10 Perfect Hard Rock Albums That Are Insanely Dark

When Nine Inch Nails first broke onto the scene in the late '80s, Trent Reznor was already in a bit of a dark place. Having been blazing the trail for the industrial rock movement, most of the band's back catalog involved a lot of darkness, which was only amplified by ten on their EP Broken. If that was too much for regular fans to take in, the Downward Spiral was a descent into hell that we weren't prepared for.

Even when bringing the final version of the record into the suits at the record label, Reznor started things off by apologizing for what he was subjecting them to. From the sounds of the record though, you'd need some sort of consolation before diving in, being a dark conceptual piece about a man slowly stripping away every human aspect of his life.

As the tracks play on, you can see this man lose more and more of his sanity until he finally snaps on songs like Big Man With a Gun and the title track. And the nice songs like A Warm Place never seem to last, almost acting as breathers before going back into the pit again for more aggression. By the time that you hit the final track Hurt, it's almost like you need to reevaluate everything that you've just witnessed. Other dark albums can just make you feel uncomfortable at the start. This is the kind of record where you need to be nursed back to health after listening to it.