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Also from Canada, OBLIVEON started out as progressive thrash outfit (From This Day Forward1990, Nemesis 1993) that eventually discovered space (and electronica) as documentedin its early stages on Cybervoid (1995) and sculpted to dark cyber perfection on TechnocarnivoreMothermouth (1999). Another one to search out for.One other notable who took the ball from Godflesh and ran with it, were DEAD WORLD, anunderrated American outfit who produced three original and abrasive records (Collusion1992, The Machine 1993, Thanatos Rising 1996) before fading into obscurity. The sound wasa single-minded pursuit of distorted bass and pounding yet mid-paced drum machines withawkward samples, topped by some classicsludgy death metal riffing and dissonance.FEAR FACTORY started out as a extremelyprecise death/grind outfit with great productionand a distinct lack of guitar wankery (Soulof a New Machine 1992). They single-handedlyinaugurated the new wave of metal, keepingthe music catchy and mosh-able with somesubtle melodic hooks and a tastefully limiteduse of samples and background synths. Initiallyit was the precision of the music as well asthe slight fling with synthesizers that garneredthem the ‘industrial metal’ tag. But it was therelease of the Fear is the Mindkiller EP (remixesfrom the Soul of a New Machine) that cementedtheir position. The slightly more progressiveone two punch of the Demanufacture 1995 (adark cyber concept album of gigantic grooves) and the Remanufacture remixes set (gabbermetal anyone?!) was the absolute pinnacle of the band. After inspiring tons of sub-par nucoreoutfits, the band joined the hordes by refusing to progress an iota further an eventuallybroke up.At this point mention must be made of Psalm 69 byMINISTRY (see part 1 of this article for details)which can be attributed with introducing a newgeneration to the joys of the mixing of thrash riffs,political sampling and blitzkrieg drum machines.MISERY LOVES CO. was a Swedish outfit thatenjoyed limited success during alternative metal’sheydays although being much heavier and darkerthan that lot. Their self titled debut (1994) and thesubsequent EPs are a great mix of aggressive riffingand programmed beats molded into some seriouslyinfectious songwriting.In a less impressive but still widely influential manner NINE INCH NAILS introduced theMTV generation to angst that you could dance to. From the first release it was clear whereNIN’s output was destined for with the artistic culmination of all Reznor’s musical worth inThe Downward Spiral. Since then he has been regurgitating the same song structures withdifferent names.RED HARVEST were already a pretty disturbingoutfit upon their inception, with a soundbest described asdoom metal playedby robots(Nomindsland1992, There isBeauty in the Purityof Sadness 1993).