Top 10 Darkest Songs of All Time

Some of the darkest, creepiest, and most depressing songs that you will ever find.
The Top Ten
1 Daddy - Korn

Definitely belongs at the top! A very dark song about Jon Davis, the lead singer's, true backstory. The song touches upon how he was abused as a young child and how it has affected him. Very powerful and quite bone-chilling if you ask me. Give a listen and see for yourself.

It breaks me every time. I used to listen to this in bed, with headphones, and just effing bawl. I absolutely love Jon Davis. He/Korn is what helped me get through my darkest and hardest days. I have so much respect and admiration. Thank you.

2 One - Metallica

The lyrics are very deep and sad. This song shows the horrors of war through the eyes of a soldier.

Watch the official video. It's really, really sad.

3 Hurt - Nine Inch Nails

The closing song on The Downward Spiral, which follows a person who loses a relationship and goes mentally insane. This shows the part where he reflects on how horrible he is one last time before he kills himself.

The song that led to Johnny Cash's beautiful cover of it.

One of the most depressing songs of all time.

4 Dance with the Devil - Immortal Technique

This gets my vote. I'm not a rap fan at all, and this song is beyond dark. It tells the story of a kid who wanted to join a gang. The initiation for him was to rape and kill a woman. So, he and the gang members covered a woman's face, beat her, raped her, and right before the protagonist pulled the trigger, he lifted the shirt off her face. It was his mother, and he killed himself. Immortal Technique claims it's a true story and says that he was a part of it in the song. This story sticks with you.

I'm a die-hard 80s metalhead, but this song is haunting. One of the most haunting and bone-chilling songs you could ever listen to. For the rap genre, this song and Kim are right at the top of the darkest and most disturbing songs.

5 Kim - Eminem

With the haunting instrumental and the anger-filled lyrics, every second of Eminem's screams is spine-shivering and darker than a black hole. Definitely the scariest, darkest song I've ever heard.

Even though I'm mostly into metal and grunge, Eminem has been a massive part of my life. In saying that, damn, this was dark! It's weird because you can tell he actually bottled all that up for a long time. Just try being Eminem's daughters, hearing your father scream about murdering your mum. Dark, genius, and shocking, nobody does it better.

6 Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People

A really dark song where a kid kills his father then goes to the school and shoots. But it's really catchy!

All the other kids with the pumped-up kicks they better run, better run.

Dark song about a kid who kills his father then takes his gun and shoots up a school.

7 Mr. Crowley - Ozzy Osbourne

The entire song is about the father of Satanism, Alester Crowley. Enough said.

"Mr. Crowley, what went on in your head?
Oh, Mr. Crowley, did you talk to the dead?
Your life style to me seemed so tragic
With the thrill of it all
You fooled all the people with magic
Yeah, you waited on Satan's door."

8 Suicide Solution - Ozzy Osbourne

A whole song dedicated to suicide. And to make it even more creepy, someone did commit suicide after listening to this song!

"Breaking laws, knocking doors
But there's no one at home
Made your bed, rest your head
But you lie there and moan
Where to hide, suicide is the only way out
Don't you know what it's really about."

This song is about the dangers of drinking.

The song title already says it all...

9 Beyond the Realms of Death - Judas Priest

A song about suicide and the right to choose whether to live or die (if you feel you don't fit in). It's a controversial viewpoint, but the song is mind-blowing.

Halford wrote the lyrics and dedicated the song to "Anita Bryant and all those schmucks" (she was on a major anti-gay campaign). I wonder if Halford wanted to kill himself because he was gay. The character in the song was saved once, but he will try again.

"... No matter how they tried
They couldn't understand
...
This is my life, this is my life
I'll decide not you
Keep the world with all its sin
It's not fit for livin' in

Yeah! I will start again
It can take forever, and ever, and ever
And ever, but I'll still win."

10 Prison Sex - Tool
The Contenders
11 Iron Man - Black Sabbath

Even though this song is amazing, it is a bit creepy. It turns Iron Man, hero, into Iron Man, villain, murderer, and lots more. Ahhh... Black Sabbath... You're into some creepy stuff...

"Now the time is here
For Iron Man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved

Nobody wants him
They just turn their heads
Nobody helps him
Now he has his revenge

Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron Man lives again! "

The song tells the story of a man who travels to the future and sees the apocalypse, is turned to metal on his way back, and tries to warn people, but no one listens. In anger, he brings on the apocalypse he warned people about.

12 The Abandoning - Love and Death

Some people have a different interpretation of this song, but basically, in my opinion, the person singing this song is in Hell, and he's begging for God to take him to Heaven. But God tells him that it is too late, and that he's already made his choice. Creepy...

"Master master save me, master master kill me. Don't give up on me now, cause that's what I've already done. My body's breaking down. I feel my mind getting numb. Bleeding from my disconnection, lost inside myself. Forsaken by my own reflection, abandoning myself."

13 Black Hell - Danzig

Glenn Danzig sounds like a darker and heavier version of Jim Morrison. Plus dark music (close to doom metal) and dark lyrics with occult elements.
"It's gon' rain down like black hell
You don't know what it's like to be dead
I'mma teach you now, teach you well
You gon' learn how to live in black hell

If there's a demon in your brain
I think it's time to let it out again
And this world you know goes insane
Never ever gon' be the same again".

14 Breathe Into Me - Red
15 Angel of Death - Slayer

Nazi human experimentation, enough said.

16 Jeremy - Pearl Jam

This is the darkest song I've ever listened to, and it's a true story!

17 De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - Mayhem
18 Midnight Show - The Killers
19 How the Gods Kill - Danzig

Just watch the video...
Lyrics and images with occult elements, very dark music and his hypnotizing voice work together to create extremely dark songs.

"if you want the power
Then let it flow through

Would you let it go
Would you let it go
They cannot end this mourning
Of my life
Show me
How the gods kill".

20 Something I Can Never Have - Nine Inch Nails
21 Stan - Eminem

A song about an overly addicting fan who at first just writes a letter to Eminem, but then the fact that Eminem hasn't reached him back causes him to drown himself and his pregnant wife.

A crazed fan commits suicide and kills his wife and baby in the process when his idol does not write back to him.

The first time I listened to Stan, I couldn't fall asleep that night.

22 Hurt - Johnny Cash

A sad, and depressing song.

"I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything."

In case you don't know, this is a cover version. The original is from Nine Inch Nails.

23 Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

Doom riffs and talks about Satan burning in hell. It's pretty damn dark.

24 The Sound of Silence - Disturbed
25 The End - The Doors

The spoken word part is pretty dark for sure.

It is very dark, but I find it spiritually uplifting.

"This is the end, beautiful friend… My only friend, the end."

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