic guitar riffs, devilish electronic pulses and sub-human screams like noone else on Cyberia (1994); while Pitch Shifter were the main disciples of Godflesh's industrial-tinged grindcore.

International EBM, 1992-98

EBM or "electro" (Cabaret Voltaire, Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, Front 242) became more abrasive, brutal and visceral with Brainstorming (1992) by Germany's Yelworc (Domink van Reich), Solitary Confinement (1992) by Denmark's Leaether Strip (Claus Larsen), Stored Images (1995) by Belgium's Suicide Commando (i.e., Johan Van Roy), Bunkertor 7 (1995) by Germany's :Wumpscut: (Rudy Ratzinger), Unburied (1997) by Spain's Allied Vision (Oscar Storm), El Dia De La Ira (1998) by Mexico's Hocico, etc.

American EBM, on the other hand, was mostly a grotesque mutation of European EBM. Mentallo & The Fixer (2) fused synth-pop, EBM and dissonant electronics for the infernal visions of Revelations 23 (1993) and Where Angels Fear To Tread (1994). San Francisco's Battery relied on vocalist Maria Azevedo, best captured on Distance (1997), to deliver a formidable punch. San Francisco's Scar Tissue (1) crafted one of the most innovative and complex works, TMOTD (1997). San Francisco's Xorcist (Peter Stone) was the most successful of the gothic dance acts, best heard on Damned Souls (1992).

Music for the Death Factory, 1990-95

The original tenet of industrial music (to write white-noise soundtracks depicting the psychological horror of the industrial society) survived in the works of sound sculptors spread all over the world.

The most radical were New Zealand's Dead C (15), i.e. Michael Morley and Bruce Russell. The primitive, guitar-based cacophony of DR503 (1987) evolved into Trapdoor Fucking Exit (1990), which harmonized raga-rock, acid-rock, the Velvet Underground's Sister Ray and the Grateful Dead's Dark Star, and into the improvised chamber psychedelic jams of Harsh '70s Reality (1992), whose rhythm-less, droning, electronic soundscapes evoked both Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music and Gordon Mumma's sonic scupltures. More anti-atmospheric improvisations surfaced on The Operation Of The Sonne (1994), containing three apocalyptic jams (notably Air). If Brian Eno invented music that should not be listened to, Dead C invented music that is impossible to listen to. However, blurred shapes of ballads appeared behind the thick, magmatic mist of White House (1995), one of their most emotional "sculptures", Repent (1996) and Tusk (1998). They always excelled at abstract chaotic noisy narratives such as Speederbot on Dead C (2000), Forever on New Electric Music (2002), Garage on Future Artists (2007).

Morley's project Gate (2) indulged in hyper-abrasive and dilated ballads on Dew Line (1994), but progressively evolved towards the gentle, languid computer-generated electronic music of The Lavender Head (1998).

Russell's collaboration with violinist Alastair Galbraith, A Handful Of Dust (1) was best represented by the two lengthy improvisations of The Philosophik Mercury (1994) and by The City of God, off Jerusalem Street Of Graves (1998)

Bruce Russell's trilogy of solo albums, Project For A Revolution In New York (1998), Maximalist Mantra Music (2000) and Painting The Passports Brown (2001), focused on the atmospheric quality of his extended compositions for distorted guitars and bedroom electronics

Purveyors of noise included: Germany's Genocide Organ, whose Leichenlinie (1989) was one of the terrifying albums that bridged the old school and the new school; Italy's Templebeat continued the mission of Pankow on Media Sickness (1996); Philadelphia's Namanax, with Multi-Phase Electrodynamics (1993); Chicago's Illusion Of Safety, the project of Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke, specialized in macabre anguish on albums such as Cancer (1992); Dead Voices On Air (1), formed in Vancouver by former Zoviet France's collaborator Mark Spybey, with New Worlds Machine (1995); etc.

The percussive pandemonium of San Diego's Crash Worship was quite unique and hardly documented on Triplemania II (1995). Seattle's TchKung, too, staged tribal shows that offered vivid views of industrial decay, accompanied by political rants on Tchkung (1995).

Notably missing in the 1990s were the British, the very founders of the genre. Perhaps the only significant addition to the canon came from Towering Inferno (1), who summarized twenty years of experiments with the terrifying multimedia opera Kaddish (1994).

Digital hardcore, 1992-96

Several bands had been toying with a fusion of techno and rock. For example, Los Angeles' Babyland played techno with the fury of punk-rock on You Suck Crap (1992).

A far stronger synthesis was achieved in Germany by Atari Teenage Riot (10), the project of Berlin's programmer and anarchist Alec Empire (Alexander Wilke) and two vocalists (Carl Crack and Hanin Elias). The "digital hardcore" (supersonic beats, heavy-metal riffs, agit-prop lyrics, videogame-ish sound effects) of Delete Yourself (1995) straddled the line between punk-rock and techno. Alec Empire (2), the angry young man of techno, toyed with all sorts of styles, notably: the all-electronic Les Etoiles Des Filles Mortes (1996), which displayed the influence of avantgarde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and gothic overtones; the glacial ambient noise of Low On Ice (1995); the cubistic, psychedelic downtempo of Hypermodern Jazz 2000.5 (1996); the "drill and bass" of The Destroyer (1996); and the nightmarish free-jazz electronica of The Curse of the Golden Vampire (1998), a collaboration with Techno Animal's mastermind Kevin Martin.

EC8OR, i.e. French keyboardist Patric Catani and German vocalist Gina D'Iorio, conducted a similar campaign with All Of Us Can Be Rich (1997), a terrifying, excruciating, nonstop sonic assault made of bulldozer/jackhammer beats, mind-bending distortions and death-metal riffs.