I wouldn't call them hard rock. More like ****y metalcore/screamo.

dark rock recommendations
 

Hello I am looking for some dark rock albums with a great sense of imagination and atmosphere. I realize this is incredibly ambiguous but I am not looking for a specific style of music but rather the evocation of certain emotions or feelings. I am not looking for a contrived sense of atmosphere but one that eminates atmosphere through the music organically; so for example, I'm not looking for ambient music. I prefer traditional rock instruments bass-guitar-drums and synth/keyboards are welcome too. I also prefer a male vocalist.

Prime examples of what I am looking for include:
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals
Christian Death - Only Theatre of Pain, Catastrophe Ballet

London After Midnight, The Cure, Death in June, Sopor Aeternus, Placebo, are also good examples too.

However, I listen to plenty of post-punk, goth, deathrock albums so it is unlikely there is anything within that realm that I haven't already explored. Same with the obviously popular bands. I also listen to far too much metal music that I am really not looking for metal recommendations, although it is fine if the music has influences. Also, I'm not really looking for ethereal or overly soft music and electronic-based music can really be hit&miss with me because I find a lot of it to sound overwhelmingly generic.

Again, I realize this is a very ambiguous request but feel free to recommend anything you feel fits this vague criteria.


Thanks in advance.

You might find that some of the more popular post-punk bands from the '80's can deliver on what you're after. Here's two albums I think you might enjoy

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Lionsmouth.jpg

The Sound - From The Lion's Mouth

One of the post-punk bands from the same time as Joy Division and PiL, but never reaching that same level of popularity, this album is pretty dark, in both lyrical content and just the overall mood created by the instrumentation. Atmosphere is harder to quantify, and this may not be what you want, but here's my favorite song off it.



Here's the second album

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...2YyPPH1FqrdlxA

Killing Joke - Extremities, Dirt, and Various Repressed Emotions

Killing Joke is one of my absolute favorite bands, largely for their longevity and their diversity. 30+ years of making music and they always manage to stay relevant, but this album in particular is one of their darkest, while still clinging to their roots. Again, here's my favorite song off the album.

^ I remember seeing that album from The Sound listed on rateyourmusic's charts, probably under top post-punk albums and I'm certain at some point I even sampled some songs on youtube. Anyhow, I gave it a listen and enjoyed the album, the opening song especially is great reminding me not just of the bands you mentioned but also of Kommunity FK, whom I'm a huge fan of.

And that Killing Joke album is just awesome though. I know I've listened to it once before in an effort to catch up on their 90s material but for some reason this one eluded my collection when I bought Pandemonium (which is due for a listen as I'm not too familiar with it). I've heard some of their newer stuff too but I'm primarily familiar with their 80s albums. I'm glad you mentioned Extremities because hearing it again was like hearing it for the first time.

If you've got any other recommendations, it certainly wouldn't hurt to list them off. You never know, there might be some I haven't heard or some that I just haven't heard in a while. Thanks.

Favourite Rock & Metal?
Here we go: Lamb of God, Queens of the Stoneage, Led Zeppelin,

still searching for bands like...

fair to midland
a perfect circle
karnivool
atreyu (congregation of the damned)
ra
deftones

anyone? i like heavy but interesting with great vocals. seems so hard to find these days...

Screamo died out in the 90s. Was part of the post-punk scene. What you hear today is actually labeled as post-hardcore.

That's quite strange considering screamo was derived from post-hardcore in the early 90's and had very little to do with post-punk itself. It lasted well into the 00's with bands like Circle Takes The Square and City of Caterpillar.

And no, those bands frequentlyinsong mentioned are not screamo and even calling them post-hardcore would be stretching it.

It came out of the hardcore punk and post-hardcore scene. It is more if a vocal style as opposed to a genre if you ask me.

And saying something died is just an expression. There are always bands out there making some kind of music.

Anyone who is into A Perfect Circle, the bands Tool (Notable tracks are Sober, Third Eye, and Schism.) and Placebo (Meds, Blind, Running Up That Hill cover, Post Blue, Infra-Red, Black Market Blood, and A Song To Say Goodbye.) are good and have a similar sound. Them and a couple of Massive Attack songs (Basically the whole Mezzanine album with the album-titled track being unfortunately underrated and the best).

Also Step on Inside by Vietnam has a similar sort of creepy sound and unfortunately the only good song I found by them apart from Welcome To My Room.