I have very little knowledge about classical music, I am looking for pieces which have the vibe you could describe with adjectives in the thread title; maybe those examples will give you better idea what I'm looking for.

Prokofiev - Dance of the Knights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUmq1cpcglQ

Star Wars Theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzntZLHcYy0

Mussorgsky - Night on a Bare Mountain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCEDfZgDPS8

Maybe Vivaldi's Summer, Chopin's Revolutionary Etiude to a lesser extent.

I am also fine with game soundtracks etc. like these

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiR65XUdH4g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=798HhYw1TQs

Not an expert on classical either, but I do know one that might interest you:

Gustav Holst - The Planets - Mars, the Bringer of War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I

"O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" is pretty obvious, but just in case you don't know it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWiyKgeGWx0

Also, something more modern; "The Funeral of Amenhotep III", from Philip Glass's "Akhnaten":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQTGEAqqRzs

You can't go wrong with Beethoven's 9th symphony, some stuff by Mahler and maybe Symphonie fantastique from Hector Berlioz

Liked the Gustav Holst's Mars, I enjoy the 'space' theme of the piece. When I listened to Jupiter, it was much more calmer and peaceful, are the other parts like that too?

I've known O Fortuna, enjoyed the Philip Glass piece you linked, didn't actually know that piece from him.

Heard Beethoven's 9th ages ago, will refresh it. Berlioz might be favourite composer of mine, I don't recall listening to Mahler extensively. Will check.

Thanks for all the recommendations.

How about Penderecki's Seventh Symphony, the Fourth of Vaughan Williams, Dvorak's Ninth or Rachmaninov's First?

Don't know if they're really dark, but they're certainly heavy.

Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries is pretty heavy for classical music.

Anything Wagner wrote would be appropriate for this thread.

I've always associated pipe organ music with evil, so maybe you'll like Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johan Sebastian Bach. I'm sure you've heard the beginning a zillion times.

You might be familiar with the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There are a couple triumphant sounding classical pieces from there. One being Homeward Bound by Jack Trombey. Another one from the movie, The Promised Land by Stanley Black, has a variety of moods, including triumphant, darkness, and sorrow.

On the video game soundtrack front, here some that I would say are evil and triumphant:

Chrono Trigger - Magus' Theme
Castlevania 64 - Stairway to the Clouds
Final Fantasy VI - Dancing Mad

Some evil ones:

Chrono Trigger - Lavos' Theme
Final Fantasy IV - Golbez's Theme
Super Castlevania IV - Dracula's Theme

Some triumphant ones:

Chrono Trigger - Frog's Theme
Super Castlevania IV - Simon Belmont's Theme

Will check out, I've heard some stuff from them, particualary Dvorak, besides Williams which I'm new to.



Not really sure what exactly you mean by heavy when it comes to classical music, but I know that piece and is not quite what I'm looking for, a tad weird but Wagner sound kind of too aristocratic to me. In terms of sound rather than atmosphere, I'd rather welcome the loud, mid-to-fast paced music, with the calmer, quieter parts reduced to minimum, so I guess you could call that heavy. Marches are fine aswell, one I forgot to mention is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrJ4smYHpac


Bach isn't quite what I'm looking for. I watched Monthy Python movie, the first track is too cheesy probably because of associations with the movie, but the second is ok. As far as video game music games, midi-sounding stuff isn't really my thing, I rather meant things like Paul Romero compositions, this is another my favourite of him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXrKEN2nOCk

Shostakovich - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjvTTfbpWjY

Some other artists you should flip through the stuff of

Debussy
Prokofiev
Rachmaninoff
Chopin
Liszt

Actually, i forgot to mention Edward Grieg's "Hall Of The Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite. It has an evil sort of sound that builds over the song as the trolls (?) get increasingly enraged at Peer Gynt's insults/stupidity/whatever

Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to The Victims of Hiroshima
http://youtu.be/uzOb3UhPmig

Try it.

Verdi - Requiem Mass - Dies Irae

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AQIGymhSyA

this is an excerpt from the Jim Steinman-produced "Original Sin"

Perhaps Also Sprach Zarathustra by Strauss?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJwbwWg8uc

A game soundtrack favourite of mine: Total Annihilation by Jeremy Soule
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CBTZqO83WQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WulGs5aDCb4

I love that scene in Apocalypse Now with the helicopters. So bad ass.

Hans Zimmer's Gotham Reckoning and Davy Jones may fit into this category ,but either way simply badass songs.