DOOM Classical, Choral, Opera

I’m interested in music from these genres that is dark, epic, melodic, apocalyptic, layered, beautiful, foreboding, etc. it can have a side of hope as well though.

The perfect tone would be what the metal/post rock band Mono achieves but with classical/choral/opera but it doesn’t have to be exactly that. Mono isn’t super dark and I don’t actually need this to be either. but some level of DOOM. Make your own interpretation.

No f'ing tildes or the word Jesus or covers of pop music.

I would suggest an album I absolutely Iove but it seems to have disappeared from my library and I can’t find it or remember the name…

 

Maybe some Two Steps from Hell ?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3swwxiALG5c0Tvom83tPGg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Steps_from_Hell

 

Well, I was thinking something completely different when I saw the thread title, yet my response might still be strangely appropriate

 

Deaf Beethoven, musical language of pain and desperation

 

Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead should fit the bill nicely (or should that be doomily?). It does "dark, epic, melodic, apocalyptic, layered, beautiful, foreboding" very well. I'd recommend the following performance, led by Evgeny Svetlanov:



Here's a passage from a Gramophone magazine review of the recording to get you in the mood (it describes the piece better than I could):

"The Isle of the Dead is overwhelming in its intensity here. Svetlanov could often adopt rather more measured tempi than the norm in slow music, and he does so again in the opening Lento, but the effect is to accentuate the apprehensiveness and the dark brooding with which Rachmaninov’s music mirrors the image in the Arnold Böcklin picture that inspired it. The mounting menace as Charon’s boat approaches the forbidding island is shot through with fear, and the sense of panic as the dead soul reaches its destination is terrifying."​

This Svetlanov version is hard to come by on streaming services (hence the youtube link). There's another, more ponderous and foreboding interpretation by Svetlanov that runs a full 5 minutes longer (here), which is worth checking out if you like the piece, but it's not as exciting as the version linked above.

 

Early King Crimson comes to mind. Gore comes to mind. Maybe The Swans. Puscifer/APC has moments. Björk has epic moments.

I play this song almost every day now:

 

If you haven't already, you might venture into late Scott Walker ... namely Tilt, The Drift, Bish Bosch and his collab w/ Sunn O))), Soused. For instance:



I'd also check out the new record by Gazelle Twin and NyX, Deep England. Sample:



And, lastly, Lafawndah's 2020 record, The Fifth Season. It utterly rules.

 

There was a phase in early Prog where bands tried to fuse Orchestral and Rock music. Deep Purple made a serious attempt at what you are hinting at.



Its reception was mixed but I can still appreciate it for what it is. Deep Purple was not afraid to take risks.

 

My first thought was any composition named Requiem (e.g. Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, Faure, Britten, Berlioz, etc)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem#Notable_compositions

 

JS Bach opening chorus for St John's Passion is dark, desperate and forboding...


Mozart has his moments of doom and they're electrifying...


Wagner's Siegfried Funeral march following the murder of the hero projects darkness, anger and hopelessness followed by light.


Mahler's 6th symphony finale is a tragic ending to a brilliant piece


Ligeti's Requiem, a terrifying 20th century piece popularised by Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey, is deather than death

 

The first two Kayo Dot albums feel on point for this. Choirs of the Eye was my gateway both into avant garde contemporary classical and also black metal too. Some shared members with Maudlin of the Well and Gregor Samsa (the band).

Toby Driver had a release on Tzadik (John Zorn's label) too with some interesting pieces including a composition meant to be heard through a wall and a vocal duet with one vocalist creating formants using their tongue in the other vocalists mouth.

https://kayodot.bandcamp.com/album/choirs-of-the-eye
https://kayodot.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-l-l-library-loft

 

Nice thread.

https://tidal.com/browse/track/116137849