Compost Heap:
I heard an album over the last year called “The End” ; it contained many tracks with heavy music and an overall angry sort of theme. The intriguing part was that sprinkled through the album was these small sections of calmness and serenity. Additionally the artist had many vocal sections that established a hint of world building, a story of sorts. I found it really interesting that an artist put such a clear progression of story in his music.
I have recently been enamored by an anime series called Jujutsu Kaisen, created by Gege Akutami. The story starts as a sort of gray story, as while it likes to be goofy at times, the overall tone is never too happy. When the start hits its first major arc, the story’s tones get quite dark and gloomy. I really like this story as while it has these gloomy and dark tones, its not an overarching loss of hope feeling that I get when I’m exposed to stories about apocalypse/doomsday.