Tearout
early to mid 2010s · North American festival circuit, building on UK dubstep
The most abrasive branch of the dubstep family: modern tearout traded early dubstep's minimalism for blown-out, industrial maximalism, championed by the 2010s North American festival circuit (Splice, Never Say Die).
The sound
138 to 150 BPM half-time with a chest-thumping sub kick on beat one and a sharp, metallic pan snare on beat three. Bass is violently modulated mid-range built with FM and wavetable synthesis in Serum, serial resampling, and heavy multiband distortion.
Listen for: Sheer physical aggression. Rapid-fire, machine-gun bass stabs and comb-filtered screeches designed to hit your chest, not fill a room. This is the sound design frontier of heavy bass.
Things to know
Tearout's defining frontier is sound design: producers rely on advanced FM and wavetable synthesis in Serum, serial resampling, and multiband OTT compression to build violently modulated mid-range and rapid-fire bass stabs.
While the word tearout once described 1990s jungle and 2000s UK dubstep, modern tearout is a distinct evolution: it traded early dubstep's minimalism for blown-out, industrial maximalism on the 2010s North American festival circuit.
A tearout drop places a chest-thumping sub-bass kick on beat one and a sharp, metallic pan snare with a long white-noise tail on beat three, the same half-time frame as dubstep pushed to maximum impact.
Key tracks
Black Hole by SKisM & Trampa · 2015
Prismatic by SVDDEN DEATH · 2017
Death Pit by Marauda · 2018
Behemoth by SVDDEN DEATH · 2018
Family tree
- Brostep: Tearout is brostep pushed to its most abrasive extreme. The North American festival circuit traded early dubstep's minimalism for blown-out industrial maximalism, chasing violently modulated mid-range and machine-gun bass stabs built for maximum physical impact.