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Coldwave (USA)

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Since the middle of the ’90s, the term “coldwave” has been used in the US to describe a primarily American style of industrial music, mainly industrial metal and industrial rock. This style has its roots in acts like the Young Gods, Swamp Terrorists and Ministry as well as the industrial-metal popularity-surge created by Nine Inch Nails' Broken EP, and exploded on the American scene in the early to mid-1990s. Albums like Chemlab’s Burn Out at the Hydrogen Bar exemplified the typical coldwave sound; primarily-sampled hard rock-like guitars with prominent synthesizer accompaniment, frequent use of acid house influences and live or sampled drums. Lyrical content varies, but is typically cyberpunk-oriented in some fashion, often with pop sensibilities. Coldwave record labels had a notoriously short lifespan, and the genre, while quite popular in the industrial scene between 1992 and 1996, is a very small niche market today. With a few notable exceptions like Cyanotic or Medicant Downline, very few bands today can be described as purely coldwave, or even apply the label to themselves.

For clarity it is worth noting that while not explicitly the same, the terms Coldwave, Cybercore and Synthcore are sometimes interchangeable. Typically, the genre used to describe an industrial rock band is based on the amount of programming or synthesizers within. Coldwave bands tend to have a rougher punk sound while synthcore acts often sound like synthpop with additional guitars.

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