Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by a pharmacist named Dr. John Smith Pemberton. Since it’s inception it has quickly become one of the largest and most influential companies in the world. Love or hate their drinks, everyone knows what Coca Cola is. But what many people may not know is the dark history and facts behind this world famous drink.

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10 Water Shortages

We all know that the exact formula to make Coca Cola is kept a secret. It will probably remain that way for a long time, if not forever. While we don’t know everything that’s put into Coca Cola, we do know that they most definitely use water. You can’t make most drinks without water, so it’s not surprising that the sugary drink has a lot of water in it. This, however, becomes a problem in countries that have issues getting clean water on a constant basis.

It takes a lot of water to make just one bottle of Coca Cola, and this has resulted in poorer countries not having any access to water due to Coca Cola factories using up all of the liquid. Not only do people not have enough water to drink, but they don’t have enough water for their crops, meaning they also miss out on watering, consuming, and making the food they need to survive.^[1]

9 Employees Dying

You wouldn’t think that working at a Coca Cola factory could result in anyone dying, but that’s exactly what happened to several Coca Cola factory workers in Colombia. It was in 1986, and the day started off relatively normal when the factory was suddenly ambushed by a bunch of wild-eyed members of a nearby paramilitary group. A Colombian Coca Cola executive tried to get the men to leave, but the men refused and they ended up killing the executive. This resulted in the paramilitary group giving Coca Cola an ultimatum: be quiet and leave, or die. Of course, the employees left the factory as quickly as they could, where the group took over the factory and made it theirs. Coca Cola still receives criticism for this as they did very little to find out why this murder went down in the first place. Not to mention when the factory eventually opened up again, most of the original workers were simply fired.^[2]

8 False Advertising

Coca Cola obviously wants to be the biggest beverage company in the world. At this point, it’s safe to say that they probably are. Although, their size hasn’t stopped them from buying out companies in order to make as much money as possible. This is what happened in India in 1977. Coca Cola had begun their expansion to India selling their products at local shops. Unfortunately, they didn’t do as well as they planned. Few people bought their product and Coca Cola lost a lot of money, so they left before they could lose any more cash.

Then in 1977, an Indian company called Thums Up appeared, and they sold their own fizzy drink. Coca Cola had already left leaving the opportunity for another company to take its place. Coca Cola ended up buying the Thums Up company and rebranding it. This caused people to think they’re giving their money to Thums Up, but it really ends up in the pockets of Coca Cola. This means that Coca Cola is selling Coca Cola without people even realizing it.^[3]

7 Aggressive Selling Tactics

We all know how healthy water it is. We also know that we need to drink a decent amount every single day, but there was a time where Coca Cola was completely discouraging against that. All Coca Cola wanted to do was make as much money as possible by encouraging people to drink Coke over water. To do this, they launched a campaign that went by the name H2NO.

This campaign was supposed to get waiters and waitresses to push Coca Cola on customers instead of boring, old water. Coca Cola was trying to get restaurants on their side by saying water would simply bore the customers, and that Coca Cola would instead make them feel buzzed. Maybe they assumed customers would spend more money on food, which would benefit both Coca Cola and the restaurants in the long run. This was basically a way for Coca Cola to take down their competition: water. Plus, they got some extra cash in the process.^[4]

6 Health Concerns

Can Coca Cola kill you? If you drink enough of it, it apparently can. Coca Cola faced criticism when a woman from New Zealand apparently drunk herself to death by drinking too much of the soda. She was only thirty, and she spent most of her days gulping down bottle after bottle of Coca Cola. The coroner who observed the woman’s body said that many of her medical conditions could be linked back to her Coca Cola addiction, which raises the question… Just how addictive is Coca Cola?

There’s no doubt that many people drink Coca Cola several times a day, but what’s never acknowledged by the company is what makes their particular ingredients so addictive that it has the ability to lead to an adult’s death. The coroner did say that if she hadn’t been drinking so much Coca Cola, then she still would have been alive, something Coke never really faced up to.^[5]

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5 Marketing Towards Children

In the 1990s, Coca Cola was trying to tackle the idea of getting the younger generations to consume their products. The 90s were a time where things were slowly changing in regards to what we ate and drank, but Coca Cola was quick to jump and make certain that kids would drink their products and their products only while at school.

