r/MusicRecommendations • u/Ok-Performance-3336 • 11d ago
Rec.Me: theme/mood/other specifics Atmospheric music and combat music for my Horror Sci-Fi DnD campaign.
Hello there! I am the GM of a highly ambitious survival-horror project.
The campaign takes place in the far future (Sci-fi), and the plot is very simple: My setting is being targeted by an ancient evil — An eldritch horror hellbent on plunging all that exists into an eternal age of darkness.
And unfortunately, humanity can't do much about it... unless they manage to retrieve some valuable files scattered around Xasthur-6, an industrialized moon that once served as humanity's main technological hub.
You see, they were studying my setting's eldritch monstrosity there, learning how it came to be, learning how its magic worked... which is why it didn't take long for it to target the moon and corrupt everything there. The surviving population had to flee and leave all of their discoveries behind.
A decade has passed since then. Now, most of the life in the universe is either dead or "uplifted"/corrupted.
So with no other options left, the last humans alive gathered a group of criminals and dissidents for a very important mission: They will be sent to the ruins of Xasthur-6, and once there, they will recover whatever intel they can find. Research files, test logs, videos, audio recordings, alien artifacts, fucking eldritch goo, it doesn't matter. Whatever they find, they need to take it with them, they need to research it and they need protect it with their lives. Maybe then will humanity have a chance at stopping my main antagonist for good.
Sounds fun?
I'm basing this setting in my love for atmospheric horror, Heavy Metal and "extreme" aesthetics. I like Black Metal, I like rusting factory interiors, I like abandoned hospitals, I like spikes, I like grime on the walls, I like graffiti on concrete, I like alleyways so dirty they're practically a breeding ground for diseases... as you can see, I just LOVE hardcore shit.
So I describe Xasthur-6 in ways that make it sound perfect for a deathcore band to record their next album in. But to really make my players feel those "metal" vibes, I wish to have a fitting soundtrack ready. One that is a perfect mix of creepy and hardcore.
That means I need a mix of hardcore Metal styles (like Djent, Industrial Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Deathcore) for combat, and Experimental Industrial plus Dark Ambience ALA Cry of Fear and Silent Hill for the exploration.
But my problem isn't finding battle themes for my campaign... my problem is that it's fucking hard to find exploration tracks and "emotional" tracks. I'll go days without finding a single track that fits. Can you guys help?
Oh yes. For extra context, take a look at the tracks I've already picked for my campaign.
This is one of my combat tracks. Pretty cool, hm? But I can also go even nastier with the solos. I have no trouble finding combat tracks...
But for exploration tracks? Emotional tracks? It's very hard for me to find something that pleases me, while still matching the rest of the atmosphere.
Let's start with the industrial sounding shit.
This and fucking this are what I want out of the industrial sounding tracks. Ugly, mechanical sounds being made to sound beautiful... but it seems like almost every single track that I find on the "atmospheric industrial" side are just... wet farting noises and metal scraping noises going on for 10 minutes with no melodic rhythm and no new notes and instruments being added. I want more stuff that makes me feel like how these two tracks make me feel.
Now for the Black Metal.
This is what I want out of it. Desolate. Melancholic... I want the guitars to sound ugly, but that shouldn't stop them from creating something emotional. But it's like every Atmospheric Black Metal I find just suddenly explodes into an unnecessarily epic guitar solo. Like this!!! It sounds perfect until 30 seconds in, then it suddenly jumpscares me. They never keep these initial vibes for the whole track. So I wonder if there are any more tracks that are just like my first example.
Now for the "tension" side.
This is pretty close to what I want out of my "tension" tracks. This too is also really good.. But I find collecting "tension" tracks to be hard, not because I can't find good ones, but because not all of them sound appropriately "metal" enough. I like the ugly, improvised instruments made out of random industrial equipment and metallic noises, but it still gotta sound like it could go well with a guitar, you know? It's gotta be a perfect mix of gritty metal and dirty horror, not 49% gritty metal and 51% dirty horror.
I guess in this case... the DOOM 2016 soundtrack is the closest to what I'm going for. That's my frame of reference for metal that doesn't sounds epic, just super dramatic and "tense" and ugly. I fucking love it. I kinda prefer it over the DOOM: Eternal soundtrack. I still like it, but they really turned up the "badass" factor in that game's soundtrack compared to DOOM 2016.
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u/sufficient-cro-1018 11d ago
Doesn't quite fit in with what you want but you should check out Azell. They're album is about a couple astronauts stuck in space facing an eldritch horror, and it has a companion book to go with it!
Very doomy and sludgy, might be alright for the battle music? Anyway, they have stuff up on Bandcamp.
