Industrial metal combines heavy metal guitar riffs with synthesizer lines and industrial production techniques. As a result, the gear used by industrial metal bands typically includes both hardware and software synthesizers as well as electric guitars and guitar-oriented effects processors. Drums used in industrial metal may often be acoustic, electronic or a mixture of both.

The digital audio workstation Pro Tools from Digidesign is widely-used by industrial metal musicians, who often favor it over similar software due to the ease of editing recorded audio, such as guitar tracks, with it.

Unlike in other industrial subgenres, industrial metal musicians usually play live with a full live band, following the setup typical for most rock shows, including a lead singer, guitarist, bassist, drummer and keyboardist. An emphasis is made on playing synthesizer lines live rather than relying on sequencers or backing tracks.

The table below shows gear used most by industrial metal bands. Click the name of a piece of music equipment to read more about it.