The company would hand over money to schools which would result in Coca Cola getting the rights to sell their drinks in said schools. This resulted in one New York school getting a stadium with a giant Coca Cola sign, which meant kids were being advertised to even when at school. Schools were then urged to sell the products to the kids, despite how unhealthy too much of the product can be. Schools were even threatened with making less money if they sold drinks like milk and fruit juices.^[6]

4 Exploiting Farmers

Coca Cola clearly has no issues trying to beat out their competition and make as much money as possible. This can be seen with how they source their ingredients. The company used to get their coca leaves from local farmers in Peru, and some say that some of the U.S factories are still doing this. The issue with that is that coca leaves are almost entirely illegal around the globe. They are commonly used to make cocaine, and this, of course, is an illegal drug. The real problem is that coca leaves can technically be used for other things as well. Legal things, like candy. If they’re made correctly, of course.

Because of the drug laws that have been implemented, these farmers in Peru can only sell their products to Coca Cola. They’re the only company in the U.S that’s allowed to have access to the leaves. This means Coca Cola can ask for the leaves for pretty much any price they want, which leaves a lot of the farmers poor and struggling – something Coca Cola doesn’t really address despite how much money the company makes.^[7]

3 Misleading Medical Studies

The Coca Cola company was under fire a few years ago due to their research department employees speaking out about misconduct. Coca Cola has always been branded as a company that promotes unhealthy, sugary drinks. It is a fact that Coca Cola’s drinks contain quite a bit of sugar, and we all know that sugar can lead to obesity. Coca Cola, however, was funding scientists who would instead place the blame on people simply not exercising.

Coca Cola wanted the world to know that obesity had nothing to do with what a person consumed, and everything to do with their lack of movement and exercise. A lot of people claimed Coca Cola was being extremely irresponsible with the data they were sharing, as it did not take into consideration just how damaging sugary drinks can be. The company said that obesity couldn’t be dealt with by cutting down calories, something that a lot of nutritionists disagree with.^[8]

2 Originally Contained Cocaine

Coca Cola used to contain traces of cocaine in their drinks. It might sound like some silly urban legend you heard at school, but it is true that the fizzy drink used to contain the drug. There have been countless disagreements on how much was featured in the drink, but the fact is that Coca Cola used to use coca leaves in their products – and some say that they still do. In those leaves, you’ll find cocaine alkaloid – which, of course, can be used to create cocaine.

In 1903, the company began to slowly but surely remove cocaine from their drinks – mainly because a lot of white Americans became worried about the overwhelming amount of African Americans who were buying Coca Cola. Many weren’t allowed to use fountains, so they ended up just buying their own drinks instead. White Americans were fearful that this would result in them being attacked by people consuming the drug-filled liquid, so Coca Cola moved on from the leaves.^[9]

1 Coca Cola Wine?

At this point we all know that Coca Cola had traces of cocaine in their drinks, but did you know that Coca Cola was originally meant to be a straight-up alcoholic drink? Coca Cola was supposed to be simple but sweet tasting wine, but prohibition came around, making the overall drink illegal. That was when the creator of Coca Cola decided to include cocaine into the drinks instead. They then rebranded the drink as a headache cure, with the medicinal power coming from the cocaine. This was, of course, a time before people really knew what kind of damage cocaine could actually do.

While Coca Cola never seems to really acknowledge the odd things in their drinks, they were criticized recently because of reports that were released. The reports stated that Coca Cola did indeed contain traces of alcohol, which doesn’t appear to be written anywhere on the bottle. This caused an uproar, especially in countries that have a strict anti-alcohol culture.^[10]

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A lot of media tend to view news and history through the lens of countries and their big, powerful cities. Though that makes sense from the standpoint of simplicity, too often, it leaves out the ground-level turmoil that boils up in small towns and villages.

We know about the Boston Tea Party, but what about Grey’s Raid at Fairhaven? We all remember the Alamo, but how many remember Gonzalez and Goliad?

