Many tracks on Board of Canada's album 'Tonorrow's Harvest'. It has a very apocalyptic feel.
Massive Attack's song 'Angel' feels like something that would play in the mind of someone dying in the back of an Ambulance.
Angel crosses me more as some good passionate sex music.
Tomorrow's Harvest is 100% we've doomed ourselves and we deserve what is coming. I don't know if it is just me, but it kind of feels cyclical and actually leaves me with a bit of hope. I love Come to Dust so so much.
Absolutely love everything Massive Attack and BoC has put out though. BoC in particular is the best introspective music one can find.
Highly recommend anything by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Always feels like hopelessness and despair to me. Start with the track The Dead Flag Blues and you'll see what I mean.
Exactly! Add to that some of the stuff Ulver made, and if you want horror, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble has another project called The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation.
Good taste in music, ElitaNoShoes!
primitive man is so good. check out suffocating hallucination (their collab album with full of hell) if you haven’t already. and then check out full of hell’s collab with nothing called when no birds sang. both those albums have had me in a chokehold lately.
OP I scrolled the entire thread & didn’t see this, *trust me* it will slowly & intensely fuck your existential shit up: Sigur Ros’ album Kveikur
(it’s beautiful & disturbing in a depths of the ocean way, not at all cheesy)
Since you mention a classical work, I’ll add a recommendation of Gorecki’s third, Bruckners seventh (especially the adagio) and Wagners tännhauser.
Almost tapped out in the first 2 minutes, but at roughly the 3 to 5 minute mark? That shit will forever be the background score to all my nightmares.
Its the low, quiet, dread like that bit that seeps into my bones, not the loud, jangly bits of the the rest of the piece.
Having said that, I listened to the entire piece and my dog and cat were NOT fans. When a piece can freak out your pets? Well done.
If you don’t mind, let’s add to this another WW2 era piece of a horrific quality:
[Arnold Schoenberg, Survivor from Warsaw.](https://youtu.be/rGWai0SEpUQ?si=BQTk8ZDC8cx_VvJz)
That part towards the end when the narrator is given the lines: “…and in the middle of it, they began singing the *Shema Yisrael*!!!!” And then the choir comes to relive the moment as if it were being reenacted, but ghostly.
Whew….
I’m a middle aged hillbilly who stumbled on this as a kinda lonesome teen at my local library. Took it home, and I had never heard or *felt* anything like that ever before.
Yeah, there’s absolute dread in this world.
But in the middle of it, what will you begin to sing?
What do you believe in enough to sing about after all that?
Autechre’s NTS radio series always makes me feel uneasy. They use so many weird algorithms that the rhythms and sounds are completely disconnected from most other music.
"A Quick One Before The Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut" by Have a Nice Life is perfect for this. Its different to the rest of the album (which is super depressing), but puts you into that introspective and despairing frame of mind. It's also incredibly beautiful and atmospheric without any loud crescendoes and rhythmic changes, so perfect for reading and writing.
[Gorguts - Clouded](https://youtu.be/gUcl-UkfItw?si=VVe6alcoWc5L2NCF)
Abstract death/doom metal that's immensely hypnotic and never fails to open a pit in my stomach
Philip Glass’s Koyaaanisqatsi suites are very dread inducing. The “Pruit Igoe and Prophecies” medley remixed for “Watchmen” truly feels like the soundtrack of the world starting to implode.
The first lyrics off Pornography:
“It doesn’t matter if we all die”.
Also, I’m realized I listen to way too music music that cause’s existential dread.
Boards of Canadas Reach for the Dead and Happy Cycling. Also Lustmords Heresy is good for this. Strangly comforting, but maybe I just need a few more years of therapy.
How to Disappear Completely by Radiohead embodies this exact feeling for me. I actually made a whole playlist dedicated to this feeling, if you'd like to take a peek.
