Music can soothe the savage beast and it can work us up into a fury. There is a seemingly infinite number of styles of music and this list looks at ten of the less usual ones. Just to clarify, the use of the word “extreme” is simply a way of describing genres that were in one or more ways completely different from anything mainstream.
Description: Political hip hop (also political rap) is a sub-genre of hip hop music that developed in the 1980s. Inspired by 1970s political preachers such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, Public Enemy were the first political hip hop group. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released the first well-known sociopolitical rap song in 1982 called “The Message”, which inspired numerous rappers to address social and political subjects.
Why it is Extreme: Political hip hop might not be extreme in every sense of the word but nowadays artists such as Immortal Technique, Dead Prez and Looptroop rockers use their music to promote and sometimes encourage themes such a socialism, anarchy, conspiracy theories, black power and even presidential assassination. This genre should never be compared to the average rap song played on the radio, in fact almost all Political hip hop artist express extreme dislike towards mass produced and highly commercialized artists, an example of this is a passage from the song “The Message and the Money” by Immortal Technique, “To all these saronayas who are too lazy to come up with a way to sell records…that they keep recycling marketing schemes and imagery, C’mon there is a market for everything, there is a market for pet psychologists, twisted shitfetish videos, nipple rings, river dancing, for chocolate covered roaches but you can’t find one for cultured hardcore reality and hip hop?”
Related Genres: Black Nationalist hip hop, Marxist hip hop, Anarchist hip hop, Socialism hip hop
Artists: Nas, Mos Def, Dead Prez, Looptroop rockers, Immortal Technique, Blue Scholars, Sun Rise Above
Description: A body of singers who perform together is called a choir or chorus. The former term is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church and the second to groups that perform in theaters or concert halls. All members come together with what is called “one voice.” One person who makes a mistake can throw off the entire group and a mistake made by by a single person means the entire group makes the mistake. The spotlight is on the choir, therefore it is of extreme importance to perform well for the audience (in a concert) or congregation (in a church). In typical 18th to 20th century oratorios and masses, chorus or choir is usually understood to imply more than one singer per part, in contrast to the quartet of soloists also featured in these works.
Why it is Extreme: Simply the fact that the smallest mistake made by one person could ruin the performance of all other members (anywhere from 20 to 300) makes this genre more extreme than others, where a mistake could be covered up by other members. Another extreme factor is the absence of any kind of time-keeping device such as a metronome, drums or even a finger snap. Choirs also have a very precise structure that needs to be followed to assure a proper sounding harmony, similar to an orchestra where all instruments have an assigned position and tuning.
Related Genres: Symphonic choirs, Vocal jazz choirs, classical, orchestral
Description: Chill out (sometimes also chillout, chill-out, or simply chill) emerged in the early and mid-1990s as a catch-all term for various styles of relatively mellow, slow-tempo music made by contemporary producers in the electronic music scene. Sometimes the Easy Listening sub-genre Lounge is considered to belong to the chill-out collection. The term “Chill out music”, as well as the genre itself, originated in chill rooms that were set up by DJs off to the edge of club dance floors to give patrons a chance to take a break from the hectic dance vibe and chill out with this style of music. Chill out as a musical genre or descriptive is synonymous with the more recently popularized terms “smooth electronica” and “soft techno” and is a loose genre of music blurring into several other very distinct styles of electronic and lo-fi music.
Why it is Extreme: Perhaps “Complete Ambiance” is a more appropriate title for this genre as anything that relaxes can be considered chill and each person has their own preferences. This genre is a very specific sub genre of electronic music with characteristics including downtempo, synthetic ambiance, deep bass lines, oceanwave-like rhythm and sound effects such as bells, xylophone, synthetic pings and strictly no vocals (Non-Voc). It might sound like there is nothing extreme about this genre but some songs can last more than 15 minutes and sometimes people have trouble concentrating and staying awake through a whole song due to it’s very affective soothing ability. Chill out rooms at dance clubs fill a safety need for users of Ecstasy, because some songs were so affective that it would put the user in such a deep trance causing them to forget to breath. In 1992 a UK rule required dance clubs to provide free water in response to a number of Ecstasy-related injuries and deaths.