Sometimes, small towns play host to the biggest calamities, tragedies, and misfortunes to ever occur. As such, a lot of little places have developed large reputations for darkness and horror. Here are ten of the darkest, small settlements whose dubious pasts place them in the history books right next to their big-city cousins.

Related: Top 10 Ghost Towns Inside Or Near Famous Cities

10 Burke, Idaho

Today, Burke, Idaho, is an abandoned ghost town. Most of its buildings still stand, though dilapidation is slowly taking hold as the decades go by. Founded in 1887 as a prosperous mining settlement, Burke began its life strong but was rapidly overpowered by violence and natural disasters.

Within just four years of its founding, Burke was the site of a deadly avalanche, a shootout between miners and mine owners, and an accidental mine explosion. By 1892, the governor of Idaho had declared martial law in Burke and sent hundreds of soldiers to restore peace. It was short-lived. Over the next two decades, Burke was subject to a deadly hotel fire, another mine explosion (this one intentional and malicious), another fatal avalanche, another fire, a flood, and one last fire. If anywhere on Earth is cursed, it’s Burke.

9 Liberty & Independence, New Jersey

Liberty and Independence are two small, neighboring towns in New Jersey that are unremarkable for the most part. A road that snakes through them both, aptly named Shades of Death Road, earns them a spot on this list.

The road earned its name through a series of dark and violent incidents that occurred along its length, running the whole gamut of human suffering. The site was home to a deadly malaria outbreak, a string of lethal wild cat attacks on travelers, repeated robberies and murders by highwaymen, the lynching of said highwaymen, three unrelated brutal murders (including a beheading), and an above-average amount of fatal car accidents. And that doesn’t even include the various paranormal sightings along the road and neighboring Ghost Lake.

8 Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat may not be a household name in America, but its neighbor Chernobyl definitely is. Though Pripyat swelled to almost 50,000 residents at its peak, pushing past the boundary of a small town, it now spends every day with a total population of zero.

Pripyat was a functioning city for 16 years before it was hastily abandoned during the nearby Chernobyl disaster. After 16 years of habitation, it has now spent 35 years as an irradiated, decaying ghost town. One of the most famous photos meant to highlight the tragedy of Chernobyl is actually from Pripyat; it shows the Pripyat Amusement Park and, in particular, its towering Ferris wheel, now blanketed in rust and standing eerily still. As the whole population was evacuated in only two days, the ruined city buildings still hold much of their former contents—schoolbooks sit open on desks and sheets still lay on their beds, half thrown off in haste.

7 Attica, New York

Attica is a tiny town just a short drive from Buffalo in upstate New York. In its 210-year history, hardly anything of note has occurred in the quaint little country town. That is, aside from some of the most notorious torture of prisoners in U.S. history and its single bloodiest prison riot.

The Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison famous, in part, for housing some of the most high-profile criminals in U.S. history, including Mark David Chapman, Joel Rifkin, and Son of Sam. The facility is also famous for its mistreatment of its prisoners, including overcrowding, over-liberal use of solitary confinement, and race-based punishment from guards. This led to the Attica Uprising in 1971, a mass prisoner rebellion that ended in over 40 people (almost all of them prisoners) dead.

6 Elaine, Arkansas

Elaine, Arkansas, is one of those tiny towns that nonetheless play a big role in revealing the systemic issues that plague America. Even now, its population is less than 700, so it’s easy to imagine how small and deceptively sleepy it must have seemed in 1919 before it became the site of one of the worst racial conflicts in U.S. history: the Elaine Massacre.

In 1919, dozens of sites across the U.S. saw racial violence during what came to be known as the Red Summer. The most violent of these incidents was the massacre in Elaine, which claimed the lives of an estimated 100 to 240 local black farmers. The attack was carried out by a combination of local white mobs, the KKK, and federal soldiers. Immediately following the incident, the Arkansas state government began to cover it up, though luckily, the truth eventually found its way out. It has left the town with a permanently scarred reputation.

