So what makes a song depressing?..well lyrics ofcourse,then music,the vocalist...It can be one of the three and all the three mixed..
Maybe I'll make a list a inspiring songs,well maybe when I'm inspired,ha!
Here we go!..In no particular order..
Fade to black - Metallica
"Life it seems will fade away..Drifting further every day..Getting lost within myself..Nothing matters, no one else..I have lost the will to live..Simply nothing more to give..There is nothing more for me..Need the end to set me free..
No one but me can save myself..But it's too late..Now I can't think..Think why I should even try..Yesterday seems as though..It never existed..Death greets me warm..Now I will just say goodbye"
Metallica has made a number of sad songs but this one remains on the top in my book..My favourite part of the song is infact the solo by kirk hammett..simply amazing..and this song is quite brilliant as well..If you have read my earlier post I included it in the top metal songs as well.Well the lyrics are self explanatory..and this song is epic!
I Died For You - Iced Earth
"Oh how I love you..The pain won't go away..Oh when I need you..You're always so far away..I cry for you..Leaving myself to blame..I died for you..I gave up everything.
The pain was just too much..When I finally saw her..She's happy and in love..In love with my best friend..What makes it hurt so bad..Is that I love them both..And they will never know..For love I sold my soul"
Iced Earth have changed a lot of their band members including their vocalists since their debut except the founder member of the band,guitarist Jon Schaffer.But the vocals on this one remain my favorite.This song is about spawn a comic book character..Spawn is killed by his own employer, and makes a deal with the devil to serve as the general of his armies if he is able to go back to his wife. "For love i sold my soul", "My souls the price to see her."He wants to see his wife. He does find her, but finds out that she's in love, and has a child, with his former best friend, Terry. "She's happy and in love, in love with my best friend."
Well,this song is awesome.One of Iced Earth's best..Its about spawn yeah but it can taken in any way (in my opinion) ..it can be about love or life.Thats what music and songs all about..interpreting them in your own way...
For My Fallen Angel - My Dying Bride
"As I draw up my breath..And silver fills my eyes..I kiss her still..For she will never rise..On my weak body..Lays her dying hand..Through those meadows of Heaven..Where we ran..Like a thief in the night..The wind blows so light..It wars with my tears..They won't dry for many years..Loves golden arrow..At her should have fled..And not Death ebon dart..To strike her dead"
How can you make a list of sad metal songs and not include the doom metal band,My Dying Bride..If I had to choose one of their songs,it'd had to be this one..the music is enough to make this a sad song but the lyrics truly make it depressing..This is an amazing song and everything in it just fits together..Its about someone dying and you not being able to take the pain..Beautiful sing,great lyrics,amazing music..10/ 10..
One Last Goodbye - Anathema
"How I needed you.. How I grieve now you're gone..In my dreams I see you..I awake so alone.
I know you didn't want to leave..Your heart yearned to stay..But the strength I always loved in you..Finally gave way.
In my dreams I can see you..I can tell you how I feel..In my dreams I can hold you..And it feels so real..I still feel the pain ..I still feel your love..I still feel the pain"
I've not heard much of their stuff(anathema) but after listening to this song I'm sure I'm gonna get one of their albums..Ever since I first heard this song I've been continously playing it over and over again.And a list of depressing songs can't be complete without including a love song..and this is one of the best..Love does that to you..lol.In one word,awesome track.Listen to it,NOW!
Falling again - Lacuna coil
"I lay look ion my hand..searching this lines..I've not the answer..I'm crying and I don't know..watching this sky..I search an answer..so feel free to be to..Im not another liar..I just wanna be myself
Now the beat inside of me is a sort of a cold breeze and I've never any feeling inside me..ruining me..bring my body..carry it to another world..I know I'll live but like a stone I'm falling down.
Lacuna coil is a gothic metal band from Italy..This song is taken from their album entitled "In a Reverie"..There is another version version of this song which came on in their earlier EP simply entitled "Falling" but I like this version more...I interpret this song as a person feeling emptiness and suffering from depression..Its a truly bad feeling,trust me..and this song portrays emptiness and depression beautifully..Cristina's sings it amazingly well.All in all,a top song..one of best and one of my favorite lacuna coil songs..
Beloved's Cry - Orphaned Land
"My heart flies on her wings..Now I'm crying, the moon so red..Tomorrow shall be yet another hell..To the sun, (the) sky's soul is fed..Blows pass me..(I'm) down them I do not feel..Anything except the shadow is real..Why did she do it ? Why did she die ?..How could she leave without saying goodbye ?..She has proven my life to be just a lie..When sea waves crush they hit me hard..But I do not feel them..And then reality is no more real to me..I ask myself, should I end it now..And join her at last ?..I miss the cold embrace of lust..There's nothing left, just a dust..Nothing is left from my dearest love."
Not a very famous band but a beautiful song..It is about his girl dying and he's missing her to the extent that he's thinking of suicide..the vocals,both male and female fit perfectly and make this song a great depressing song.
End of the road - Sentenced
"Here we are, now lay the burden down..We're coming to the end of our road..Sorrowful yet glorious somehow..To be humming this one last ode..So calm and still... it wasn't all that bad, or was it now?..Fulfilled... it doesn't only hurt to end it now..The funeral
Is life over, this life's over?..Or has it only just begun?..It grows colder, starts to moulder...Coming apart yet still not done..Forever one"
Sentenced might be the the most depressing band ever..there are so many sentenced songs that I could list here but I decided to list just one song from every band..everything about this song is depressing,the lyrics,the music..I even find the guitar solo depressing..