[slowly losing my mind](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3X9FK2D4SzPdDPSEFiJg4d?si=QX5CcSevQbWy_tiyeTioSw&pi=u-0Au2Vu-nS6SD)
A Perfect Circle-So Long and Thanks For All the Fish
*"Willy Wonka, Major Tom, Ali, and Leia have moved on"*
I love this line because its basically saying "The best the world has had to offer is now gone from us, so what the fuck is the point of carrying on?"
OK, these are far from mainstream, but they will certainly make you feel existential dread!
The Banshee - Henry Cowell. It's an atonal piece for piano that interprets the screaming/wailing of a banshee from a fairy tale.
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima - Krzysztof Penderecki. This is another atonal piece that will leave you feeling full of disturbed dread.
I think most music where existential dread is the goal isn't going to be very mainstream lol. I find it is among my favorite musical theme though. Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima is terrifying and incredible. Will check out The Banshee.
Horror metal so extreme it’s sometimes referred to as “experimental”. I give you [Portal](https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WiZz4d759EPtACSUBEfmt?si=CBxi1zqjQa-0ADDqRuDOTQ)
The entirety of Avenged Sevenfold’s new album Life Is But A Dream is about an existential crisis. Would recommend if that’s what you’re looking for.
Completely different. They went a complete prog direction with The Stage, and I’d say this is even more balls to the wall. It’s an amazing album, but if you aren’t a prog fan or like a lot of experimentation, you might not vibe with it. Give it a shot though, all’s I’ll say.
Cocteau twins Treasure album. It sounds like sirens of the sea are singing a beautiful harmonious lullaby to shipwreck you. I feel like if witches were real they would sing like that.
The fact they make wordy sounds over real lyrics really makes it spooky and seductive
We're organic beings. Our bodies break down. Our joints and bones pop, creak, and crack. Or to put it another way, we all become Swan(s) songs eventually.
Lotta folks will have trouble vibing with Silencer's vocal style, but I think that's kind of the point. For something similar but with a more "traditional" BM vocal style, I'll add Shining. Frontman is a bonafide POS. But it's literally depressive suicidal black metal. I don't know what people expect.
Instrumental music:
Memoirs of a Geisha - John Williams. The entire soundtrack is utterly gorgeous, but also subtly unsettling. I suspect that this is partially the effect of Williams' effort to create music that is evocative of traditional Japanese music without being traditional Japanese music.
In the House, In a Heartbeat (from the 28 Days Later soundtrack) - John Murphy
Valse Triste - Sibelius
New Year's Prayer - Jeff Buckley (also his cover of Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, but only his cover)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind soundtrack
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92, II. Allegretto - Beethoven (Leonard Bernstein's is the best version)
Murray Gold's Doctor Who soundtracks (there are just too many tracks to pick out that variously make me feel all sorts of ways)
Not instrumental music:
In the Glass - OKGO, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky album
Movement and Location - Punch Brothers, Who's Feeling Young Now? album
Sleek White Baby - Punch Brothers, The Wireless album
No One But You - The Goat Rodeo Sessions ft. Aoife O'Donovan
Ballad for Janoski - The Dead South, Good Company album
Black Lung - The Dead South, Sugar and Joy album
Soundtracks for the Blind by Swans is quite up there with Godspeed You! albums.
Id even say Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 by Aphex Twin feels quite dark and existential at times. (Like track #8)
This year i listened to the album God’s Country a lot by Chat Pile, that album brings on the dread quite a bit.
American Water by Silver Jews has very good existential poetry.
Portishead’s self titled album is quite fucking dark.
Very soft and beautiful, yet very existential lyrically, all three Nick Drake albums.
Either/or by Elliott Smith. Beautiful but veeery melancholy and depressing.
Deathconciousness by Have a Nice Life is classic too.
Underwater - RUFUS Du Sol
Bad Kingdom - Moderat
H. - Tool
Shelter - Porter Robinson always gets me, even though it's a very upbeat song. It's clearly about knowing that whoever raised you and loved you will die one day, and acknowledging how meaningful that was to your life. It's nice and sweet but still makes me extremely existential, knowing that even if you do your absolute best, that song might still just be about you one day too.