Related Genres: Ambient, Trip-Hop, Nu Jazz, New Age, Downtempo, Lounge, Psybient
Artists: Portishead, Afterlife, Lux, Massive Attack, Boards of Canada
Description: Indian classical music has its origins as a meditation tool for attaining self realization. All different forms of these melodies (ragas) are believed to affect various “chakras” (energy centers, or “moods”). However, there is little mention of these esoteric beliefs in Bharat’s Natyashastra, the first treatise laying down the fundamental principles of drama, dance and music. Indian classical music has one of the most complex and complete musical systems ever developed. Like Western classical music, it divides the octave into 12 semitones however, it uses the just intonation tuning (unlike most modern Western classical music, which uses the equal-temperament tuning system).
Why it is Extreme: I think the only way to explain why this genre is so extreme is to give the definition of a Rāga. Rāga refers to melodic modes used in Indian classical music. It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associated with different times of the day, or with seasons. Indian classical music is always set in a rāga. That means that a different song is played depending on which season, day and time it is. Another extreme factor is the use of instruments which include the sitar, a 16 stringed guitar requiring a lifetime of practice to play properly.
Description: Death metal (the modern or “american” death metal not the original 80′s and 90′s death metal) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes. Building off the speed and complexity of thrash metal, death metal emerged during the mid 1980s. It was mainly inspired by thrash metal acts like Slayer, Kreator and Celtic Frost. Along with the band Death and its frontman Chuck Schuldiner (who is often referred to as “the father of death metal”), bands like Possessed and Morbid Angel are often considered pioneers of the genre. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, death metal gained more media attention as popular record labels like Earache Records and Roadrunner Records began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate. Since then, death metal has diversified, spawning a rich variety of subgenres.
Why it is Extreme: Lyrical themes include death, murder, rape, mutilation, dominance, rage, hatred, torture etc.
The lower the vocals, guitars and bass are tuned the better.
Related Genres: Mathcore, Deathcore, Black Metal, Grindcore, Doom Metal, Speed Metal
Artists (Modern death metal only): Oceano, Suicide Silence, Waking the Cadaver, Ion Dissonance, Suffokate, Annotations of an Autopsy, Winds of Plague, Emmure, Rose Funeral
Description: Speed metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music originating in the early 1980s. It is described as “extremely fast, abrasive, and technically demanding” music. Also according to Allmusic.com, speed metal eventually toned down its intense tempos and evolved into thrash metal.
Why it is Extreme: Cybergrind is not technically a recognized genre though some bands use it as a descriptive genre. So to make things easier i used the closest thing, Speed Metal, as an example. Cybergrind is sort of a blend between Speed Metal and Hardcore (#4 on this list). If Death Metal is too much for you then this will definitely not sooth your musical taste buds, it is quite extreme.
Related Genres: Speed Metal, Death Metal, Mathcore
Artists: The Berzerker, Abramelin, Plague, Disembowelment
Description: Hardcore is a style of electronic music that originated in the early-to-mid-1990s in multiple locations including the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the UK. The style is typified by a fast tempo, and the rhythmic use of distorted and atonal industrial-like beats and samples. As hardcore continues to grow, each different type of hardcore (each subgenre) begins to attract a larger fan base and more support from producers. As new subgenres grow they can become extremely different than other subgenres that are also referred to as “Hardcore.”
Why it is extreme: Hardcore subsequently is an extreme form of techno, house and trance music, it follows the basic guidelines with a constant beat and laud synthetic sirens and other sound effects.
Related Genres: Gabber, Speedcore, Terrorcore, Breakcore, Noisecore, Doomcore
Artists: Neophyte, Angerfist, Delta 9, Gammer, Nasenbluten
Description: Avant-garde metal, experimental metal, or art metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterised by the use of innovative, avant-garde elements, large-scale experimentation, and the use of non-standard sounds, instruments, and song structures. The earliest avant-garde metal bands include Celtic Frost and Master’s Hammer. Many Avant-Garde metal bands can be found on North American label The End Records. The term avant-garde metal refers to bands and musicians who “incorporate new and innovative elements in metal, who break conventions, tear down walls, violate borders.” The genre has also been described as “the art of creating deep and strange atmospheres by experimenting with new instruments and sounds, strange vocals, unconventional song structures, rhythms and harmonies, unusual lyrics or uncommon artwork” or alternatively, “progressive, psychedelic, surrealistic, phantasmagoric, expressionistic, dissonant or extravagant interpretations of extreme metal.”
Why it is Extreme: Almost everything we do in live is done to a certain beat or rhythm that only we can “feel”. When we walk, write, talk, read, breath and eat we do it to the same rhythm we have always felt and when that rhythm is interrupted we try to either adapt to the new beat or get back to the old one. Avant-garde metal bands will not allow you to get back to the previous beat, sudden changes in tempo, off beat and pulsating blast-beats and short bursts of highly distorted vocals create a confusing, complex and random wall of noise that strangely, makes sense.
