Before I continue, I should mention that I really don’t listen to extreme music with the same regularity that I once did. When I was about 20 to 22 years old (2009 to 2011 or so) I was living in Tucson, studying creative writing, and carrying a major chip on my shoulder. I was wearing black exclusively (even in punishing Arizona heat), watching horror films, reading Anton Lavey, using hard drugs, and listening to the most extreme forms of music that I could find: harsh noise, death metal, power electronics, power violence, dark ambient, and lots and lots of black metal. It was fun for a while, but I lacked the pervasive sense of unhappiness to really commit to that lifestyle. So I moved on, or back, to other forms of music that I loved: hip-hop, dance music, psychedelic rock, jazz, punk, etc.. But an appreciation for the explorers of extreme sound has persisted. Click here to listen to the playlist.