Best Dark/Gritty/Fucked-up Music - What music do you listen to when you hate yourself?

[eldri]

After reading the literature thread about dark and gritty books, I thought we should extend that to music.

What darkest, grittiest songs/albums/artists have you listened to?


My favorites:
Street Sects - Street Position
This album is sonically brutal, relying on industrial sounds and various gutwrenching samples. The lyrics cover a noir setting with gruesome details.

Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
The narrative of this album is absolutely brutal, covering the existential horror that resides within everyone and, in terms of sound, this album switches between being beautiful and ear-grating.

 

[Jeanne d'Arc]

Literally anything by Swans. Soundtracks for the Blind and Cop/Young God especially.

 

[King Buzzo]

I usually go for atmosphere rather than lyrics with this type of music. I recommend listening to the instrumental tracks 1 & 4 if you are not big into extreme metal vocals. Some trivia about this album: the album cover shows a photo of chimney stack remains from houses that were all burned and destroyed during WWII around Stalingrad.

 

[JambledUpWords]

These are in the realm of messed-up

 

[CIA Nigger]

The NIN broken EP is pretty damn good in that regard but it's not the same without the music video. The Downward Spiral is dark as well lyricwise but it's not as heavy as the Broken EP is from beginning to end.

Classic Skinny Puppy (which Trent was influenced by) also fits the bill well. Gritty industrial beats with dark lyrics.

 

[UselessRubberKeyboard]

Self-hating? You need this:

(some excellent music suggestions above this, however)

 

[Desire Lines]

EDIT: oh , what a coincidence, xiu xiu dropped a song yesterday!

 

[WEEDle]

 

[Lord_Ghoul]

Basically anything Sludge/Doom.

 

[Gordon Cole]

 

[SweetDee]

This. Fucking. Album.

 

[King Buzzo]

This. Fucking. Album.

Don't forget the next album.

 

[SweetDee]

Such an underrated band.

 

[King Buzzo]

Such an underrated band.

Hopefully, that video stays up. Any uploads of Acid Bath's albums usually gets nuked by Rotten Records within a week. Especially when you have faggots like this guy.

 

[SweetDee]

That guy is an asshole.

 

[Gordon Cole]

 

[WEEDle]

Nervous Gender were a synthpunk band from the late 70s, formed in L.A.

They had a pretty scummy sound. It's great.

Also a cover by The Soft Pink Truth

 

[SweetDee]

 

[korejapan 01]

I'm not usually one for rap or hip hop but I have exceptions. Especially in terms of Memphis style rap and Horrorcore.

Bedwetter's an interesting album. When Lil Ugly Mane wanted to release this he was struggling to.
"I'm struggling with releasing bedwetter.
I look at it less like an album and more like a sonic document of my life at this exact moment.
A conveniently placed microphone and finger on a record button.
I don't want to be misunderstood as sensationalizing mental illness, disassociation, trauma.
I don't want look at reviews of how "dope" it is, or how this one song sounded like some fool I'm not even familiar with.."

I also like to listen to slowcore and indie stuff when I feel REALLY sad.
It's an excruciating feeling of dread that comes out of songs that have this type of style.

 

[Syaoran Li]

This shit right here...

But in all seriousness, you can't get much more dark and fucked up than black metal. Especially the stuff that came out of the Norwegian scene in the 90's. What started as an ironic genre of sorts became something really disturbing, leading to arson, suicide, and murder.

Varg Vikernes may be a lolcow dirt farmer nowadays, but the old Burzum albums from back then are unnerving and very dark and atmospheric. There's a reason why nearly every "atmospheric" black metal band just rips off old Burzum stuff.

Most of the first generation of black metal (Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, etc.) is pretty tame and silly nowadays (especially Venom) but Bathory's old stuff from the 80's still holds up. Bathory was my introduction to extreme metal in general and it scared the fuck out of me when I first heard it as a twelve-year old in 2005.

Bathory's debut album along with The Return and Under The Sign of the Black Mark are still dark and heavy even today.

Mayhem's signature song "Freezing Moon" is really disturbing when you realize that it was written both as Dead's suicide note and he intended the song as some sort of dark spell to induce other people to commit suicide.

If Euronymous and Dead were around today, they'd probably be horrorcows.