5 Centralia, Pennsylvania

Centralia, Pennsylvania, used to be home to over 1,000 residents. As of 2017, it had five. The town isn’t haunted by any murders or massacres. Even its acquisition from the Indigenous population was peaceful by American standards. Instead, Centralia is nearly abandoned and nicknamed “Hell on Earth” for one reason: the whole town is on fire and has been for 59 years.

In May 1962, local firefighters were hired to clean up the town dump as they always had: by setting it on fire. Except that this time, the fire didn’t die out. A passage beneath the dump connected to the labyrinthine network of coal mines beneath the town. The fire spread and, fueled by the immeasurable quantities of natural gas in the tunnels, burned and burned. It took 30 years for the majority of Centralia’s residents to evacuate the city, as sinkholes, open flames, and toxic gas clouds slowly engulfed the town, leaving it the fuming wasteland it is today.

4 Oradour-sur-Glane, France

Most towns on this list have histories built partially on murder; it’s a common inciting incident for ghost myths and dubious reputations. Rarely, however, are towns famous for the murder of the entire town in one incident. Yet that’s precisely what happened to the country village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.

In 1944, the leader of a Nazi SS regiment received potential intel that a fellow Nazi officer had been taken prisoner and executed by the local French resistance. In retaliation, the regiment carried out one of the most violent mass executions in history at Oradour-sur-Glane. After a few hours, 643 civilians, most of them women and children, were dead. The city was razed, and, in deference to the slain, it was never rebuilt, forever standing as a monument to the massacre.

3 Pine Ridge, South Dakota

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota has been a black spot on America’s record ever since 1890 when it was the site of the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre.

Leading up to the attack, local white settlers and army men became increasingly alarmed at Indigenous activity in the area. Their newly-formed Ghost Dance movement was seen as a precursor to war, and so the U.S. Army attempted to relocate local Lakota people and disarm them. Tensions were too high, the disarmament went tragically awry, and by the end of the day on December 29, 1890, 250 to 300 Lakota men, women, and children lay dead at the hands of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment. The incident has since become a symbol of past government-Indigenous relations, a rallying cry for Indigenous rights movements, and a dark stain in American history books.

2 Sharpsburg, Maryland

Sharpsburg, Maryland, is a village of only 700 with 281 years of almost exclusively peaceful history. There is almost nothing of note to say about the little village except for one fact: in 1862, it was the site of the single bloodiest day in American history, the Battle of Antietam.

On September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate forces met in Sharpsburg and battled from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm. In those 12 hours, more than 22,000 American soldiers died. No other day in the country’s history produced as many casualties, even in World War II, and that has made Sharpsburg famous in the most ghoulish of ways.

1 Salem, Massachusetts

No list of towns with dark, bloody histories would be complete without the most famous haunted town in America: Salem, Massachusetts (more precisely, Salem Village). Salem’s bloody and spooky reputation has made it a modern mecca for Halloween lovers and fans of the occult. But unlike Halloween, the events in Salem between 1692 and 1693 were not the fun, playful kind of dark. They were the malicious, insidious, please-take-a-lesson-from-this kind of dark.

The Salem witch trials were the deadliest witch hunt in U.S. history. In a little over a year, Massachusetts executed more alleged witches and conspirators than it had in the preceding century. At least 25 people died due to the trials and all of them, needless to say, were innocent of witchcraft. The incident has forever linked the town of Salem (and to a lesser extent neighboring Danvers, the modern-day location of Salem Village) to the dangers of religious extremism, unchecked groupthink, and the subversion of due process.

African history is full of stories of triumph, golden ages, and other high points in human history. Sadly, the continent has also seen some of the darkest phases we’ve gone through as a species, especially during the age of colonization. From slavery to many of the early genocides of the 20th century, the last few hundred years have been particularly dark for some regions in Africa. 

10. Sharpeville Massacre

On March 21, 1960, a crowd of about 20,000 black protesters gathered near a police station in Sharpeville – a small town just south of Johannesburg, South Africa. They were protesting the oppressive pass laws that had been in place in South Africa since the early 18th century, which severely restricted the movement of non-whites by requiring them to carry identification documents in restricted areas. The protesters were unarmed and peaceful, only demanding to be arrested for not carrying their pass books.

