Top 10 Best Bands Who Use Uncommon Instruments

Nightwish is a symphonic metal band from Finland. They have used many uncommon instruments like flutes, strings, piano, keyboards, and even a pipe organ!

Wow, pipe organ! That certainly is cool. Where's that band that only uses their own bodies for instruments?

Not sure if piano counts as an uncommon instrument, but I think I probably should check out this band.

Chthonic is a Taiwanese heavy metal band. The group incorporates influences from traditional Taiwanese music, including adaptations of folk songs and the use of traditional instruments, most notably the erhu.

They also use stringed instruments including the koto and shamisen, as well as Tibetan bells and shakuhachi and pgaki flutes, the latter of which are traditionally used by the aboriginal people of Taiwan.

Eluveitie is a Swiss folk metal band. They use a wide range of instruments like the guitar, bass, and drums, but also traditional instruments such as fiddles, tin whistles, flutes, bagpipes, and hurdy-gurdies. They might be one of, if not the only, band to have a full-time hurdy-gurdy player.

Yeah, folk metal bands often incorporate traditional and cultural instruments in their music. What a remarkable list, great job!

For those unfamiliar with The Hu (not to be confused with the English band The Who), they are a Mongolian rock band formed in 2016. They primarily use traditional Mongolian instruments such as the Morin Khuur (horsehead fiddle), Tovshuur (Mongolian guitar), and Tumur Khuur (jaw harp).

I've been hooked ever since I first listened to their songs. I highly recommend checking them out.

Such an amazing band. I love their music.

Heilung is an experimental folk music band from Denmark, Norway, and Germany. Their music is based on texts and runic inscriptions from the Germanic peoples of the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Viking Age.

They use no modern instruments in their songs, not even classical instruments. In an interview, they named many of their instruments: drums, including one with horse skin painted with human blood, two drums with deerskin, and a drum with goatskin. Bones. A buffalo horn rattle. A clay rattle with human ashes. A Hindu ritual bell. A reconstructed silver cup from the Viking Age. A ravanahatha (an ancient Indian instrument). Other rattles, whistles, and percussive instruments.

Korpiklaani is a folk metal band from Finland. They incorporate shamanic instruments, as well as violin and accordion, in the majority of their songs and sing in Finnish.

Korn is a very well-known nu-metal band. I'm sure most of you wouldn't expect to see them on this list, but they did use an uncommon instrument in a few of their songs: bagpipes. Yes, you read that right, bagpipes.

Jonathan Davis, the band member who uses the instrument, said that Star Trek inspired him to learn how to use it.

I would not expect a nu-metal band to use bagpipes.

Ensiferum is a Finnish folk metal band. They, of course, use the good ol' guitar, bass, drums, and piano, but they have also used a nyckelharpa on all their albums since Victory Songs. The band also used bagpipes and Hammond organ.

Apocalyptica is a symphonic metal band from Finland who started out as a Metallica cover band. They incorporate classical instrumentation in their music, like the cello.

Equilibrium is a German folk metal band. The members use all the conventional instruments of a heavy metal band (electric guitars, drums, bass), but their songs are almost always accompanied by accordion, flutes, and other folk instruments.

Wardruna is a Norwegian music group dedicated to creating musical renditions of Norse cultural and esoteric traditions. They make significant use of Nordic historical and traditional instruments, including deer-hide frame drums, flutes, kraviklyra, tagelharpe, mouth harp, goat horn, and lur.

Non-traditional instruments and other sources of sound like trees, rocks, water, and torches are also used.

They used an accordion in "Omaha."

Jackyl is an American rock band formed in 1991. The band is best known for the song "The Lumberjack," which features a chainsaw solo by lead singer Jesse James Dupree.

I debated whether I should include them on the list, but since they use the chainsaw as an instrument, I decided it should count.

I'm from Barcelona is a Swedish pop group (yes Swedish, not Spanish as the name indicates) best known for its 29 band members and eclectic mix of instruments such as clarinets, saxophones, flutes, trumpets, banjos, accordions, and kazoos, as well as the common instruments for a band like guitars, drums, and keyboards.

They used a bass clarinet for one of their songs.

They incorporate metal with Japanese folk instruments.

Used a kazoo of all instruments.

Rivers of Nihil are a technical death metal band. Just by reading this, you'll probably be surprised to learn that they use a saxophone in their song "The Silent Life" from the album "Where Owls Know My Name."

They are low on the list because they only use the instrument for one song so far, but I felt it was worth mentioning as extreme metal bands don't usually use saxophones.