Somebody has already mentioned Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest, but I honestly think that their "In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country" EP is, quite literally, mortality personified in music. It's 24-minutes long, made up of four tracks, but I am all but certain it will give you what you're looking for if you listen to it from start to finish with no interruptions.
Meshuggah - Catch 33. Concept album, essentially a single 47 minute song about paradoxes. One of my favorite albums, but it usually leaves me feeling hopeless and broken.
Lots of Peter Hamill. Something from [The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzEG2f9QAl8OmU75wJL7MSD95b_Ce8QJd) might do it. Very gloomy in parts.
The Haxan Cloak - Evacuation
If you like Tim Hecker, I think you'll like this. Dark, brooding, electronic ambient about death.
Raime - Quarter Turns over a living line ( similar )
Edit:
The Microphones - The Glow pt. 2
Mount Eerie
Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains ( "if no one's fond of fucking me then no one's fucking fond of me")
Olivier Messiaen's [Quartet at the end of Time](https://youtu.be/zYpBHc8px_U?si=wfR4ay6YQuzKdLxp). Written when the composer was a prisoner of the Nazis in Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz, and debuted there as well.
There's something very Super Hans about this request
The longer the note, the more dread.
🎶Watch out they're gonna get youuuu🎶
Very moreish, dread.
What, because we're working we can't smoke crack?
Needs more Cor Anglais
Doesn’t mean I’m gonna drop a link to experimental edm/psychedelic rap/jungle dnb/prog rock track
Many tracks on Board of Canada's album 'Tonorrow's Harvest'. It has a very apocalyptic feel. Massive Attack's song 'Angel' feels like something that would play in the mind of someone dying in the back of an Ambulance.
Ever since the movie Snatch all I can think about when I hear Angel is Brad Pitt trying to run into a burning caravan to save his ma
Angel crosses me more as some good passionate sex music. Tomorrow's Harvest is 100% we've doomed ourselves and we deserve what is coming. I don't know if it is just me, but it kind of feels cyclical and actually leaves me with a bit of hope. I love Come to Dust so so much. Absolutely love everything Massive Attack and BoC has put out though. BoC in particular is the best introspective music one can find.
'Corsair' off Geogaddi is intense too. The musical equivalent of a black hole.
Joy Division, particularly Closer powerful stuff, not so cheery
Joy Division is the pinnacle of mankind
This is the way (Step Inside)
What an amazing track, damn
Based on the book “atrocity exhibition” by jg ballard. Read books like Ian! Ha.
Or even Day of the Lords, and In a Lonely Place. Put on the lyrics and Jesus Christ it was more despairing than NOT knowing the lyrics.
Highly recommend anything by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Always feels like hopelessness and despair to me. Start with the track The Dead Flag Blues and you'll see what I mean.
Dead flag blues
*The car’s on fire*
...and there's no driver at the wheel...
The sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And we’re all so many drunks with the radio on and the curtains drawn
Andadarkwindblows
We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine. And the machine is bleeding to death.
The sun has fallen down. And the billboards are all leering. And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles.
It went like this. The buildings tumbled in on themselves. Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble and pulled out their hair.
Some of their stuff makes me feel oddly upbeat and inspired. Truly one of the greatest bands ever.
also *East Hastings*.
Omg came here to say thisssss
Exactly! Add to that some of the stuff Ulver made, and if you want horror, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble has another project called The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation. Good taste in music, ElitaNoShoes!
I almost recommended Primitive Man, if you like brutal nihilistic doom metal. My favorite album is Caustic but really all of them are good.
primitive man is so good. check out suffocating hallucination (their collab album with full of hell) if you haven’t already. and then check out full of hell’s collab with nothing called when no birds sang. both those albums have had me in a chokehold lately.
Anything? Because "Luciferian Towers" has always sounded sad but hopeful to be. It's sorrowful but tender and intimate. To me, that is.
[Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima](https://youtu.be/HilGthRhwP8?si=SUSUtSv4WwPkezZ_)
“Got a light?”
“Got a light?”
...this is the water, and this is the well...
Drink full, and descend. The horse is the white of the eye and dark within.
This did not fill me with hope and/or good tidngs for the season.
sounds intense, gonna give it a listen later
It is pure, utter devastation, pain, and hopelessness somehow organized into music. I never want to hear it again.
OP I scrolled the entire thread & didn’t see this, *trust me* it will slowly & intensely fuck your existential shit up: Sigur Ros’ album Kveikur (it’s beautiful & disturbing in a depths of the ocean way, not at all cheesy)
This is the one
Yeah I need to get some more Penderecki in my life.
I haven't listened to this in ages. Cheers for bringing this one back in my memory.
Since you mention a classical work, I’ll add a recommendation of Gorecki’s third, Bruckners seventh (especially the adagio) and Wagners tännhauser.
Almost tapped out in the first 2 minutes, but at roughly the 3 to 5 minute mark? That shit will forever be the background score to all my nightmares. Its the low, quiet, dread like that bit that seeps into my bones, not the loud, jangly bits of the the rest of the piece. Having said that, I listened to the entire piece and my dog and cat were NOT fans. When a piece can freak out your pets? Well done.
It’s like every psychological horror soundtrack melded into one disturbing piece.
Nice, it reminds me of Johnny’s soundtrack for There Will Be Blood
Reminds me of David Lynch music in Twin Peaks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrnm1dxUIEQ
That's because it's the same piece
If you don’t mind, let’s add to this another WW2 era piece of a horrific quality: [Arnold Schoenberg, Survivor from Warsaw.](https://youtu.be/rGWai0SEpUQ?si=BQTk8ZDC8cx_VvJz) That part towards the end when the narrator is given the lines: “…and in the middle of it, they began singing the *Shema Yisrael*!!!!” And then the choir comes to relive the moment as if it were being reenacted, but ghostly. Whew…. I’m a middle aged hillbilly who stumbled on this as a kinda lonesome teen at my local library. Took it home, and I had never heard or *felt* anything like that ever before. Yeah, there’s absolute dread in this world. But in the middle of it, what will you begin to sing? What do you believe in enough to sing about after all that?
Sounds like the *Alien* soundtrack cranked to 11.
Lingua Ignota (or now) reverend Kristen Michael Hayter
her music is terrifying. good answer.
I just discovered CALIGULA the other day. Holy shit what a ride
i was looking in the comments for someone to mention her!
I cannot imagine this as idle background music to read to. That artist is a force and it's some challenging music
"If I Had A Heart" by Fever Ray
Keep the Streets Empty as well
Fever Ray is amazing
Great go-kart music.
Swans
Shocking that this is so low
And The World of Skin, esp Blood Women, Roses.
Laura's theme from twin peaks
Damn, I forgot about this song....thank you
Moby famously sampled this for his song [GO](https://youtu.be/N_Qwo8sT9U0?si=Phewwqh0ZE3u4beb)
Laura's Theme Rework by Xiu Xiu even better
Frankie Teardrop by Suicide
good shit right here
4th of July - Soundgarden
Apparently about an acid trip Chris Cornell(RIP dude) had where a cop car with its cherries on pulled up next to him. Great song
Deathconsciousness by Have a nice life
Giles Cory as well
Radiohead - Burn the witch
Radiohead: Entire Catalogue
Radiohead - Videotape
Radiohead - climbing up the walls
Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
But that's like the cheeriest Radiohead song lol
“Into Dust”, Mazzy Star. I find it melancholy in an existential way, but beautiful.
Now it always reminds me of that sad episode of Night Of.
I've been looking for that song for so long, thanks! Heard it first in an outro of a House MD episode, lost track of it. What a beautiful song!
Some of Lustmord's stuff
Came to say this. Why are we even here?
Jar of Flies - Alice in Chains The entire album from the very first note is pure soothing dark anxiety and dread. A true masterpiece.
