What are the darkest albums of all time?

Absolutely--her voice and guitar are very beautiful, but listening to her sometimes I see this as another manifestation of her cynicism and self-awareness as an object of desire and of her niche in A&R marketing. It's almost as if she is acknowledging the aesthetically pleasing craftsmanship of her songs and herself as a package are simply meant to lure in the listener toward a deeper sorrow. I find it quite dark, particularly on Blue. I think that was the nadir of depression as the subject matter of her songs and she brought a bit more light in subsequent albums, which marked my favorite period for her.

Likewise with Sab--I think Vol IV was the nadir and there was an effort after that to write some positivity into at least 2-3 songs per album.

 

anything by Arab Strap

 

Lots of good picks in here. One that always gets me is Totem by White Suns. It's not melodramatically or edgy dark like you would expect from a noise rock band, but just discomforting, confusing and just. So. Bleak.

 

Univers Zero - Heresie

 

Hi.

I’m coming in late:

I had a friend who hated “The Who”. He said they were always angry about something. I loved them, but I’m sure he was right. They are angry and dark.

“Tommy” is extremely dark. Some songs like Uncle Ernie are shocking.
Plus the accusation that “we don’t want religion. We never did and we never will”.

“Who’s Next” thought not a concept album has a dark theme running throughout. “Behind Blue Eyes” about how love is always doomed and it’s your fault. “Who’s Next” the title song is a long sarcastic rock number that mocks the hippy generation. “Here’s to the new boss same as the old boss, but I won’t get fooled again”.

Finally Quadrophenia is another Opra/Concept album that is heavy against the 70s youth and their life style. Lyrics like, “She’s over 15, sexuality knowing” seem a bit quant, but Townshed was making a point. Where is real love? He couldn’t find real and it was killing him. “I’m out of my mind on the 5:15. Out of my brain on the train”, illustrates his life. “Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim when I’m pilled you don’t notice. He only comes out when I drink my Gin.” Or was this lack of live his fault, “Is it in my head or in my heart”. From “Is it in my Head”. That album had song after song asking real questions about the society in which we live. The first song, “Can u See the Real Me”?

Townshed once said the group was at its musical best during that time.


Another very dark old group was Alice Cooper. The “Killer” album is a great example. Every song about killing or killers. “Dead Babies” is a grim song about a couple who ignored their child.

“ From the Inside” about Cooper’s stay in an mental institution.

 

Hey, just compare the covers of Tonight vs Beach...Major shadow factor!?!?

 

There's an implicit optimism in virtually ALL Townshend's writing for the Who, but it is buried pretty deep at times.(By Numbers)..or maybe I am just projecting!?!

 

Your probably right. He appears to be a cynic , and most cynics were at one time optimists.

I suppose one should know (or have an idea of) how he or she feels things should be to able to criticize the those things.

I think Townshed was very disappointed with the results of the cultural revolution of the 60’s. I have read he also took a dim view of the Icon from India, Dallia Loma (I can’t remember his name) that the Beatles hooked up with for a time. Of course if I’ve reads his autobiography you come away seeing a neglected and abused child who had a difficult time finding and experiencing love.

That’s prob what made him a prolific writer.

 

Bought it one day, it was trade bait the next day.

 

Rob Jungklas - The Spirit and the Spine. Track 2: Automatic - "hate is automatic, it's love that's hard"

 

There are probably many more dark in this thread that I'm not familiar with, but as Black Sabbath goes, 13 is one dark album.

 

I was kind of thinking of this album myself. I'm not sure if it's the "darkest" but it is one of the most evil sounding albums I've ever heard. Sounds like it was recorded in hell.

 

I'm tempted to say something by the likes of Mayhem, but that's more in their story rather than the music itself (A story of Suicide, Arson, Murder, and neo-nazis).
Music wise, I'd reckon Nirvana's In Utero is extremely dark. Almost the whole album sounds like Kurt crying out for help. Then again, that album may be coloured by the circumstances surrounding it.
King Crimson's Red, on the other hand, leaks menace out of nearly every track. The title track crawls along like you're watching a killer entrap their prey, unable to stop, nor look away. That's followed by a song about a gang member watching his brother get stabbed to death in the street. Next, a song about dreaming that you're trapped in a plane crash, drawn out with trashy cymbal crashes and vivid lyrics, and the whole affair ends with a climax of Starless. The opening slow and sorrowful, detailing in abstract a betrayal from a friend, and this section rises until it gives way to a chaotic bass riff that soon explodes into a wild cocophany of horns and guitar. Truly a horrifying and captivating album.
(Providence kinda sucks imo. I tend to replace it with Doctor Diamond, though I still long for a studio version of Guts On My Side)

 

Given Pete's disillusionment withe the cultural revolution of the Sixties, I remain surprised he's not more bitter than he is?!?...But then, there may have been no more vociferous believer in its potential, not to mention the contribution(s) to it he foresaw coming from rock...Which in turn makes me wonder if the most devout believers don't fall so far from a relative state of grace once their dreams evaporate? Although when I watch him play live these days, he seems as deeply frustrated as he ever was in his youth!?!

 

Almost anything by Unvivers Zero or Art Zoyd, No need for lyrics by these bands, to be about as dark as you can get.

Pretty much anything by Van Der Graaf Generator, or Peter Hammill. Hard to get darker than "Plague of the Lighthouse Keeper".

What is it about prog-metal bands with concept albums about abused children? These following albums, are dark: musically, lyrically, and conceptually.

Pain of Salvation - Perfect Elelement

Concept album about a boy and girl who meet after running away from abusive Parents.

Primary - The Tragedy of Innocence

Another concept album, about the drummer's wife, who was abused as a young girl by her father, then had a chaotic life with drugs. All the more dark and disturbing, due to the narration by the woman herself. This album, despite being as good as it is, is a pretty hard listen.

Wolverine - The Window Purpose

Yet another concept album, this time about a boy being abused by his father. Begins after a suicide by the protagonist, with the rest of the album looking back at his life as paintings in a gallery.

With regards to classical. that list could go on for pages:

Penderecki - Threnody for victims of Hiroshima
Bartok - Music for strings, percussion and celeste
Barber - Adagio for Stings, Madea's Dance of Vengance

Hell, most anything composed in the 2nd half of the 20th century...

 

Rolling Stones Let it Bleed

 

Haven't read the whole thread, but Lou Reed's "Berlin" is a depressing journey through the worst any city has to offer.

 

Pink Floyd ( Roger Waters)
The Final Cut

Enya Shepherd Moons

 

Reminded me of the darkly psychedelic cult album "First Utterance" by Comus. "Comus" was the son of Dionysos and seems to appear as a character in at least one track, he seems to have a pathological desire to deflower virgins, in the first track "Diana" the hunter of virgins seems to be after the virgin huntress herself. "Drip Drip" deals in murder and necrophilia.

 

I don't consider that to be dark, 'cos it enables me to imagine and dream. Dark to me would be some unrelenting monotonous thing, and I don't mean Metal Machine Music either.

Oddly enough, I'd say The Carpenters evoke the most unrelentingly claustrophobic reaction in me. I can listen to Schoenberg, Joy Division, Berlin, Nico, Doom Metal and what-have-you, and get joy out of it, but not the darn Carpenters.

 

Good call on Comus!

 

TOOL's entire catalog...

 

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral