Noise Rock

Noise Rock is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a genre of rock with a focus on occupying the extreme end of the Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness (well, not quite the extreme end, but you get the point). Noise rockers for the most part have a pronounced fondness for creating ear-bleeding music with the standard rock instrumentation; how important other factors are, such as melody or lyrics, varies from band to band.^[1] Noise rockers are known for their confrontational performances, unsurprisingly enough.

Noise rock's antecedents can be traced to proto-punk bands like The Velvet Underground and The Stooges, the No Wave scene, and Hardcore Punk.^[2] The genre as a unified movement emerged in The Eighties and has bubbled underground ever since, with the occasional moment where some band gets really popular. Noise rock was also an influence on Shoegazing, Grindcore, Industrial Metal, Drone Doom, Grunge, and a few varieties of Hardcore Punk and Metalcore.

Not to be confused with Noise Pop, which is something slightly different.

Bands commonly associated with Noise Rock include:

Aids Wolf
Band Of Susans—Had a strong Post Rock streak.
Big Black / Rapeman / Shellac—Three bands where recording engineer Steve Albini played guitar and/or sang.
Black Flag -- Hardcore Punk meets Noise Rock and Prog Rock.
Boredoms—Earlier albums only; later work is more Psychedelic Rock.
Butthole Surfers
Comparative Anatomy—Two bassists and a drum machine who dress up in animal costumes and delve into noisegrind.
Drunkdriver
Einstürzende Neubauten—Early in their career, pioneered Industrial.
Flipper—famous for the batshit insane Epic, "Sex Bomb".
Foetus—and its many incarnations
Godflesh—See also Industrial Metal.
Hella—A hybrid of noise rock and math rock
Helmet—Formed by ex-Band of Susans member Page Hamilton.
The Jesus Lizard
Liars—At first, before they went dance-punk, and then went almost everywhere else.
Lightning Bolt
Melt-Banana
No Age
The Pop Group—See also Post Punk, Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly.
The Psychic Paramount—Loud, abrasive noise rock mixed with Psychedelic Rock
Ramleh—Combined Hard Rock with Power Electronics.
Satanized
Scarling—A four-way crash between Noise Rock, Noise Pop, Shoegazing and Goth Rock.
Scratch Acid
Sonic Youth—Especially 1981-1985.
Swans—Mainly 1982-1986, with later works predicating Post Rock.

↑ Compare, for example, Sonic Youth to Lightning Bolt, or Boredoms to The Pop Group. The differences in the songwriting department are far more striking than the similarities.
↑ And that's not even counting all of the bizarre Japanese groups dating back to The Sixties like Les Rallizes Dénudés, or the quirked-out pre-Sex Pistols aberrations like Half-Japanese, which while obscure have made a huge impact on the genre.

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[1] Compare, for example, Sonic Youth to Lightning Bolt, or Boredoms to The Pop Group. The differences in the songwriting department are far more striking than the similarities.

[2] And that's not even counting all of the bizarre Japanese groups dating back to The Sixties like Les Rallizes Dénudés, or the quirked-out pre-Sex Pistols aberrations like Half-Japanese, which while obscure have made a huge impact on the genre.