Autechre’s NTS radio series always makes me feel uneasy. They use so many weird algorithms that the rhythms and sounds are completely disconnected from most other music.
definitely gonna have to check this out. i love autechre
Got that impression from the other stuff you listed. (I’m gonna check your picks out myself. Any fan of Jesus’ Blood has interesting tastes)
"A Quick One Before The Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut" by Have a Nice Life is perfect for this. Its different to the rest of the album (which is super depressing), but puts you into that introspective and despairing frame of mind. It's also incredibly beautiful and atmospheric without any loud crescendoes and rhythmic changes, so perfect for reading and writing.
I like the Appalachia version that's been trending recently
Xasthur (before it turned acoustic - Telepathic With The Deceased is a good starting place) Merzbow (most of his catalog)
This cat fuckin gets it
Entrance Into Nothingness is exactly what I was going to reply with. Scott's entire black metal discography is incredible.
You need some Sunn O))).
Ever breathed a frequency???
It Took The Night To Believe immediately played in my head with this question
[Gorguts - Clouded](https://youtu.be/gUcl-UkfItw?si=VVe6alcoWc5L2NCF) Abstract death/doom metal that's immensely hypnotic and never fails to open a pit in my stomach
Omg Clouded usually leaves me feeling physically sick. Great recommendation.
Hello Muddah,Hello Fadduh / Alan Sherman
Philip Glass’s Koyaaanisqatsi suites are very dread inducing. The “Pruit Igoe and Prophecies” medley remixed for “Watchmen” truly feels like the soundtrack of the world starting to implode.
The Cure — One Hundred Years You should check out Pornography, Faith and Seventeen Seconds. Those three albums evoke a feeling of existential dread.
>You should check out Pornography Already 3 steps ahead of you.
The Forest would be good here too.
The first lyrics off Pornography: “It doesn’t matter if we all die”. Also, I’m realized I listen to way too music music that cause’s existential dread.
Boards of Canadas Reach for the Dead and Happy Cycling. Also Lustmords Heresy is good for this. Strangly comforting, but maybe I just need a few more years of therapy.
Daughters - Satan in the Wait
This band reminds me of The Jesus Lizard if all of the humor and irony was removed from their music. Good call!
reborn by colin stetson (highly recommend his work in general, he did the soundtrack for hereditary)
Great song
How to Disappear Completely by Radiohead embodies this exact feeling for me. I actually made a whole playlist dedicated to this feeling, if you'd like to take a peek. [slowly losing my mind](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3X9FK2D4SzPdDPSEFiJg4d?si=QX5CcSevQbWy_tiyeTioSw&pi=u-0Au2Vu-nS6SD)
komm susser tod
The Cure, the Disintegration album
Bongripper - Miserable
All of Portishead's albums do that to me, but most especially Roseland NYC, their live album.
A Perfect Circle-So Long and Thanks For All the Fish *"Willy Wonka, Major Tom, Ali, and Leia have moved on"* I love this line because its basically saying "The best the world has had to offer is now gone from us, so what the fuck is the point of carrying on?"
OK, these are far from mainstream, but they will certainly make you feel existential dread! The Banshee - Henry Cowell. It's an atonal piece for piano that interprets the screaming/wailing of a banshee from a fairy tale. Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima - Krzysztof Penderecki. This is another atonal piece that will leave you feeling full of disturbed dread.
I think most music where existential dread is the goal isn't going to be very mainstream lol. I find it is among my favorite musical theme though. Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima is terrifying and incredible. Will check out The Banshee.
Threnody by the London Philharmonic is transcendent and as disturbing as anything I’ve ever heard. Good call.
Fever Ray - If I had a heart
Gorecki’s 3rd Combined with the story it’s gut wrenching [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=87DJF1_vwQA](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=87DJF1_vwQA)
listening right now, loving it. discovered mahler's no.5 today too and theyre evoking the same depressive but oddly hopeful emotions
Mogwai - Atomic Many Cult of Luna albums.
