Dark music?
November 20, 2010 8:10 PM   Subscribe

Can you help me find other pieces of "dark" music to enjoy?

I am looking to expand my collection of music that I consider dark and epic. There's something about the following songs/pieces that I get a thrill from, and I'd like to find others. I've created several pandora channels from these leads, but none have hit just the right feel. Can you recommend others in the vain of the following?

Avalon - Sigur Ros
For My Demons - Katatonia
Plainsong - The Cure
Nowhere/Catastrophe - Ulver (particularly the chorus)
Decades - Joy Division
Closing (Mishima soundtrack) - Philip Glass

I don't care what genre, as long as it captures the same "mood". I also care little for lyrics, I just tune them out when I listen and please, ignore any attached video, I'm only linking for the music
posted by lizjohn to Media & Arts (36 answers total) 51 users marked this as a favorite
 
Maybe not what you're thinking of, but Mozart's Requiem is pretty awesome.
posted by kiltedtaco at 8:15 PM on November 20, 2010




I would say that the entirety of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "Let Love In" album would suit you, as well as a few other random Nick Cave songs--a lot of their stuff is a bit spare and might not have the "wall of sound" aspect that I think you're getting at, but you might give the "Henry's Dream" ( and "The Good Son" (esp. "The Ship Song") albums a listen as well, and also check out the earlier track "The Mercy Seat".
posted by padraigin at 8:18 PM on November 20, 2010


Godspeed You Black Emperor tend to push the "dark" and "epic" buttons for me.

there's supposed to be a ! somewhere in that band name
posted by brennen at 8:19 PM on November 20, 2010 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: You're clearly going in the right direction because I already love Nick Cave. I would say Do You Love Me? (Part 1 and Part 2) would be the best example of the mood I'm aiming for.
posted by lizjohn at 8:26 PM on November 20, 2010


Best answer: My Bloody Valentine has a number of songs in that vein. Example: Sometimes

Likewise, trip-hop like Portishead (Glory Box), Massive Attack (Mezzanine), UNKLE (Rabbit in Your Headlights).

Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love for Planet Earth.
posted by axiom at 8:26 PM on November 20, 2010 [1 favorite]


Black Swan by Thom Yorke.

Mostly because I just listened to it since was on my mind after seeing the trailer for the new Darren Aronofsky movie.
posted by supercres at 8:31 PM on November 20, 2010


Bat for Lashes (Daniel, Siren Song), Fever Ray (Dry & Dusty, Keep The Streets Empty For Me), M83 (Too Late), Lamb (Heaven). also, a lot of the music suggested in my old askme might fit: spooky, ethereal rock to write to.
posted by changeling at 8:39 PM on November 20, 2010


Dark Sanctuary
posted by fifilaru at 8:46 PM on November 20, 2010


Slint, "Spiderland"

Morphine, "Cure For Pain" and "Good"

Earth, "The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull" and "Hex; or Printing In The Infernal Method"

Sunn0))), "Monoliths and Dimensions"*

*Must be listened to on headphones at ear-bleeding volume, might be deemed unlistenable since it sounds like glaciers calving and/or a television tuned to static playing in a dark and empty room.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:50 PM on November 20, 2010 [2 favorites]


The Paper Chase
posted by mmmbacon at 8:52 PM on November 20, 2010 [1 favorite]




Mogwai.
posted by Artw at 9:16 PM on November 20, 2010 [2 favorites]


Spend some time with the Coil Catalog.

my two personal favs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqQktg9brDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rItAZUsGLA
posted by sleslie at 10:09 PM on November 20, 2010


Roky Erickson. Here's Night of the Vampires.
posted by ignignokt at 10:11 PM on November 20, 2010


Just about anything from Black Angels (although their new album is a little more pop-ish.)

Sleepy Sun's Open Eyes.

Since you dig Nick Cave, I am going to assume you already have Dirty Three on your playlist... but the soundtracks Nick & Warren did for Assassination of Jesse James & the Proposition are also great.
posted by haplesschild at 10:29 PM on November 20, 2010


Little Black Angel or Fall Apart by Death in June

Plants and Rags by PJ Harvey

Janitor of Lunacy - Nico (really the whole album 'Desertshore')

Your River - My Dying Bride
posted by medeine at 10:47 PM on November 20, 2010


Oh, my choice for Roky Erickson would be Right Track Now, even though it's not his song.
posted by medeine at 10:57 PM on November 20, 2010


Here are a few things that go in some different directions.

Might find something you like in Projekt: The New Face of Goth. As a compilation, it has several artists.

For dark, emotional lyrics, Bang Bang Bang or Fast Car by Tracy Chapman are some of my favorites.