According to the police’s version, however, the demonstrators turned violent at some point, resulting in a shootout that left 69 people dead and 180 wounded. It lasted for about two minutes, and the cops reportedly used automatic weapons to gun down the unarmed protesters. 

The Sharpeville massacre became a focal point in the larger protest against South Africa’s brutal apartheid, and directly led to many organizations adopting more militant and revolutionary tactics in their resistance against the regime. 

9. Mau Mau Uprising

From 1952 to 1960, a group of Bantu-speaking Kikuyu people from south-central Kenya fought a rebellion against the ruling British empire. Now known as the Mau Mau uprising – or the Kenyan emergency in Britain – it was a violent war marked by widespread violence against civilians, as well as retaliatory meaures like torture. Like all other colonies fighting for their freedom at the time, the conflict was a result of the dissatisfaction among the native Kikuyu tribe due to factors like racial discrimination, land dispossession, and forced labor by the colonial British government. 

The colonial government responded with extreme violence, declaring a state of emergency and deploying troops to quash the rebellion. They also implemented a unique network of detention camps to pacify the local population, where thousands of Kenyans were held without trial and subjected to inhumane treatment. While casualties figures are difficult to estimate, some reports place the number of Kenyans killed at more than 10,000. The rebellion would officially go on until 1960, though large military operations had largely ceased by 1955.

8. Herero And Namaqua Genocide

The Herero And Namaqua Genocide refers to the mass killing of indigenous people in Namibia by imperial German forces between 1904-07. It started after the local population rebelled against colonial German policies, resulting in a relentless campaign by the Germans to eradicate the indigenous people of the region. According to rough estimates, more than 80,000 natives perished in the massacre – most of them belonging to the Herero and Namaqua tribes – though the real number is probably far higher.

Over the course of the next four years, German forces systematically hunted down and killed the local population, using tactics like starvation and forced labor to subjugate and control them. The genocide claimed the lives of around 80% and 50% of the Herero and Namaqua population, respectively, and many historians consider it to be a prelude to the German atrocities seen in World War 2.

7. 1993 Massacre In Burundi

In October 1993, members of the Burundian military launched a coup against the newly elected democratic government led by President Melchior Ndadaye. While his election was seen as a breakthrough moment in Burundi’s tumultuous history, the ultimately-failed coup resulted in his death, sparking a horrific period of violence between the Hutu and Tutsi communities. 

The violence was largely directed against the Hutus, as they were seen as supporters of Ndadaye’s government. The killings were carried out by the military, police, and armed civilian groups associated with the Tutsis, lasting for several months and resulting in the deaths of an estimated 80,000 – 100,000 people. Many of the victims were killed in their homes and sent to mass graves, while others were targeted in public spaces like churches and schools.

6. First Congo War

The First Congo War was a part of a larger war that could be called the deadliest conflict in Africa’s history, with an estimated death toll of over 5.4 million people. It was one of the many fallouts of the Rwandan genocide, as the Tutsi-ruled Rwanda hunted suspected perpetrators of the massacre that killed more than 800,000 people back in 1994, most of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus. 

In October 1996, Rwanda and Uganda invaded the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically targeting the Hutus that had had fled Rwanda after the genocide. The conflict quickly escalated into a regional war, with multiple armed groups and foreign powers being involved at some point. It saw large-scale ethnic violence, displacement, and human rights abuses of civilians, including rape, torture, and murder without trial. The war ended in 1997, with Rwanda and Uganda-backed Laurent Désiré Kabila taking power as the new president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

5. Maji Maji Rebellion

From 1905 to 1907, Germany fought an intense war against the local population in German East Africa – or present-day Tanzania. Named after a local medicine, the rebellion was led by various ethnic groups, including the Ngoni, Hehe, and Yao, who united in opposition to German officials, Arab administrators, rich traders, and other ruling groups in the area. Specifically, it was triggered by the introduction of a German policy that forced the local population to only cultivate cotton, resulting in mass confiscation of land and displacement of people from their native homes. 

