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Noise rock, sometimes called noise punk, is a distortion-heavy style of experimental rock that emerged from punk in the 1980s, drawing influences from minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore. Characterized by extreme levels of distortion, artists use electric guitars and occasionally electronic instrumentation to create percussive sounds or enrich the overall arrangement. While some bands, like Sonic Youth, incorporated melodies within droning textures to make the genre more accessible to alternative rock audiences, others, such as Big Black, Swans, and the Jesus Lizard, leaned into its harsher, more abrasive qualities.
Low – Hey What Low’s Hey What, released in 2021, is a transformative and emotionally potent album that cements the band’s legacy as sonic innovators. The record builds on the experimental groundwork laid by their previous work, Double Negative, but pushes even further into the abstract with a stark, minimalistic approach and distorted soundscapes that…
The Seer is a harrowing, relentless monolith of sound—a marathon of noise, ritual, and revelation. Michael Gira drags you through fire and whispers lullabies in the ashes. It’s not for the faint of heart, but those who endure won’t forget the journey.
In Utero is jagged, unfiltered, and unsettlingly direct. Nirvana captured a sound that refuses to smooth itself over, turning every flaw and fracture into part of the record’s permanent, unforgettable shape.
Fontanelle is a glorious mess of emotion, distortion, and defiance. It doesn’t polish its wounds — it flaunts them. Babes in Toyland created something here that still feels dangerous, still feels necessary, and still cuts deeper than most dare.
Dirty doesn’t try to be timeless. It’s rooted in its moment, snarling and snapping like a dog on a short chain. But the rage still resonates. Sonic Youth didn’t go pop, they made the noise louder, sharper, and impossible to ignore.
Sonic Youth’s major-label debut blew the doors off what “alternative” meant before Nirvana rewrote the rulebook. The band sharpened their noise into something hook-adjacent, wrangled chaos into melody, and something approaching pop that still has the sound of guitars bleeding.