For power of singing, I would have to say that Sinnerman by Nina Simone and Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday are both extremely moving.
posted by slavlin at 11:00 PM on November 20, 2010


Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
posted by clavdivs at 11:05 PM on November 20, 2010


Dark Ambient has a ton of the music you are looking for.

artist - album (song)

Gustaf Hildebrand - Starscape (song: Dead Transmissions)

Steve Roach - The Magnificent Void (Infinite Shore)

Tangerine Dream - Zeit (Birth of Liquid Plejades)

Arecibo (a Lustmord side project) - Trans Plutonian Transmissions (NGC 5128 Receiving Station Alignment)

Kammarheit - The Starwheel (Hypnagoga)

Karl Sanders - Saurian Meditation (Of the Sleep of Ishtar)

raison d'etre - In Sadness, Silence, and Solitude (Falling Twilight)

Northaunt - Horizons (Night Alone)

Agahst - Hexerei Im Zwielict Der Finsternis (Das Irrlicht)
posted by ollyollyoxenfree at 11:35 PM on November 20, 2010 [2 favorites]


Shostakovich (lots, but check out opus 110 to start)

Altar (Boris and Sunn O))))
posted by cl at 11:42 PM on November 20, 2010




Slowdive - Souvlaki Space Station album
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (Listen to the the title track)
posted by guybrush_threepwood at 12:20 AM on November 21, 2010


Also:

Low - I Could Live in Hope (see track 4, Sunshine)

and if you want to go really dark:
A Silver Mt Zion - He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corners Of Our Rooms (track 5: 13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round the Side of Your Bed", track 7: Blown-out Joy from Heaven's Mercied Hole)

I don't like the rest of the album, but Could've Moved Mountains from Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upwards by A Silver Mt Zion is also quite dark.

Oh yes, and M83 - "Saturdays = Youth". The first track is glorious.
posted by guybrush_threepwood at 12:33 AM on November 21, 2010


Tom Opdahl: Black Smoker
Stars of the Lid: The Ballasted Orchestra
Troum: Sigqan
posted by The Mouthchew at 12:36 AM on November 21, 2010


A Whisper In The Noise: In The Dark.

Mono: Com

Danny The Dog theme song.
posted by fake at 12:46 AM on November 21, 2010


The Black Heart Procession - Waterfront (The Sinking Road)
posted by fake at 12:47 AM on November 21, 2010


Glenn Danzig's Black Aria. The whole album.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:03 AM on November 21, 2010 [1 favorite]


Some very dark progressive rock bands:

Univers Zero
Art Zoyd
Shub Niggurath
posted by metagnathous at 7:14 AM on November 21, 2010


Scott Walker - Tilt; The Drift; Climate of Hunter; first four tracks on the Walker Brothers Nite Flights.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:30 AM on November 21, 2010


band, albums, example track:

Mugstar - Mugstar. My Babyskull Has Not Yet Flowered

Her Name is Calla - The Heritage. Nylon

The Vandelles - Del Black Aloha. Dash'N'Dive
posted by namewithoutwords at 10:36 AM on November 21, 2010


Alice in Chains - "Angry Chair"

Foreboding, depressing.
posted by Turkey Glue at 2:25 PM on November 21, 2010


All of Damnation by Opeth, but maybe Closure in particular.

Opeth is mainly a death metal band, but people not acquainted with the genre seem to love their lighter acoustic stuff. The vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt was with Katatonia for a while. Some more excellent (mostly non-metal) tracks by Opeth:

Porcelain Heart
To Bid You Farewell
Burden
Face of Melinda
Credence
Benighted
Still Day Beneath the Sun
Patterns in the Ivy Parts I and II
Harvest
Death Whispered a Lullaby
Hope Leaves

Promise and the Monster:

Night Out
Sheets
Antarktis

The album "First Utterance" by 60s folk group Comus is incredibly dark. If you get a chance, put it on and listen all the way through. It's a story about the hunter goddess Diana (symbol of purity and virginity) going into the woods and being seduced (and ultimately raped) by the young god Comus (son of Bacchus and Hecate). The album sounds strange at first, but it grows on you quickly.

Diana
Lyrics: "Diana, Diana, pick your feet up. Lust bares his teeth and whines. For he's picked up the scent of virtue, and he knows the panic signs..."

Another metal band who took a foray into non-metal music (and ultimately departed entirely from it) is one of the bands you mentioned; Ulver. To me, some of their darkest stuff is from the album Kveldssanger.

Ulvsblakk
A Capella (Sielens Sang)
Kledt I Nattens Farger

Solefald:
Red Music Diabolos

Arcturus:
Star Crossed

Agalloch:
Not Unlike the Waves
A Desolation Song
posted by Demogorgon at 11:33 PM on November 21, 2010


Ugh, that link to Opeth's Closure has terrible audio. Try this one instead.
posted by Demogorgon at 11:34 PM on November 21, 2010


I came in here to recommend Scott Walker so I'll just second porn in the woods.
posted by kristi at 3:09 PM on November 25, 2010


« Older Why did my roots transplant themselves?   |   Love is a piano dropped from a fourth story window... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.


Tags

Share