Extreme music is a term used to describe a variety of musical styles including subgenres of extreme metal, hardcore punk, hardcore EDM, industrial, noise, and also some free jazz. Extreme metal is an umbrella term for the heavy metal subgenres of a more aggressive style than traditional heavy metal. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Hardcore (sometimes ardcore) is a term that has been used to describe a variety of related electronic dance music styles over almost two decades. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ...

Definition

Extreme music is categorised as music that contains one or more elements that are abhorrent to the average listener (in some cases leading to debates as to whether certain artists' work can even be described as music). These may include: unusual tempos (very fast or very slow), unusual quantities of guitar distortion or white noise, excessive volume, highly obscene or violent lyrics (often in combination with an unusual vocal style, such as screams, barks, growls or heavy glitch distortion), dissonant or atonal scales and unusual, often jazz-based time signatures, very rapid and jarring changes of tempo or even genre, highly unusual song structures and lengths etc., often in combination with each other. A distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. ... Calculated spectrum of a generated approximation of white noise White noise is a random signal (or process) with a flat power spectral density. ... Glitch (also known as Clicks and Cuts from a representative compilation series by the German record label Mille Plateaux) is a genre of electronic music that became popular in the late 1990s with the increasing use of digital signal processing, particularly on computers. ...

In most fans' definitions, any sort of overt popular exposure (ie regular radio-play on commercial channels, appearance on MTV) will negate a genre or style's status as extreme, as the term necessarily describes something that is beyond the scope of the current mainstream. An example of what was once deemed (or would have been deemed) extreme style that is no longer considered so is heavy metal, as it is now a widely accepted form of music but was shunned when it first appeared. More modern forms of metal such as thrash metal and death metal are still considered extreme music, although both of the genres have some airplay and media exposure. MTV (Music Television) is an American cable television network based in New York City. ... Heavy metals, in chemistry, are chemical elements of a particular range of atomic weights. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Heavy metal music. ... Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music, one of the extreme metal subgenres that is characterised by its signature high speed and aggression. ... Death metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. ...

'Common' extreme music styles

• Avant-garde: Whilst not all Avant-Garde artists fall under the 'extreme music' blanket, many do. Modern Avant-Garde is categorised mainly by either the jarring or subtle juxtaposition of often dissimilar genres. These can often include other genres of extreme music.
• Black metal: A sub-genre of extreme metal characterized by extreme tempo, high-pitched, screamed or growled vocals, violent and often satanic lyrics and corpse paint, a form of make-up that black metal bands wear to give the impression of that they are rotting corpses. The name of the genre is taken from the Venom album Black Metal. Venom is generally considered to be among the first black metal bands.
• Breakcore: Breakcore is a loosely defined electronic music style which mixes together elements of jungle/drum & bass, hardcore techno, glitch and industrial.
• Death metal: Death metal is an extreme evolution of thrash metal and is generally considered to be the heaviest kind of metal. The vocals are low, indecipherable grunts and growls, but occasional high-pitch screams are not uncommon. The name of the genre is taken from pioneers Death, and the generally nihilistic and violent lyrics may also have inspired the name of the genre.
• Doom metal: Doom metal is a slow and heavy form of heavy metal, inspired by the slow, apocalyptic sound of Black Sabbath. Vocals can be clean, but usually they are in a grave, slow growling. Lyric themes are usually dark and depressing. In Drone Doom, the most extreme subgenre of Doom metal, the extreme slowness of the music makes single songs reach over 20 minutes. Heavy metals characteristic guitar riffs are mostly absent, and if riffs exist these can last for over a minute.