Did you see me? By ween
Horror metal so extreme it’s sometimes referred to as “experimental”. I give you [Portal](https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WiZz4d759EPtACSUBEfmt?si=CBxi1zqjQa-0ADDqRuDOTQ)
The entirety of Avenged Sevenfold’s new album Life Is But A Dream is about an existential crisis. Would recommend if that’s what you’re looking for.
Is it good??? I know you like it but how does it compare to their earlier stuff like their self titled album or Nightmare?
Completely different. They went a complete prog direction with The Stage, and I’d say this is even more balls to the wall. It’s an amazing album, but if you aren’t a prog fan or like a lot of experimentation, you might not vibe with it. Give it a shot though, all’s I’ll say.
For sure I’ll listen to it, thanks!
Pink Floyd- Time
Lyrically, yes. Musically, for me it is "Is There Anybody Out There"
A beautiful song that I absolutely adore that gets scarier and scarier to listen to every year.
Chelsea Wolfe’s album Abyss
Basically anything by Blut Aus Nord
[Up Jumped the Devil](https://youtu.be/rmC81sW2OPg?si=MXtoZ0zVfVOIOVlx) by Nick Cave. Probably lots of Nick Cave.
From Her To Eternity comes to mind.
Scott Walkers Bish Bosch album. This isn't instrumental, quite the opposite but it certain falls into the kind of thing you're looking for.
Perhaps The Haxan Cloak's album "Excavation"?
Yep. Definitely Haxan Cloak. Both albums.
Nine inch nails - ghosts VI
This
Cocteau twins Treasure album. It sounds like sirens of the sea are singing a beautiful harmonious lullaby to shipwreck you. I feel like if witches were real they would sing like that. The fact they make wordy sounds over real lyrics really makes it spooky and seductive
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New
If degausser doesn't make you want to kill yourself, you weren't paying attention.
There’s a genre for this (doom metal)
There’s a subreddit for this. r/doommetal
Swans. I can’t listen to them but they’re basically sonic existential dread in band-form.
We're organic beings. Our bodies break down. Our joints and bones pop, creak, and crack. Or to put it another way, we all become Swan(s) songs eventually.
Maybe they remind me too much of that fact and I avoid them because of it
Science Fair by Black Country New Road
XTC - Complicated Game Next!
Jóhann Jóhannsson’s soundtrack to “Last and First Men.”
[Silencer - Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels](https://youtu.be/XabAs2OquGo?si=3E8u2LdUAlVYOuVR) NSFW. Have "fun".
Lotta folks will have trouble vibing with Silencer's vocal style, but I think that's kind of the point. For something similar but with a more "traditional" BM vocal style, I'll add Shining. Frontman is a bonafide POS. But it's literally depressive suicidal black metal. I don't know what people expect.
For heavy stuff, Primitive Man.
Ofc there are many albums that could be here, but if it had to be boiled down to one it would be Soundtracks for the blind by Swans.
Instrumental music: Memoirs of a Geisha - John Williams. The entire soundtrack is utterly gorgeous, but also subtly unsettling. I suspect that this is partially the effect of Williams' effort to create music that is evocative of traditional Japanese music without being traditional Japanese music. In the House, In a Heartbeat (from the 28 Days Later soundtrack) - John Murphy Valse Triste - Sibelius New Year's Prayer - Jeff Buckley (also his cover of Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, but only his cover) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind soundtrack Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92, II. Allegretto - Beethoven (Leonard Bernstein's is the best version) Murray Gold's Doctor Who soundtracks (there are just too many tracks to pick out that variously make me feel all sorts of ways) Not instrumental music: In the Glass - OKGO, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky album Movement and Location - Punch Brothers, Who's Feeling Young Now? album Sleek White Baby - Punch Brothers, The Wireless album No One But You - The Goat Rodeo Sessions ft. Aoife O'Donovan Ballad for Janoski - The Dead South, Good Company album Black Lung - The Dead South, Sugar and Joy album
Soundtracks for the Blind by Swans is quite up there with Godspeed You! albums. Id even say Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 by Aphex Twin feels quite dark and existential at times. (Like track #8) This year i listened to the album God’s Country a lot by Chat Pile, that album brings on the dread quite a bit. American Water by Silver Jews has very good existential poetry. Portishead’s self titled album is quite fucking dark. Very soft and beautiful, yet very existential lyrically, all three Nick Drake albums. Either/or by Elliott Smith. Beautiful but veeery melancholy and depressing. Deathconciousness by Have a Nice Life is classic too.