The rebellion began in July, 1905 in the southern part of the colony and quickly spread throughout the region. Some of the rebels believed they were immune to bullets due to a local medicine called maji maji, though they’d quickly find out that wasn’t true. The Germans responded with brutal force, committing numerous atrocities like burning villages, summarily executing rebels, and using high-powered weapons against residential areas like villages. Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Germans ultimately prevailed because of superior military technology, as the local armies were usually ill-equipped and poorly-trained. By the end of it, anywhere between 200,000 – 300,000 Africans had lost their lives in the war. 

4. War In Darfur

The Darfur conflict is an ongoing humanitarian crisis that began in 2003 in the western region of Sudan. While it’s a complex conflict resulting from a combination of political, economic, and environmental factors, at its root, it was the ultimate result of long-seated tensions between the Sudanese government and the non-Arab African population living in parts of the country.

The war in Darfur has seen widespread human rights abuses, including ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and torture, along with the displacement of millions of people. The Sudanese government is accused of arming and supporting Arab militias known as Janjaweed, who have been responsible for many of the atrocities committed against non-Arab civilians in Darfur. In response, many local rebel groups have taken up arms against the government and its allied militias, further complicating the situation. According to UN figures from 2021, the conflict has left about 300.000 people dead so far, with over 2.5 million displaced from their homes.

3. Algerian War Of Independence

From 1954 to 1962, armed groups in Algeria fought against the French in what would become one of the largest rebellions in history, involving more than 500,000 French troops at its peak. The conflict began when the National Liberation Front – or FLN – started attacking French personnel and properties in and around the capital Algiers. 

France responded to the insurgency with brutal force, using methods like torture, execution, and concentration camps to suppress the FLN. They also imposed a state of emergency and suspended civil liberties, leading to widespread human rights abuses by the French colonial forces. Estimates of casualties vary widely, but according to French sources, the conflict claimed the lives of anywhere between 300,000 to 500,000 Algerians. Algerian sources, though, put the death toll at well over 1.5 million people.

2. Igbo Genocide

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigeria-Biafra war, was a 30-month-long conflict between Nigeria and the secessionist eastern region called the Republic of Biafra, lasting from 1967 to 1970. It was a brutal conflict, resulting in the deaths of at least one million people – mostly from the Igbo ethnic group – in the relatively-short time that it lasted. 

Much of the violence was perpetrated by the Nigerian army and security forces under General Yakubu Gowon – a military leader that seized power after a coup in 1966. Their primary targets – the Igbo people – were subjected to widespread violence, including mass killings, rape, and starvation. The Nigerian government also imposed a blockade on Biafra throughout the conflict, preventing food and medical supplies from reaching the region and causing a famine that led to the deaths of thousands of civilians. The war remains one of the deadliest civil wars in Africa’s history, ending in January 1970 with the rebel groups surrendering to the Nigerian government. 

1. Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was a privately-owned colonial entity, encompassing almost the entire region of the Congo Basin. Created in the 1880s as a private holding of the king of Belgium, Leopold II, the colony lasted for more than two decades. The period was marked by oppressive violence against the native Congolese, as Leopold’s agents and private militias used brutal methods to force local workers to collect rubber, including torture and mutilation. 

One of the most infamous practices of the time involved cutting off the hands of Congolese workers who failed to meet their collection quotas on the plantations. While we don’t have specific estimates on the number of deaths, the population of the region was reportedly reduced from 20 million to 8 million during this time. 

The atrocities of the Congo Free State got international attention in the early 20th century, as a worldwide campaign to bring an end to the regime was launched in Britain and other parts of Europe. Thanks to widespread opposition, Leopold was eventually forced to turn over control of the colony to the Belgian government in 1908.

Rock music’s explosive and introspective nature has always provided a haven for outcasts, angsty teenagers, and broody types alike. But over the years, some musicians and songwriters have taken rock’s naturally emotive tendencies to new extremes. The results are records that daringly peer into the deepest depths of the human psyche, taking curious listeners along for the ride.

The records on this list explore feelings of anger, despair, and depression but also tackle dystopian futures, occult rituals, murder, death, and disease. In a sense, they are to music what horrors and thrillers are to movies. But the records here aren’t just gloomy either. Instead, these albums are also some of the best pieces of music from rock music history.