• Extreme metal subgenres: Extreme metal covers multiple genres, such as black metal, death metal, thrash metal and doom metal. Many of these genres have had significant crossover with both heavy metal genres and hardcore punk genres, as well as evolved over the years, creating genres such as blackened thrash metal, deathrash, death/doom, groove metal, sludge metal, brutal death metal, melodic death metal, viking metal, dark metal, goregrind, crossover thrash, deathcore and many others.
• Grindcore: Grindcore fuses crust punk with varying amounts of influence from crossover thrash, thrashcore and death metal to create an extremely fast and violent form of music. Lyrics are sometimes delivered in a style that is totally indecipherable, being little more than a series of grunts or squeals, that can only be understood with the aid of a lyrics sheet. Songs are often short, with tracks under a minute in length not uncommon. Napalm Death is often credited as its originator, but this distinction may fall to bands like Repulsion and DRI. Another well-known band to fall within this genre are the joke group Anal Cunt, the self-styled 'worst band in the world'.
• industrial music: like noise music, uses harsh sounds but in an musical context, although some industrial is not consideed extreme, its pioneers and underground artists are.
• Mathcore: A fusion of hardcore punk, extreme metal and free jazz. The genre is categorised by its aggressive style and screamed vocals coupled with highly technical jazz instrumentation which shifts tempo and time-signature in bizarre and often unexpected ways. Lyrics often make use of extended, overly subtle poetic allegories and surreal imagery that are often accused of being overly pretentious. This style has recently received much critical attention due to the relative popularity of The Dillinger Escape Plan.
• Noisegrind: Noisegrind is a subgenre of Grindcore that is influenced by noise. Characteristics of noisegrind bands include loud,distorted guitars,lack of structure, short songs ranging from 5 seconds to a minute, excessive amounts of feedback, and unusual vocal styles, usually screamed or yelled and occasionally filtered through effects. The most popular noisegrind band is most likely Anal Cunt, followed by Japanese noisegrind band Gore Beyond Necropsy.
• Noise music: related to experimental industrial music and drone, noise music is a mainly electronic form that rejects traditional musical elements (such harmony, melody and rhythm) and often looks at music as a series of events instead. With most of its focus on texture, it uses sounds that the average listener would think of as ‘uncomfortable’ and even ‘painful’. Some noise artists have received much praise from critics for their original and often subtle musical experimentation, but very few bands have any sort of widespread fanbase, with perhaps Merzbow being a minor exception.
• Powerviolence: Hardcore punk heavily influenced by grindcore. Pioneers of the genre include Neanderthal, Infest, Crossed Out, Spazz, and Man Is the Bastard.
• Speedcore: Speedcore is a subgenre of 1990s hardcore techno music which extols massively high bpm counts, normally taken to mean anything over 300 bpm (five beats per second). As with Grindcore, tracks are often very short.
• Thrash metal: Thrash metal began as an extreme evolution of NWOBHM, speed metal and hardcore punk. Characteristics include extreme tempos, aggressive, shouted vocals and often violent lyric themes. The most famous bands are Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. It has been discussed if thrash metal should still be allowed to be called extreme metal, as the mainstream success of acts such as Metallica and to a lesser extent Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax has given the genre much attention in media. However, most fans of the genre still consider it extreme metal because of the sheer speed and aggression.
• Hardcore Punk: Although some hardcore unk would not be considered extreme, many of it's subgnre's feature fast tempo's, heavily distorted guitars, yelled or shouted vocals and violent, aggressive or obscene lyrics.

Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. ... Black metal is an extreme heavy metal subgenre. ... Satanism is a religious or philosophical movement centered around Satan or another entity identified with Satan, or centered around the forces of nature, particularly human nature, represented by Satan as an archetype. ... Abbath and Horgh of Immortal Corpse paint (sometimes a single word, corpsepaint) is a style of black-and-white makeup used extensively by black metal bands during live concerts and photo shoots. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Black Metal is the second album by Venom, and the origin of the term black metal. It was released in 1982. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated to d&b, DnB, dnb,deenbee, drum n bass and drum & bass) is a type of electronic dance music also known as jungle. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Glitch (also known as Clicks and Cuts from a representative compilation series by the German record label Mille Plateaux) is a genre of electronic music that became popular in the late 1990s with the increasing use of digital signal processing, particularly on computers. ... Death metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. ... Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music, one of the extreme metal subgenres that is characterised by its signature high speed and aggression. ... Death was an influential American death metal band founded in 1983 and dissolved in 1999. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Heavy metals, in chemistry, are chemical elements of a particular range of atomic weights. ... For other uses, see Black Sabbath (disambiguation). ... Drone metal, also known as drone doom, is a subgenre of doom metal that takes the heaviness and slowness of its progenitor to a new extreme. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In music, a riff is an ostinato figure: a repeated chord progression, pattern or melodic figure, often played by the rhythm section instruments, that forms the basis or accompaniment of a rock music or jazz composition. ... Extreme metal is an umbrella term for the heavy metal subgenres of a more aggressive style than traditional heavy metal. ... Black metal is an extreme heavy metal subgenre. ... Death metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. ... Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music, one of the extreme metal subgenres that is characterised by its signature high speed and aggression. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Heavy metals, in chemistry, are chemical elements of a particular range of atomic weights. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Sludge metal is a form of heavy metal music that is generally regarded as a fusion between doom metal and hardcore punk. ... ... Melodic death metal, (also referred to as Gothenburg metal, melodeath, and post-death) is a subgenre of death metal. ... Viking metal is a cross-genre reference usually used to describe the lyrical and thematic elements of bands rather than the music itself. ... Dark metal is a subjective term used to describe metal bands from various genres that have combined traits from symphonic black metal, gothic metal, doom metal, dark wave and black metal[1] such as synthesizer use, acoustic guitar experimentation and/or operatic female vocals. ... Goregrind, also known as grindgore, is a subgenre of grindcore, which is related to music styles such as death metal, thrash metal, and crust punk. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Grindcore, often shortened to grind, is an evolution of crust punk, most commonly associated with death metal, a very different though similarly extreme style of music. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Death metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. ... Napalm Death is a grindcore/death metal band formed in the village of Meriden near Birmingham, England in 1982 by Nicholas Bullen and Miles Ratledge. ... Repulsion were an early death metal/grindcore band from Flint, MI. Their innovations were significant to the development of the death metal, black metal, and grindcore genres. ... Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, or simply D.R.I., are a Thrash band that formed in 1982. ... Anal Cunt is a band from Boston, Massachusetts that has been categorized as noise, hardcore, grindcore, and shock rock, as their style has changed much since their original formation. ... It has been suggested that Chicago Industrial be merged into this article or section. ... Mathcore (also known as technical metalcore, technical hardcore, math metal, and chaotic metal) is a style of metalcore recognized for a high level of technical musicianship. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Extreme metal is an umbrella term for the heavy metal subgenres of a more aggressive style than traditional heavy metal. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Grindcore, often shortened to grind, is an evolution of crust punk, most commonly associated with death metal, a very different though similarly extreme style of music. ... Anal Cunt is a band from Boston, Massachusetts that has been categorized as noise, hardcore, grindcore, and shock rock, as their style has changed much since their original formation. ... // Gore Beyond Necropsy (GBN) formed in 1989 in Hadano-City, Kanagawa,Japan. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... It has been suggested that Chicago Industrial be merged into this article or section. ... In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout much or all of a piece, sustained or repeated, and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built. ... // Merzbow (Japanese; メルツバウ) is the name used by Japanese musician Masami Akita (秋田昌美 Akita Masami) for most of his experimental noise records, and is considered by many to be the earliest project among others in what has become known as the Japanese noise scene. He has released many CDs, LPs and cassettes... Power violence or powerviolence is a sub-genre of grindcore that tends to refocus its musical energies on the original crust punk and hardcore punk, that had created the genre (grindcore) in the first place, as contrasted to the modern grindcore variants that have become increasingly associated with death... Infest is an influential power violence band from Valencia, California, formed in 1986 by Joe Denunzio, Matt Domino, Dave Ring and Chris Clift. ... Crossed Out is a first wave power violence band from Encinitas, California. ... Spazz were an influential american punk band. ... Man Is the Bastard were a pioneering hardcore punk band who contributed the name, and perhaps also the ethos, to the punk subgenre known as power violence. ... Speedcore is a form of hardcore techno that is typically identified by its high rate of beats per minute and aggressive themes. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... BPM can mean: beats per minute Business Process Management Business Process Modeling Business Performance Management This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page—a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Grindcore, often shortened to grind, is an evolution of crust punk, most commonly associated with death metal, a very different though similarly extreme style of music. ... Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music, one of the extreme metal subgenres that is characterised by its signature high speed and aggression. ... The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) emerged in the late 70s, in part a reaction to the contemporary decline of traditional heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, all three of which had been submerged by a mixture of personal problems, tiredness and... Speed metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal that spawned in the early 1980s and was the direct musical progenitor of thrash metal[1] [2]. When Speed metal first emerged as a genre, it innovatively increased the tempo of the music template set forth by Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Metallica is a Grammy Award-winning American heavy metal/thrash metal band formed in 1981[1] and has become one of the most commercially successful musical acts of recent decades. ... Slayer is an American thrash metal band founded by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. ... Megadeth is an American Thrash Metal band led by founder, frontman, and songwriter Dave Mustaine. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

