Music Banter - The Top Ten Musicians Of Our Time

Only five for the moment as I'm lazy:

Justin Broadrick (Napalm Death, Final, Head of David, Godflesh, Techno Animal, Jesu, etc)

The man still barely knows how to play any instruments, but he's tough to match in terms of getting across emotions through his music, whether it be through the hatred and rage of Godflesh or the sad longing in Jesu's music. He's a machine when it comes to making music and was an influence on bands from Neurosis to Caina to Machine Head. Also a prolific remixer, having redone tracks by labelmates ISIS and Pelican as well as Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Explosions in the Sky and Pantera.

Chuck Schuldiner (Death)

Father of death metal: absurdly talented both in the songwriting and technical departments. Enough said. RIP

Brian Eno

Uh, Father of ambient music, although he's also collaborated with other great musicians such as Fripp, Cale and Byrne. I personally love his early poppier material too, although it's hard to decide between that and his more well known later works. Also produced excellent albums by Genesis, U2 and Slowdive.

Thelonious Monk

There are many, many great jazz pianists that could be mentioned, but for me, Monk takes the crown based on his playing style which very few, if any, musicians can claim to share. I'm not sure you could say his musicianship progressed over time, rather that it simply changed according to how he himself thought he should play. Monk is surely one of the most unique figures in the jazz world.

Quorthon (Bathory)

The man who argubly pioneered the second-wave of black metal, Quorthon through Bathory brought out a wealth of awesome music, be it in the afroementioned bm style, thrash, viking and his later, even more epic works. It's obvious to say, but his music was a huge influence on many metal and even some non-metal musicians.