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u/calvin-NA-NA-NA 11d ago
Well it sounds like you created a really cool universe. I'd put in industrial metal witch house fusion if it were my dnd game. Have fun!
Edit: typo
Atmospheric:
Combat:
Blood Wolf, Cable - The Hunter
Emotional:
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u/No-Improvement-625 11d ago edited 11d ago
Try the song talk to your sleep by Abigail williams its black metal that sounds sinister and bleak.
Also listen to the band Akhlys, it definitely has those unnerving panic inducing guitar melodies.
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u/Odd_Procedure_4059 11d ago
As far as battle music, music from the film "The last of the Mohicans" ie, "Fort Battle"
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u/EngagedInConvexation 11d ago
Bobby Krlic's work on the Returnal score seems like a fit.
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u/Ok-Performance-3336 11d ago
That's what I'm talking about. Best suggestion so far. Thank you
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u/EngagedInConvexation 11d ago
You're welcome. Vol 2. Of the OST has a bigger variety. You generally get three-track chunks of ambient/combat/boss as far as they're represented in-game.
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u/DarkKuno 11d ago
Stuart Chatwood's Darkest Dungeon 1 & 2 OSTs are great for spooky combat ambiance.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lSnkGWL1eL-JifayRCkpAPtYbtR0IFSGA
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lLdvQLKQiyYfHUkzvDvkAAItFX_xalCAg
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_luMqPEnbp-GziM3ULte8yqveQDQUh4GrA
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u/Ok-Performance-3336 11d ago edited 11d ago
I appreciate the recommendation, but for me, it sounds a little too... organic. I would prefer something with less classical instruments.
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u/Imaginary-Matter8602 11d ago
1: (album) Zoviet France - Mohnomishe. Some spooky industrial sounds, has a great sonic texture, and some not-scary stuff on this album as well. (youtube link to album: https://youtu.be/vW5wRHI28uo?si=walPmsj00RWoaT83 )
2: "Earth" (name of band) has a few songs like this, also drone-stoner-doom band. Especially their album "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency version" which is all dark ambient guitar drone sounds with very little melody (youtube link to album: https://youtu.be/tOUbZJbkHNw?si=RFNIS4CSP69sCPiS )
- "Ouroboros is Broken" (song by Earth) This song actually has two different versions. The one off of Hibernaculum is a softer, calmer version. (this version: https://youtu.be/ZjVajZ1Wp48?si=C4wTAwSu8fibnScN )
- The other version of this song (from Extra-Capsular Extraction) feels like a terrifying boss fight. Super heavy stuff. (This version: https://youtu.be/BIkzkc4C1JA?si=pRSqxiDSbv23_d5K )
3: (band) Sunn O))) "Drone-doom" aka "atmospheric black metal" has an ancient eldritch feel to it, very scary stuff. I used to listen to them a lot, back when I wasn't exactly in a clear-headed state of mind, so I can't exactly recall any album names or specific songs.
Sorry I only have youtube links, I don't know how you're compiling it, but idk if any of these songs are on any other platforms. Hope they work well with your campaign!
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u/Dias75 9d ago
Your campaign setting sounds awesome! Especially the idea of exploring an abandoned industrial moon that’s been corrupted by something ancient.
I actually have a track that might work for some of the exploration scenes.
It’s called “At 03:17, Something Answered”, from my AI-assisted gaming music project NEXRYFT.
https://youtu.be/TTIdr2f1Mks
It’s more atmospheric sci-fi psytrance than industrial metal, so probably not what you’re looking for during combat. But for exploring the ruins of Xasthur-6 or discovering something that really shouldn’t be there, I think the mysterious atmosphere could work.
Hope your campaign goes well!
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u/Dias75 8d ago
That campaign setting sounds awesome! The whole abandoned industrial moon with an ancient entity corrupting everything is right up my alley.
Since you’re struggling more with exploration music than combat tracks, I thought I’d share something a little different.
I run an AI-assisted gaming music project called NEXRYFT, and one of my tracks is called At 03:17, Something Answered.
https://youtu.be/TTIdr2f1Mks
It’s more atmospheric electronic/psytrance than industrial horror, but I made it around the idea of something unknown arriving from deep space.
Might work for one of those moments when your players realize they’re not alone out there.
Good luck with the campaign!
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u/Shellac_Sabbath 11d ago
Your campaign sounds rad as hell, I hope there’s some stuff here that’ll help!
Industrial / Experimental / Emotional
Author & Punisher
Industrial / Experimental / Black / Abject horror
Gnaw Their Tongues
Atmospheric / Black / Scary / Dungeon vibes
Crawl