Seminal extreme artists

These are some bands which are commonly agreed to have had some significant effect on the molding or shaping of what we now call extreme music. Many of these bands have since been left behind by what would commonly be called 'extreme' music:

• Bathory: First three albums were crucial in the creation of the lo-fi, often very minimalist form of metal known as black metal. Later progressed to become key in the development of Viking and folk metal.
• The Berzerker: The first band to attempt mixing extreme metal with speedcore.
• Carcass: Created the gore subgenre of grindcore. Directly inspired countless other groups, such as Cattle Decapitation, Exhumed, and The County Medical Examiners.
• Celtic Frost: Introduced the avant-garde to heavy metal.
• Death: Usually credited with being one of the first death metal bands.
• Earth: Generally considered to be the pionneers of drone doom.
• Knut: Widely forgotten, but highly influential in the formation of the genre known as Mathcore
• Merzbow: One of the most innovative and influential, and certainly best-known, noise musicians.
• Napalm Death: Thought to be the progenitors of grindcore, though some believe Siege deserves this honor.
• Suffocation: One of the first bands to experiment with death metal to create more complex songs, pioneering the style known as brutal death metal.
• Swans: Part of the NY No Wave scene in the 80's, they used extremely slow tempos, violent lyrics, white noise, and played shows at such a loud volume that some members of the audience would vomit.
• Throbbing Gristle: Founders of Industrial Records and coined the term "industrial music".
• Converge: One of the most influential (and some could say most aggressive) metalcore/hardcore bands of all time.
• Venom: At the time of its release Black Metal was one of the most extreme records ever heard, and gave a name to a genre, as well as direction to the next twenty years of European extreme metal.
• Venetian Snares: Produces experimental IDM, breakcore and glitchcore in non-4/4 time signatures (mostly in 7/4).
• Whitehouse: Inventors of the Extreme Industrial/Noise music genre "Power Electronics".

Bathory was a highly influential Swedish thrash metal/black metal/viking metal band, and were regarded as one of the forefathers of black metal and founder of viking metal. ... Lo-fi — from Low Fidelity — describes a sound recording which contains accidental artifacts, like distortion, or environmental noise, or a recording which has a limited frequency response. ... Black metal is an extreme heavy metal subgenre. ... Viking metal is a cross-genre reference usually used to describe the lyrical and thematic elements of bands rather than the music itself. ... Folk metal is a diverse collection of music, encompassing a wide variety of different styles and approaches. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... Extreme metal is an umbrella term for the heavy metal subgenres of a more aggressive style than traditional heavy metal. ... Speedcore is a form of hardcore techno that is typically identified by its high rate of beats per minute and aggressive themes. ... Carcass were a British goregrind/death metal band formed by Napalm Death guitarist Bill Steer together with drummer Ken Owen in 1985. ... Grindcore, often shortened to grind, is an evolution of crust punk, most commonly associated with death metal, a very different though similarly extreme style of music. ... Cattle Decapitation, currently signed to Metal Blade Records, is a San Diego, California-based deathgrind band. ... Exhumed is also a first-person shooter available for the PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn; see Powerslave (game). ... The County Medical Examiners are an American goregrind band, whose intended purpose is to emulate the classic goregrind of the 1980s - the early albums of Carcass. ... Celtic Frost is an extreme metal band from Zürich, Switzerland, best known for their influence on the thrash, black, doom and death metal genres. ... Death was an influential American death metal band founded in 1983 and dissolved in 1999. ... Death metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. ... Dylan Carlson of Earth. ... Drone metal, also known as drone doom, is a subgenre of doom metal that takes the heaviness and slowness of its progenitor to a new extreme. ... Knut is a mathcore band from Geneva, Switzerland that formed in 1994. ... Mathcore (also known as technical metalcore, technical hardcore, math metal, and chaotic metal) is a style of metalcore recognized for a high level of technical musicianship. ... // Merzbow (Japanese; メルツバウ) is the name used by Japanese musician Masami Akita (秋田昌美 Akita Masami) for most of his experimental noise records, and is considered by many to be the earliest project among others in what has become known as the Japanese noise scene. He has released many CDs, LPs and cassettes... Napalm Death is a grindcore/death metal band formed in the village of Meriden near Birmingham, England in 1982 by Nicholas Bullen and Miles Ratledge. ... Grindcore, often shortened to grind, is an evolution of crust punk, most commonly associated with death metal, a very different though similarly extreme style of music. ... Siege was a thrashcore group formed in 1983 in Weymouth, Massachusetts. ... Suffocation is an American death metal band. ... Swans can refer to: Swan, the bird. ... No Wave was a short-lived but influential music and art scene that thrived briefly in New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk scene there. ... Throbbing Gristle (formed on September 3, 1975, in London) is a British experimental music and industrial music group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions. ... Industrial Records was a record label established in 1976 by art/music group Throbbing Gristle. ... It has been suggested that Chicago Industrial be merged into this article or section. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Black Metal is the second album by Venom, and the origin of the term black metal. It was released in 1982. ... Venetian Snares is the performing name of Aaron Funk, an electronic music producer and performer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. ... Whitehouse is an English industrial noise band formed in 1980. ... Power electronics is the technology associated with the efficient conversion, control and conditioning of electric power by static means from its available input form into the desired electrical output form. ...

External links

• Chronicles of Chaos, Extreme Music Webzine
• Terrorizer Magazine "the world's leading extreme music magazine"