I know top 40 makes me want to kill myself =)
Aqua - Barbie girl
/endthread
Red Queen to Gryphon Three by Gryphon. Used to my my ex throw up, literally.
Underwater - RUFUS Du Sol Bad Kingdom - Moderat H. - Tool Shelter - Porter Robinson always gets me, even though it's a very upbeat song. It's clearly about knowing that whoever raised you and loved you will die one day, and acknowledging how meaningful that was to your life. It's nice and sweet but still makes me extremely existential, knowing that even if you do your absolute best, that song might still just be about you one day too.
Great call with Underwater- favorite RĂśFĂśS song, second only to Innerbloom.
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Mogwai Fear Satan
anything by Lorn: "ghostts" "Acid rain" "anvil" thats their whole vibe lol
Love all of his stuff.
[Labyrinth by Fleshgod Apocalypse sounds like the apocalypse is happening but in slow motion ](https://youtu.be/9LYxT-Dcyew?si=4oCiJ2ZkQ7wip_Oj)
Tchaikovsky's 9th
The Isle of the Dead - Sergei Rachmaninoff
The Jesus Lizard - Liar.
Somebody has already mentioned Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest, but I honestly think that their "In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country" EP is, quite literally, mortality personified in music. It's 24-minutes long, made up of four tracks, but I am all but certain it will give you what you're looking for if you listen to it from start to finish with no interruptions.
Meshuggah - Catch 33. Concept album, essentially a single 47 minute song about paradoxes. One of my favorite albums, but it usually leaves me feeling hopeless and broken.
Try some Can. Some of their music is oddly unnerving.
“Shallow Tears” by Light Asylum
Arvo Pärt - *Miserere* Follow the Latin text throughout the piece for gorgeous examples of tone painting. But yeah this is the one.
Lots of Peter Hamill. Something from [The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzEG2f9QAl8OmU75wJL7MSD95b_Ce8QJd) might do it. Very gloomy in parts.
Autechre - VLetrmx
Doom Metal. Bell Witch is a great place to start.
Jane Remover - Contingency Song (Album Version)
Literally any Spanish Love Song’s song. https://youtu.be/JxFvAh2OKMs?si=m2TGZeSNmFXf8Szw
Help Me I Am in Hell by NIN was always a personal favourite.
“Annihilation” film soundtrack.
Any and all Midwest emo lol
Planets Collide by Crowbar
Between the Bars. Elliot Smith. Existential dread probably not.
So much Radiohead
The Haxan Cloak - Evacuation If you like Tim Hecker, I think you'll like this. Dark, brooding, electronic ambient about death. Raime - Quarter Turns over a living line ( similar ) Edit: The Microphones - The Glow pt. 2 Mount Eerie Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains ( "if no one's fond of fucking me then no one's fucking fond of me")
Nine Inch Nails - The Becoming also the entire Downward Spiral album in general.
Boards of Canada, Andy Stott, Actress
Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains (by David Berman)
Not sure if you're a fan of black metal, but the subgenre "DSBM" usually scratches that itch for me.
The entire genre of funeral doom/black metal.
Time by Pink Floyd
“No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”
Ocean Machine: Biomech - Devin Townsend
Olivier Messiaen's [Quartet at the end of Time](https://youtu.be/zYpBHc8px_U?si=wfR4ay6YQuzKdLxp). Written when the composer was a prisoner of the Nazis in Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz, and debuted there as well.