Gone - Katatonia
"A dead start in my head..And the day's been laid..The things I really want..Always torn away from my heart..You never saw the way..How I wanted you to stay..And now when you're gone..I'm on my own..When I was thinking this..Was something permanent..You were already thinking..Of going away"
Well I can make a list of sad depressing metal songs with songs from Katatonia itself..They have a bunch of great sad songs..In this song,not only the lyrics,but the music,the vocals everything is wonderful and makes you want to cry out..
The Final - Dir En Grey
"The intention is clear, I stare with this left hand, unable to be worded
Every time I bleed, there lies the reason to live And I discover words being so vivid and brightEven loved ones scatter like petals from flowers in my hand
So even if I engraved the meaning that I lived in my hand, it will only be known as flowers of vanity
So I cant live..Whats lost cant be born again..A song thats not even seeking the proof of living..Lets put an end the final..Lets bloom flowers of attempted suicide..."
A sad song list can't be complete without a suicide song.So here it is..Die En Grey is a band from japan..The lyrics of this song are in japanese too but I've put the translation here.This song is amazing.I've heard it many times but still I like it.It can be interpreted in different ways.Maybe its about a person losing their loved ones and wants to commit suicide.Whether he succeeds or not is a different story "Lets bloom flowers of attempted suicide"..This is one of the most beautiful suicide songs.the video is great as well.
To Bid You Farewell - Opeth
"I stand motionless..In a parade of falling rain..Your voice I cannot hear..As I am falling again..
Devotion eludes.And in sadness I lumber..In my own ashes I am standing without a soul..She wept and whispered: "I know...We walked into the night..Am I to bid you farewell?..Why can't you see that I try..When every tear I shed is for you"
Opeth is a very interesting band.They are a progressive death metal band although their exact genre has been a cause of lot of debate over the years..This is a beautiful song without the harsh vocals that is usually associated with opeth..Well this song is about love,again.
Undertow - Pain of salvation
"Let me break!..Let me bleed!..Let me tear myself apart I need to breathe!..Let me lose my way!..Let me walk astray!..Maybe to proceed..Just let me bleed!..Let me drain!..Let me die!..Let me break the things I love I need to cry!..Let me burn it all!..Let me take my fall!..Through the cleansing fire!..Now let me die!..Let me die...Let me out..Let me fade into that pitch-black velvet night"
Pain of Salvation is a Swedish progressive metal band..The music in this song is really sad and depressing..This song starts slow and then the band kicks in later in the song.. It is sung very well and you can feel the pain in the vocalist's voice..Let me bleed!!!
Ode to Melancholy - Empyrium
"Melancholy - still my desire for thy precious tragedian wine...Sweep me away, into the vale of thine!..Where sorrow's strong and so is joy..Melancholy - still my desire, O let my heart by thee inspire...O fill the air with thy sweet scent,let thy light, thy star crescent..Wherever she dwells I will bid a farewell sigh..For she dwells with beauty - beauty that must die..And deep inside me I will wait for her return..To her enchanting, awe-inspiring flame I'll yearn..O lust and rueful thought be mine,My soul enhanced, desires...Melancholy - my heart is thine"
Empyrium songs are usually very melancholic and so is this song..Not really depressing but very melancholic..The lyrics are beautiful..Its like poetry written so very well..
Black Swans - Lacrimas Profundere
"...So embrace the flowers of fall..and remember the rain..which will ever weep over landscapes wide and grey..and feed the rivers flowing into the waters of life..though oblivion is a mightier water -so majestic, so cold, so fathomless deep..."
I'm including many lesser known bands in this list and lacramas profundere is one of them..They are from Germany..Their name means to shed tears in Latin..I don't really care about the lyrics in this one..the music,the harsh,clean and female vocals all fit in to make this song a truly depressing one.
Insanity Crescendo - Dark Tranquillity
"Gently hold our heads ..gently hold our heads on high..Aimless time in fear now hide
overthrow the plan ..confusion lies in all my words
mad is the soul..We barricade ourselves in holes of temperament ..this is the dawning of a new age ..a heart that the wrong way ..insanity's crescendo..
Windcolour - second sight ..a touch of silence ..and the violence of dark..illusion span - the aroma of time ..shadowlife and the scent of nothingness..Infinite fall of instinct ..order of one spells deceit..Infinite lack of trust..order of one obsolete..Oh escaping time is all we lost ahead? ..When it's found, can judgement make amends?"
Dark Tranquillity is awesome and so is this song.They are a swedish melodic death metal band from Sweden.They are one of the pioneers of melodic death metal genre..I don't know if this song is sad or not but I wanted to include a death metal song and I find the song,the female and male vocals,the music kinda sad..
I Don't care - Apocalyptica
"I try to make it through my life, in my way, there's you ..I try to make it through these lies, and that's all I do ..Just don't deny it, ..Don't try to fight this ,and deal with it ..and that's just part of it, ..If you were dead or still alive ..I don't care, I don't care ..Just go and leave this all behind ..Cause i swear (i swear),i don't care"
Apocalypica is a Finnish metal band consisting of classically trained cellists and since 2003,a drummer as well..This song features Adam Gontier from the band Three Days Grace..Really,you can't call this song depressing but its actually an angry song which is clear from the lyrics.There are two versions of this song.I like the US version more..Adam has sung it really well.
Honorable mentions
My Dying Bride - The Crown of Sympathy
Katatonia - My Twin
Lacuna coil - Within Me
Tool - Sober
Sentenced - No One There
Apocalyptica - S.O.S(Anything But Love)
P.S.. There must be many sad and depressing metal songs that I don't know about..This is just a list of what i like.Plus I've not included any rock songs coz..well its a metal song list.duh!