What Makes Music Extreme? Whatever It Is, Here Are 25 Songs That Capture It

Extreme music is a tough walnut, because what makes music extreme in the first place is entirely relative. The Who could, in some respects, be more extreme than Japanese noise band Merzbow, just as Link Wray’s guitar could have a more extreme sound than Venom’s heavy metal.

Musical extremism could come down to lyrical subject matter. It could come down to how loud, cacophonous, dissonant, atonal and/or distorted the music itself is. It could be completely relative to the time period in which the music came out.

Extreme music also has a greater danger and an element of transgression, once it becomes mainstream. Many artists were making musique concrete in the 1960s, but because its esoteric quality created an artistic echo chamber, very little of it was as groundbreaking as The Beatles’ “Revolution 9.”

So what makes music extreme? Is it the sonic abrasion? Is music extreme when it pulls a Pink Flamingos and tries to be as gross and offensive as possible with considerable success? Is music extreme when it pushes artistic boundaries to a handful of people, or is it extreme when it shocks the conscience of a mainstream audience?

The definition of “extreme” is quite nebulous in this context, but here are 25 songs from 25 albums that scratch that itch, one way or another.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, “I Put a Spell on You,” from At Home With Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1956)
True extremism is when you turn a blues song into a cacophonous horror show. There’s a reason Jay Hawkins had “Screamin’” in his stage name, and there’s equal reason as to why he’s considered a pioneer of shock rock. Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne would be the first to tell you that they could never. Link Wray & His Wraymen, “Rumble” (single) (1958)
Link Wray jabbed holes into his amp with a pencil and gave it a distorted, reverb-heavy sound that effects pedals have worked to emulate in the years since. That’s why his signature hit, “Rumble,” got banned from the airwaves despite being a purely instrumental track.

Without Link Wray’s artistic extremism, there would be no Iggy Pop, Led Zeppelin or The Who.  The Who, “My Generation,” from My Generation (1965)
Blue Cheer tried to be a blues rock band when they recorded Vincebus Eruptum, but they inevitably created one of the earliest metal records ever.

Likewise, The Who created one of the earliest punk songs with “My Generation,” even as they were building from a musical palette like the one used by every other British Invasion band. This song was mainstream for its time, but it was also dangerous. It even led to a de facto heaviness war, which prompted The Beatles to record the famously heavy song “Helter Skelter.” The Velvet Underground, “White Light, White Heat,” from White Light/White Heat (1968)
This song is about intravenous use of methamphetamine, and it’s the best goddamned racket ever transcribed onto wax. Peter Brotzmann Octet, “Machine Gun,” from Machine Gun (1968)
You know how Metallica used staccato notes to mirror the sound of a machine gun in “One”? Peter Brotzmann did it first, and it was heavier than an anvil crushing a black hole in Wile E. Coyote fashion. Cromagnon, “Caledonia,” from Orgasm (1969)
Before Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten, there was Cromagnon. Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, “Debra Cadabra,” from Bongo Fury (1975)
Two infamous audio ecoterrorists share a stage in Austin. Need we say more? Throbbing Gristle, “Slug Bait,” from The Second Annual Report (1977)
This isn’t even Throbbing Gristle’s most extreme track. But it’s one of their earliest, and one of their most revolting. The Mentally Ill, “Padded Cell,” from Gacy’s Place (1979)
Said Steve Albini in an interview with Nardwuar: “[Gacy’s Place] is a pivotal record in the sound of punk rock, in my opinion.” Venom, “In League With Satan,” from Welcome to Hell (1981)
Venom took the sounds of Judas Priest and Motorhead and made them even heavier. Many black metal bands tried to give Venom that same treatment, but their efforts were far less fruitful. Flipper, “Life is Cheap,” from Album Generic Flipper (1982)
Bad Brains were one of the fastest punk bands ever, but that’s hardly an achievement in a subculture that favors speed. Flipper was one of the slowest punk bands ever, and somehow, that made the music even heavier.

This had the two-pronged effect of drawing the ire of just about every angsty skinhead at punk shows, which the band leaned into by ruthlessly antagonizing the crowd during their roughly 90-minute sets.

