Hard industrial techno

What is hard industrial techno?

Hard industrial techno sits where three lines of hard electronic music meet. From industrial techno it takes its darkness and its name. From hard techno it takes its speed and its focus on the dancefloor. From rawstyle it takes its sound design: distorted kicks and harsh, synth-driven leads.

What sets it apart is how stripped back the drops are. Where classic industrial techno layers metallic percussion, noise and textures, a hard industrial drop usually rests on two elements: the kick, and a lead that answers it. That lead can be a detuned lead, a screech or a lead bass, much like in modern rawstyle.

Each artist then brings their own colour. FennX, for example, builds his sets around a hard industrial core and pulls in metal, EDM and film-score influences, which gives his shows a cinematic arc. That cinematic side belongs to some artists, not to the genre as a whole.

Where does hard industrial techno come from?

Its direct roots are three genres that kept getting closer in the late 2010s and the 2020s:

• Industrial techno, the darker, harsher side of techno, which itself goes back to the industrial music of the late 1970s and to the electronic body music (EBM) of the 1980s.
• Hard techno, which brought speed and intensity back to large crowds in the 2020s, with open borrowings from rave, trance and the harder styles.
• Rawstyle, the hardest branch of hardstyle, built on distorted, pitched kicks and screeching leads.

Hard industrial techno grew out of that meeting point: producers took the speed of hard techno, the attitude of industrial techno and the kick and lead design of rawstyle, and kept only what drives a drop.

Hard industrial techno and rawstyle: a porous border

The two styles are close, and the line between them keeps moving, especially with modern industrial rawstyle. Artists such as Kruelty, Expr0z and Incult, and some tracks by Fraw and Anderex, sit right on that border. What usually tells them apart is:

• Structure. Rawstyle drops are shorter, and rawstyle tracks tend to be a little shorter overall.
• The kick. Rawstyle kicks are often slightly harder.
• Tempo. Rawstyle sits at 160 BPM for the vast majority of tracks, while hard industrial techno ranges from 160 up to 175 BPM.
• Percussion. Hard industrial techno still uses some percussion and hi-hats; in rawstyle they are much rarer.

Hard industrial techno compared with nearby genres

What does hard industrial techno sound like?

• Tempo. Fast: usually between 160 and 175 BPM.
• The kick. The centre of everything: layered, distorted and loud, often with a rumble or a pitched tail.
• The lead. One main synth carries the drop with the kick: a detuned lead, a screech or a lead bass.
• Few textures in the drops. The drop is kick and lead, or kick and screech. Percussion and hi-hats are still used, but less and less.
• Structure. Long build-ups, breakdowns that strip everything back, and drops where the kick returns at full force.

How is hard industrial techno produced?

Most of the work goes into two sounds: the kick and the lead. The kick is usually built from several layers, a short transient for the click, a body for the punch and a distorted tail, then glued with saturation and careful EQ so that the low end stays clean at 160 BPM and above. The lead is designed to fight the kick as little as possible: it lives above it in the spectrum and answers it in rhythm.

Because the drops are so stripped back, every element is exposed. There is little to hide behind, so arrangement and mixdown matter as much as sound design: what is left out of the drop is as important as what is in it.

Where is hard industrial techno played?

The style lives in clubs, warehouses and the harder stages of festivals, mostly in Europe, where it shares crowds and line-ups with hard techno and the harder styles. Outside Europe it is still young: Asia remains marginal, and a small scene is emerging in the American underground, notably in Los Angeles.

How FennX plays it

I grew up on metal, EDM and film music before techno, and all three are still in what I play. A set is a story for me: it has to open like a film, build tension, and break into the hardest moments only when the room is ready. The armor, the character and the visuals exist for the same reason: hard industrial techno is physical, but it can also be a world you step into.

Listen to FennX's releases on the music page, see where the next shows are on the dates page, or book FennX through Makkina. Quick answers about FennX are in the FAQ and the fact sheet.

Questions

What BPM is hard industrial techno?

Usually between 160 and 175 BPM. That is faster than modern industrial techno (mostly 145 to 160 BPM) and hard techno (150 to 165 BPM), and from the rawstyle tempo of 160 BPM upwards.

Is hard industrial techno the same as hard techno?

No. It is faster than most hard techno, and its drops are driven by a kick and a single lead rather than by percussion and energy alone.

Is hard industrial techno the same as rawstyle?

No, but the border is porous, especially with modern industrial rawstyle. Rawstyle has shorter drops, slightly shorter tracks and often harder kicks, and stays at 160 BPM, while hard industrial techno goes up to 175 BPM and still uses some percussion.

Is hard industrial techno the same as industrial techno?

No. Industrial techno is slower (mostly 145 to 160 BPM) and built on textures, metallic percussion and noise. Hard industrial techno uses far fewer textures and lets the kick and a lead drive the drop.

Sources

• Industrial techno (Wikipedia)
• Hard techno (Wikipedia)
• Hardstyle and rawstyle (Wikipedia)
• Electronic body music (Wikipedia)
• Tempo ranges, sound design and scene notes: FennX, from the producer's and DJ's side.