Related: 10 Rock Songs That Shook The World

10 Turn Loose the Swans by My Dying Bride

My Dying Bride was already an established force known for their slow and doomy metal sound when they released Turn Loose the Swans in 1993. However, the second album would be a considerable departure stylistically from their debut. For starters, lead vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe added clean vocals and spoken parts alongside his usual growl. Meanwhile, pianist/keyboardist/violinist Martin Powell found himself with a lot more room to work with.

The musical changes resulted in an album that carried a far more gothic vibe, with long atmospheric moments taking the place of the band’s previous brutal approach. But while the album may not be as aggressive as their earlier outings, it is undoubtedly one of the gloomiest and darkest albums ever made and a landmark metal release.^[1]

9 My War by Black Flag

1984 proved a landmark year for the legendary punk group Black Flag. The band would record no less than three albums (My War, Family Man, and Slip It In) and perform over 170 shows. It would be the first of these albums, My War, that ultimately proved to be the most memorable, though. Here, the band, known for their relentless pace, took influence from the likes of MC5, the Stooges, and Black Sabbath and opted for a slower, more experimental, but equally darker sound.

Adding to the “grungy” musicianship was the lead singer Henry Rollin’s almost schizophrenic and paranoid-sounding vocal performance, most notably evident on the title track that sees him screaming “You’re one of them!” at the listener. Of course, none of this would bother the charts all that much at the time, but its chaotic sound proved hugely influential and essentially paved the way for the Seattle grunge rock scene in its wake.^[2]

8 Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath

Released in 1970 on Valentine’s Day (of all days), Black Sabbath’s first album might sound tame by today’s standards, but it had to get a mention. Inspired by Aleister Crowley, Dennis Wheatley, H.P. Lovecraft, and J.R.R. Tolkien, Black Sabbath—four blokes from Birmingham, England—delved into subject matter that others had yet to dare, including depictions of the occult and Satan himself.

But, of course, the music itself proved pretty revolutionary for the time too. Indeed, the combination of the hard blues-rock style of guitarist Tony Iommi and dark lyrical themes essentially set the blueprint for all heavy metal. Amazingly, their influence on metal—and music in general—began more than fifty years ago. In fact, Iommi once noted that “I didn’t hear us cited as an influence until bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Metallica, and some of the punk stuff, like the Stranglers, came along.”^[3]

7 Dummy by Portishead

While its trip-hop beats and vocal-centered sound made for what some considered a chill-out album, you’d have not to be paying attention to not realize Dummy is also one of the gloomiest albums ever made. Inspired by a 1970s TV drama of the same name about a deaf woman who becomes a prostitute, Portishead’s first album is a jarring and visceral album at its core. It carries with it undertones of political and social criticism lingering underneath songs of desperate longing and despair.

Even though it debuted in 1994, the album remains fresh, attracting new listeners to the sultry, folky vocal style of singer Beth Gibbons paired with Geoff Barrow’s unique sampling choices. Their distinctive sound helped them crossover from the club scene to an indie audience waiting to soak up their music.^[4]

6 In Utero by Nirvana

When Nirvana started work on their final 1993 studio release, they found a vast shadow lingering over them. Their previous record Nevermind had changed the alternative music scene forever, but its success proved problematic for a band rooted in a DIY, anti-establishment aesthetic. Lead vocalist Kurt Cobain would even go on record to call Nevermind “candy ass,” resenting its highly accessible sound and hoping to return to something more raw with In Utero.

While the debate will forever rage about which album was better, there’s little doubt that In Utero is an entirely different beast. Not only because of the buzzy, anti-approachable, and chaotic sound but also the lyrical content. Themes regarding sickness and disease are all over the record. But while the lyrics seem actively impersonal, fragments of Cobain’s struggle peer through. Such is notably the case on the album’s opener, “Serve the Servants,” where Cobain touches upon his success (“Teenage angst has paid off well, now I’m bored and old”) and relationship with his father (“I tried hard to have a father but instead I had a dad”). Regardless of the tragic events that happened after, the album is a visceral and, at times, disturbing work.^[5]

5 Closer by Joy Division

Released two months after the band’s vocalist, Ian Curtis, committed suicide, Closer is another album where it is all too easy to judge against real-life events. Still, it’s hard not to hear Curtis on this record and hear a man struggling with his inner demons.