What made Flipper even more extreme was that their heaviness wasn’t intended to reflect a misanthropic adolescent rage. They were conceived as an artistic statement, and in a world where other bands were playing three chords at 180 bpm and screaming hackneyed rants about Ronald Reagan, that was about as extreme as one could get. Celtic Frost, “Necromantical Screams,” from To Mega Therion (1985)
Celtic Frost did essentially the same thing Venom did, only the Swiss extreme metal legends put their own spin on it by infusing that brand of speed metal with the styles of goth bands like Christian Death and Alien Sex Fiend, and crust punk bands like Crass and Discharge. This provided a blueprint to bands from Napalm Death and Obituary to Darkthrone and Mayhem Possessed, “The Exorcist,” from Seven Churches (1985)
You were probably reading this story expecting to see some death metal, and that expectation was merited.

So why not showcase a song from the band and album where it all started? Swans, “A Screw,” from Public Castration Is a Good Idea (1986)
In an interview with podcaster Christina Rowatt, Shane Embury from Napalm Death cited Swans as one of the most extreme bands.

The rock band’s earlier output was even more stomach-churning when played live, so anything off their live album Public Castration Is a Good Idea is more than qualified to scratch any itch for extreme music. Merzbow, “This Dying Toad Become Forthwith Like Coal For Colour Black,” from Batztoutai With Material Gadgets (1986)
Pulse Demon is probably Merzbow’s best-known work, but here’s a cut that came out a decade prior that is even more extreme. Autopsy, “Charred Remains,” from Severed Survival (1989)
California death metal greats Autopsy were cut from the same cloth as their contemporaries, Possessed. While Possessed leaned more into the thrash metal proclivities of Exodus and Slayer, Autopsy pulled from the doom-and-gloom of bands like Saint Vitus. 2 Live Crew, “Dick Almighty,” from As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989)
Now we’re really getting into extremism as far as subject matter goes. You’ll will be hard-pressed to find a song that made pearls get clutched harder than 2 Live Crew’s filthy song “Dick Almighty.” 2 Live Crew even makes talking about clutched pearls sound dirty. Whitehouse, “Twice Is Not Enough,” from Twice Is Not Enough (1991)
William Bennett’s vocals over the relentless pierce of Whitehouse’s signature power electronics sound is enough to make you feel a wave of nausea reverberate through your bone marrow. Man Is the Bastard, “Starvation Cage,” from Sum of the Men (1991)
This song is what you get when you combine the noise of Throbbing Gristle with the aggressive atonality of powerviolence bands like Spazz and Capitalist Casualties.

And yes, they really hate mankind. Mayhem, “Funeral Fog,” from De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)
Unfortunately, the highly controversial (and criminal) Varg Vikernesnplays bass in this song. But don’t worry, he hasn’t been in the band in years, and he really hates that Emory Cohen — a Jewish actor — portrayed him in Lords of Chaos. Gravediggaz, “1-800-Suicide,” from 6 Feet Deep (1994)
Wu-Tang siblings Gravediggaz took what Geto Boys did and tripled down on the macabre and violent overkill. What’s even more impressive is that they made an impressively heavy hip-hop track with the help of a Booker T. & The MG’s sample. Brainbombs, “Die You Fuck,” from Obey (1995)
This band was significantly influenced by Whitehouse. That’s the elevator pitch. Dr. Octagon, “On Production,” from Dr. Octagonecologyst (1996)
Horrorcore acts like Gravediggaz relied on gallows humor, but in Dr. Octagon’s 1996 song “On Production,” Sir Menelik speaks clinically in a chilling way. (“As the parasite pumps its muscular pharens and plugs from the mucus / Secreting germs to destroy, hydroperoxide generated by the human host / Reinfection is common / Disease contaminates every transmission of unawareness / Do not be re-exposed.”) Framtid, “Counter Attack,” from 8 Track EP (1999)
A lot of crust and d-beat music can make the cut for this list, but very little of it will be as grating as Japan’s own Framtid.

In 2013, they made an exceptionally rare U.S. appearance at Chaos in Tejas in Austin. If you’ve talked to a crust punk in Texas over the past decade, you might have heard them reminisce about it. Les Rallizes Denudes, “Night of the Assassins,” from Heavier Than a Death in the Family (2002, recorded in 1977)
This band’s original bassist, Moriaki Wakabayashi, took part in the hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351. He and his compatriots flew the plane to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, where they were granted political asylum.

Somehow, that tidbit becomes unsurprising once you listen to this song.