Aggrotech
Industrial · 2002 · 130 to 145 BPM · also known as Hellektro, Terror EBM, Harsh EBM
Aggrotech is the dancefloor hardening of dark electro in the 2000s: shouted, vocoder-processed vocals, club-ready kicks, minor-key trance melodies and apocalyptic imagery. It runs on the fuel of gothic festivals like Hellfest and cyber clubs, with Combichrist and Hocico as its leading acts. The style openly embraces excess, since that is its very definition, piling distortion, speed and volume on top of dark electro's already grim template. Where its parent genre still leans on atmosphere and dread, aggrotech is built first for the dancefloor, trading some of that slow-burning menace for an immediate, pounding club impact.
11 reference tracks
- Grendel: Zombie Nation (2006)
- Hocico: Born to Be Hated (2002)
- Agonoize: Bis Das Blut Gefriert (2004)
- Suicide Commando: Bind Torture Kill (2006)
- Combichrist: This Shit Will Fuck You Up (2005)
- Aesthetic Perfection: Automaton (2019)
- KMFDM: Krank
- Hocico: Untold Blasphemies
- Combichrist: God Wrapped in Plastic
- Hocico: Fed Up
- Combichrist: Get Your Body Beat
At a glance
- Tempo: 130 to 145 BPM
- First appeared: around 2002
- Machines: Vocodeur, Clavia Nord Lead, Native Instruments Massive, Steinberg Cubase
- The sound: Voix screamées distordues, Kicks club appuyés, Leads trance mineurs, Vocodeurs et bitcrush
- Labels: Out Of Line, NoiTekk, Alfa Matrix
- Key artists: Combichrist, Hocico, Suicide Commando, Grendel, Agonoize
Producing Aggrotech
Aggrotech runs 130 to 150 BPM, usually settling at 140, on a fully quantized, unswung grid built for the dancefloor from the first bar, faster than the dark electro it hardens. Build a heavy, saturated club kick with a pitch envelope and strong compression, a layered snare and clap on 2 and 4 with white noise, sixteenth hats at alternating velocities, and kick rolls into a snare buildup before each drop. The bass is deliberately distorted and rolling, a wavetable sawtooth through a resonant filter and internal distortion, heavily sidechained to the kick, its minor-key lines leaning on the minor second and tritone until it rivals the kick rather than supporting it. The shouted, vocoder vocal is the genre's emblem, pushed through overdrive into a robotic growl, joined by bright unison leads.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Aggrotech?
Aggrotech is the dancefloor hardening of dark electro in the 2000s: shouted, vocoder-processed vocals, club-ready kicks, minor-key trance melodies and apocalyptic imagery. It runs on the fuel of gothic festivals like Hellfest and cyber clubs, with Combichrist and Hocico as its leading acts. The…
What tempo is Aggrotech played at?
Between 130 and 145 BPM.
Who are the key Aggrotech artists?
Combichrist, Hocico, Suicide Commando, Grendel, Agonoize.
