10 Darkest Rock Music Masterpieces

10. Beautiful Child - Swans

Never noted for their accessibility or their optimism, New York band Swans, who formed in the early '80s, managed the enviable accomplishment of earning a loyal fan base over their 15-year life-span, despite (or perhaps because of) their ever-changing sound. With a new Swans album, the only thing you could be sure of is that it would, at the very least, be interesting and earnest.

Beautiful Child comes from their fifth studio release, 1987s Children Of God. Built upon an unsettling, uneven rhythm which sits somewhere between a funeral procession and grand opera, Beautiful Child contains more jagged edges than a smashed bottle. Singer Michael Gira declaims like some desperate evangelist from a deranged cult as the song strides forward with the terrifying inevitability of a Viking longship heading towards an unguarded settlement.

As with every track presented here, you can't deny the craft and vision behind Beautiful Child. Swans, as ever, tackle the song with complete commitment and belief. Are those gunshots or firecrackers at the beginning of this track?