Related Genres: Post-metal, Drone metal, Mathcore
Artists: Fantomas, Mr. Bungle, Mike Patton, Rahzel, Maldoror
Description: Perhaps the best-known musical form of the Mongols is the throat singing tradition known as hoomii, extant among all or most Mongols though best known internationally from Tuva. Sung differently than traditional vocals. In Mongolia, the most-famous throat-singers include Gereltsogt and Sundui, while the Tuvan group Huun-Huur-Tu has an international following. This unique type of singing involves the production of two distinctively audible pitches at the same time, including a low pedal note, or drone, derived from the fundamental frequency of the vocal cord vibrations, and higher melodic notes that result when the singer’s mouth acts as a filter, selecting one note at a time from among the drone’s natural overtone series pitches.
Why it is Extreme: Singing itself is quite difficult for most people and throat singing is probably not something they would even consider. A throat singer can produce 2 to 4 notes at the same time, this gives the effect of a deep sound (bass) a medium sound (guitar) and a high pitch sound resembling a flute or whistle being played. This genre is definitely extreme, some songs can last 3 minutes and depending on how good the singer is could contain only 10 words (words are stretched and sometimes transition into “instrumentals”). Unfortunately the featured clip has an annoying high pitched sound in it but it should not due too much damage to the quality.
Description: Aphex Twin is not a genre of music but an artist, i decided to include him in this list because his music is truly unique. Aphex Twin, is a British electronic musician described by The Guardian newspaper as “the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music.”
Why he is Extreme: I think anyone who has heard an Aphex Twin song knows that it is not ordinary, Twin produces songs that have incredible complexity, sound distortions, synthetic sound effects, maximum distorted voices and recordings and off to on beat changes.
Related Genres: Electronic
Related Artists: None
INUIT THROAT SINGER: TANYA TAGAQ
POLITICAL HIP-HOP WAS LESS EXTREME THAN CHOIR MUSIC????
This is by far the most inaccurate list i’ve seen in a long time. It started out with good intentions and then just fell apart.
Not to mention #2 doesn’t even have famous throat singers (great research buddy!), and..
#1 was just lazy, if you researched it you could’ve found a lot of influential artists who fit the genre of electronica….jesus Aphex twin?? i love the guy but c’mon..
***** list.
very disapointed about the political hip-hop being #10. tisk tisk..
POLITICAL HIP-HOP: KRS ONE, JEDI MIND TRICKS
“Extreme” to me would qualify for something very violent, politically incorrect, shocking..etc..
In that sense, to me “extreme” music genres would be ones like black/death metal, grindcore, hardcore, i guess some violent rap songs, RAC (Rock Against Communism, or if you prefer : neo nazi music)..etc..
This list is pretty disappointing.
O music, hell of a topic for a list
Man, this is SO close to my list “top ten death metal Albums”.
Too many people don’t get the genre, and I want people to have a better understanding of it.
Aphex Twin sound just like Mouse on Mars, so not unique at all.
I didn’t read the rest of the comments so I’m not sure if somebody said this already–where is the white supremecist/ white power music? Skrewdriver? Come on, should be number one.
Wow this list has a lot of hate. It was okay though, but I am just not nto music except the ones that I like.
How in the world could you leave out power industrial, dark ambient, neofolk, or neomilitant music?
Hey,
Aphex Twin is not British he is Irish. Born in Limerick I believe. Do your research before posting a list.
The Irish People didn’t spend over 800 years fighting for freedom just for some random retard on the Internet to call them British. They would be all rolling in their graves if they were dead-drunk.
Nintendocore?
i’m afraid your idea of hardcore is quite limited and incorrect.
We are talking about Aphex twin and not one mention of salad fingers?
WTF? What about Chipune/8bit ? Music made in *****ing Gameboy is surely more extreme than an ass shouting nonsense.
And breakcore ? Just the name is extreme.
And Goa? It’s certainly trancier than chillout.
And electronic drone? A mystical sound gaining intensity and deepness?
c’mon, more than one metal subgenre is a joke, and “politcal hip-hop” xP (that WAS a joke, right)
You’re missing: Breakcore, noise, post-rock, funeral doom, black, goregrind, post-metal, drone metal, mathcore, and quite a few others.