According to interviews, most of the band were in good spirits while recording Closer, bar Curtis, suffering from epilepsy and depression and having an affair—he was in a generally awful place. Such seems obvious in vocals such as “I’m ashamed of the things I’ve been put through/I’m ashamed of the person I am.” Unfortunately, however, his bandmates didn’t realize how bad things were. As Stephen Morris would put it in a 2018 interview: “I honestly thought Ian’s lyrics were really brilliant, but that he was writing about somebody else.” In any case, there’s little doubt that Closer is one of the darkest sounding pieces of music ever created.^[6]

4 Dirt by Alice in Chains

Dirt is one of those albums that feels contradictory. Its big riffs and belting choruses make it a fist-pump-worth slice of stadium-ready hard rock. Meanwhile, Jerry Cantrell and Layne Stacey’s harmonious and often haunting vocal tandem, moments of abrasive instrumentation, and dark lyrical themes reveal a darker beast beneath.

Indeed, themes of self-hate, depression, and unbridled anger run throughout the album, all underpinned by the relentless attack of guitars and drums. Elsewhere, lyricist Cantrell evokes a picture of the Vietnam war through his father’s eyes in “Rooster” and pays tribute to Mother Love Bone frontman Andy Wood in the evocative “Would?”^[7]

3 OK Computer by Radiohead

Radiohead built a reputation on angsty but radio-friendly hits with their first two albums, Pablo Honey and >em>The Bends. But with OK Computer, the group began to let their creative inhibitions lead them, thanks to their record company giving them the green light to do as they saw fit. The result would be an atmospheric but claustrophobic sound that conjures an Orwellian feel for the listener.

Lyrical themes on the album ranged from the rush of surviving a car crash (“Airbag”) to severe mental illness (“Climbing up the Walls”). But an underlining fear of digital-dystopia runs throughout, from the chilling declarations of a robotic voice on “Fitter Happier” (“Calm, fitter, healthier and more productive”) to Thom Yorke’s vocals that sound like desperate pleas (“No alarms and no surprises, please”). Thanks to technological advances, the album has only gotten creepier and more vital with age, and the band itself hasn’t looked back to its alt-days since.^[8]

2 The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails

When the most accessible track on a record is about heroin addiction and self-harm and crescendos to a suggestive gun-shot-like finale (and the apparent first single is titled “March of the Pigs”), you know you are listening to something a little messed up. Yet against seemingly all odds, The Downward Spiral proved to be a runaway success, reaching number 2 on the Billboard charts and cementing Trent Reznor as a significant force in the musical landscape.

The album was heavily influenced by Pink Floyd’s The Wall and David Bowie’s Low, taking the instrumental and synthesizer soundscapes of the latter and the overarching concept of a lone wounded figure of the former. But, of course, Reznor also brought his iconic industrial-rock sound to the proceedings. The result is a chaotic, abrasive, and destructive sound that refuses to relent. Plagued by drug problems and relationship issues, Reznor likened the experience of making The Downward Spiral to “climbing down a manhole and pulling the cover over.” When you listen to the album, it’s hard to imagine otherwise.^[9]

1 The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers

With lyrical themes covering such subjects as exploitation (“Yes” and “Faster”), concentration camps (“The Intense Humming of Evil”), and anorexia (“4st 7lb”), The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers is undoubtedly one of the most corrupted things ever put to tape. Even the samples on this album, which include excerpts from an adaption of Orwell’s 1984 (“I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don’t want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt”) and the heartbreaking documentary Caraline’s Story, feel despondent. That the music itself on the record feels almost “punk-pop” at times only results in a startling juxtaposition.

Unfortunately, all the gloominess was very real to rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards who took on the lion’s share of lyrics here. Suffering depression, alcohol abuse, self-harm, and anorexia, Edwards would disappear just five months after the album’s release, with his car found abandoned near the river Severn bridge. His disappearance in 1005 remains a mystery.^[10]