Best song to demonstrate people what depression is / means?

[DirgeForNovember]

I already started this thread on the Dream Theater Board, but there only seem to be few people listening to depressive music. So I decided to start the thread again, maybe this time the results are be better.


I have to pick one single song for music class to demonstrate what depression is/means.

At the moment I'd take one of these songs, but I just can't decide which one's the "best".

Katatonia - Black Session
Katatonia - Deadhouse
Katatonia - Gone
Katatonia - I transpire
Katatonia - The Future Of Speech
<More Katatonia songs>
Opeth - Dirge For November
PoS - Undertow
Shape Of Despair - Angels Of Distress
Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black
Dream Theater - Space Dye Vest
My Dying Bride - A Cruel Taste of Winter
My Dying Bride - My Hope, the Destroyer

So, which song should I take? Or is there any other song out there that's even better to demonstrate it?

Thanks!

 

[Skaldir]

hm, don't forget that depression is an illness. I know a few people that have depressions and I think when you have depressions music is not really interesting for you / doesn't play an important role in your life.
I don't think that anyone from the KAtatonia members suffers depression, nor I think the fans do.
But when you call it "Sad music" I'd vote for "Black Session".

 

[The Scourge]

Rapture - Futile

The most resigned, depressive, defeatist song I may have ever heard.

 

[LoboUivante]

i would vote my dying bride with for my fallen angel, a bit of nick drake, a little of old katatonia... and tchan tchan... gloomy state achieved

 

[DeepInMisery]

take anything from discouraged ones, it contains the monotonous melancholy sound that drives depression.

 

[Varg-]

I think tonight's music is the most depressing album. The lyrics are all centered on suicide, depression etc.

a song like "I am nothing" is representative, along with other songs on TD.

But I think that if you're only looking for straight depression then Dance of December Souls is representative. The first two songs, gates of bereavement and in silenced enshrined, are probably the most chaotic depressing songs they ever done.

TD is more like emptiness, not very offensive depression, if you know what I mean...

 

[Sater]

I think that Unknown Pleasures of Joy Division is one of the bleakest albums ever released. This is pure depression and despair. The sad voice of Ian Curtis and his uselessfeeling lyrics combined with this simple music, has such a great atmosphere.

 

[Deliverance6]

For me out of the songs you have listed it would be "Gone". That song really pulls my strings with personal shit.

 

[Drynwhyl]

from your list i'd pick "Gone".
i would choose "This Punishment" i guess (along some other songs on "Tonight's Decision" - the most dispondent and fragile album Katatonia have done so far).
although the track is short, just a few text lines, and more like a retrospective moment in the middle of something, i have the feeling that it's telling a whole damn desperate and destroyed life story.

 

[Varg-]

I hate the song "gone" btw.

 

[thebleakhorizon]

None of the songs mentioned here fulfill this expression as effectively as most of the works from This Empty Flow. If you want music that not only makes your heart bleed and soul ache, but also drags you face first into the pits of utter hopelessness...I suggest these:

This Empty Flow - "Useless"
This Empty Flow - "Stream"
This Empty Flow - "Hunger"
SoulWhirlingSomewhere - "The Last Time I Left"
SoulWhirlingSomewhere - "In On"

Also...as far as Katatonia songs are concerned, "Quiet World" should have been mentioned long before now.

 

[Demonspell]

I agree that Discouraged Ones is the most depressive sounding of the Katatonia albums...

 

[the-lull]

I don't think that metal is the perfect style for depression.
Post-rock bands like Godspeed you black emperor (or,even better, their side project called a silver mount zion) are very close from what you call depressive music according to me. Or anything by Neurosis on their Times of Grace album. Truly desperate...

 

[AngelinaBlakkheim]

From Katatonia: The Future of Speech, This Punishment, I Am Nothing, Tonight's Music, A Darkness Coming, Right Into The Bliss, Strained,.. etc..

 

[Varg-]

Exactly Angelina!

 

[Hypnos]

I would take Katatonia's "Day"...

 

[TheFourthHorseman]

There's different kinds of depression of course...well, out of the songs people mentioned already, I definitely agree with DT's Space-Dye Vest.

There's a few songs that portray a very depressing atmosphere for now, maybe not in a week, but now they do...

Pain Of Salvation - Rope Ends
Sad sad story with, at times, black humour-bordering lyrics...
Nevermore - Who Decides?
Hopeless. "Forgive yourself for no-one else will die for your crimes." It makes me cry, cause it's too true.
Anathema - Are You There?
It's just depressing.
The Devin Townsend Band - Suicide
Addictive song. Angry in a way, but depressing as hell too.
Ayreon - My House On Mars
You're the last living human. You were born, lived and will die on Mars. Depressing.
Jesus Christ Superstar - Gethsemane
Well, the image of a person dying so that others could live is always quite vivid. Certainly one of the most depressing ones on the list...

 

[AngelinaBlakkheim]

I would take Katatonia's "Day"...

I forgot Day..

 

[Varg-]

Yeah.... I'd like to make a video for "day" actually... it's so romantic and depressing, but yet so cosy

 

[Demonspell]

I agree, it's a song of morbid devotion, and a pivotal one in Katatonia's career...