Is “Chill” just another name for elevator music? Just wondering. Oh the days when Alice Cooper was considered extreme and my parents were freaking out wondering what kind of kid they were raising because I was such a huge fan.
The biggest douchebags I know are the neckbearded fatties who think that Death Metal is cool.
To death metal fans I say – take a shower once in a while.
P.S. not a big fan of this list, for purely semantic reasons – this is not the “Top 10″ extreme forms of music out there. There are far more extreme examples to be found. Still, as an eclectic collection it is still pretty good.
Alice Cooper was a douchebag too, all he did was rip off the Stooges and the New York Dolls and sell it to TV. How very ‘extreme’ of him.
@Woyzeck Returns (137): Well I liked Iggy as well. So there…
I don’t think Extreme is the right word here…unique but extreme music? I don’t think there is such a thing.
you forgot PUBLIC ENEMY in political hip hop!
Why is choir music here? In my high school and my college, there are a ton of people who sing in choir.
Also, I don’t understand why Indian Classical is considered extreme. Coming from an Indian heritage, I find it completely normal. Maybe genres instead of cultural music would have been better, because what’s normal in one country is weird in another. Plus I agree with a lot of the previous comments. This is more of an opinion list than anything else.
soothe the savage breast, not beast. sorry for the pedantry
Was an interesting list until I got to Aphex Twin at #1. That was a poor decision.
How is Black Metal not even on this list? Should be number 1. Do some research, look up the church burnings in Norway, look up Varg Vikernes, frontman of Burzum, formerly of Mayhem, who murdered Euronymous. Look up the most controversial Satanic lyrics. All in connection with Black Metal. Just a simple wikipedia search on black metal will tell you all you need to know
You’re a complete idiot. This list is terribly uninformed. Especially the “Death Metal” section. None of those bands are Death Metal. I don’t know if you listen to those bands, but if you do, you have absolutely no idea what Death Metal is. Stupid hipster…
SCUM PUNK!!!!!!
@Rob (144): I couldn’t agree more. and there’s the whole Les Legions Noires BM scene that happened in France. That had some of the rawest ***** I’ve heard to this day. And the black “noise” of Abruptum, not to mention viking metal like Enslaved. This guy doesnt know jack about metal
The list began somewhat interesting with the mos def video, however as i began to scroll downwards i noticed the complete suck of this list. thank you, please try again =\.
I’m not partial to this list. I wouldn’t consider political hip hop to be a genre too separated from the mainstream, what with the popularity of Public Enemy and “Fight the Power” in particular.
I would probably put plainchant in place of choral music, since plainchant features non-standard scales and rhythms very different from those in modern music.
I would definitely replace death or speed metal with drone metal, seeing as drone metal is unusual not only to fans of popular music but many metal fans as well.
This list is also horribly incomplete without a mention of musique concrete, some form of industrial music, or the works of John Cage.
***** yes Oceano!
love those guys, except theyre considered deathcore, not death metal.
@145: I lol’d when I saw he left Cannibal Corpse off the list. I mean, you’d think he’d at least include THEM…
@El the erf (115): I am very surprised, el. I was expecting at least 75 comments from you by now.
wow, death detal is pretty much all i listen to and those bands on there are definitely not death metal. it always angers me when people think deathcore, grindcore and death metal are the same…
Why it is Extreme: Lyrical themes include death, murder, rape, mutilation, dominance, rage, hatred, torture etc.
The lower the vocals, guitars and bass are tuned the better.
this is great for comedic purposes.
i think your definition of extreme differs from mine slightly, but still a good read. i always like the music lists, although there wasn’t much for me on this (don’t think there’ll be much mongolian theoat singing on spotify
)
still, you missed off my favourite ‘extreme genre’ – gypsy punk!
http://open.spotify.com/track/5lhl1BuBHERehZokNToaJz
any genre that end with a “core” is not metal. And for the bands place under the Death Metal genre are absolute trash and are not even death metal. Some awesome bands that are real death metal are Suffocation, Bloodbath, Vader, Decrepit Birth(More Tech Death). Also how the hell can anyone discuss speed metal, without mentioning freakin Megadeth or Anthrax they were key components for the birth of speed/thrash metal
The listverse use to be like scuba diving at the Great Barrier reef of cool list. Now it’s like diving in the Dead Sea.
misleading list.
as far as an artist (in the same vein as aphex twin) – wheres venetian snares?
and how about the speedcore genre?
No Z’EV? No Swans? No Bad Brains? No mention of any 20th Century atonal classical music? And how is Public Enemy not on a list of Political Rap?
As for Aphex Twin, merely being “not ordinary” doesn’t make one extreme. The Shaggs were far, far away from ordinary, but I think most folks would argue they were only extremely annoying.
Not one of the better lists.
Wow, one of the bands mentioned on the political hiphop list is actually from my town in Sweden. Just thought that was pretty cool =) i’m talking about LoopTroop Rockers ofc!
No Noise? Merzbow?
More extreme than anything else on here.
Interesting list, glad to see Suicide Silence got a mention. Saw them in Portland not too long ago, awesome show. And i must agree with Nerikull, Waking the Cadavar sucks. Talentless hacks.
The only way that you could justify death and black metal being “related genres” is by saying that they’re both metal? Same instruments maybe? They don’t really sound similar, or have similar themes, or similar fanbases…
I think that given what you defined “extreme” as black metal would have been a much better genre to include, you could have just put in Mayhem’s early history as thet blurb.
Mike Patton wasn’t an original member of The Dillinger escape Plan, he only filled in for vocals on one EP in between other singers. Get your facts straight kid.
And doom metal? Related to death metal? Lol, how?
No Cannibal Corpse? I would’ve thought that they were the perfect example of modern extreme death metal… Unless of course your whole entry refers to deathcore… In which case calling it “Death Metal” would be a bit stupid, wouldn’t it?
The Hoomii throat singing is less aurally offensive than that speed metal.
@WiseMenSay (155):
“…Also how the hell can anyone discuss speed metal, without mentioning freakin Megadeth or Anthrax they were key components for the birth of speed/thrash metal…”
Say it with me, “speed metal came first, then thrash metal,” it’s pretty easy to overlook thrash bands when talking about speed; I don’t talk about metalcore bands when I talk about thrash metal or hardcore.
This list is so stupid, you have so many different subgenres of electronic. What about punk…?
I like this list simply because it got all the metal nerds in a huff about the minutia of their crappy music.
I can’t stand when people chop up music into a million genres. Who cares? No one! If genres were as strict as some of you ass nuggets think, every band in the world would have its own genre. Suck it!
***** Deathcore, it is not deathmetal, it is not the same thing. It’s like saying Limp Bizkit and Slayer are the same thing, it’s *****ing insulting. Deathcore is the plague that gives death metal the bad name, the bands are extreme in the same way that a childs tantrums are extreme. they are every stereotype of bad extreme music and don’t even know it. Music lists are always poorly informed or biased in some poor way or another. There are other musicians like Aphex twin, a lot actually. Avant Garde metal leaves out bands like Gorguts. death metal lists “modern” death metal bands, which is not the case at all, it is listing a different genre. No reference to Noise music, bands like Wolf Eyes or Merzbow. No reference to Drone or funeral doom, bands like Sunn O))), Moss or Khanate.
List should be called:
Top 10 Entry Level Extreme music genres, since a musician of every genre presented here has appeared on MTV.
what about sopor aeternus? she IS extreme. or sunn O))). but these are just genres not mainstream.
Whoever wrote this list need to learn his/her genres. Speed metal and cybergrind (which is a sub-genre of grindcore) have nothing in common.
Aphex Twin reminds me slightly of The Chemical Brothers.
FAIL LIST
What? I have never heard of somebody mention hardcore unless they were talking about *****o or the sub genre of punk music. Since hardcore punk originated in the late 70′s I would say that style has more of a right to the term than the techno music does.
@167: I think it’s pretty safe to say that the list maker’s knowledge of genres stems from misled wikipedia searches.
Interesting list. It was great to listen to the Indian Classical Music.
I would agree it’s biased…But it would be impossible to do a list by one person on music that isn’t biased. Music just sort of works that way and there is so many types and genres of music that no one person could write it all down.
The only thing that irked me was that political hip hop was included without a whiff of mention of KRS-One…Come on man!
Also, the fact of the matter is a choir NOT meant to identical frequency spectrums and all in phase. The whole point of a choir is subtle differences in each person combine and are heard as a single, synergistic sound, your voice being different to everyone else’s is key. If they were all identical, you would hear ELF beats, which simply, you do not.
lol, you are calling hardcore extreme, which it is, but then you post a rather slow number called extreme terror by dj skinhead, while you may wanna include a number from moder day terror DJ’s like “the vizitor”, “DJ Noisekick”, or “DJ Bonehead”
look it up on youtube, there really extreme.
not to great list