This playlist started with me jamming out to some bands with a heavy tube-amp/synthetic organ vibe and grew from there. Upbeat with a lingering foreboding.
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It all started with Model Zero’s “Japanese Death Poem”.
This is a track that immediately grabbed me by the throat (in the best way possible). There’s something about that title that just screams “this needs to be the opening track of something much bigger.” Death poems, for those not familiar, are these incredibly beautiful Japanese literary traditions where people write final verses before dying. They’re supposed to capture the essence of your life and your understanding of death in just a few lines.
I wanted to explore the vibe that dying was less like a funeral dirge and more like… well, like looking through a kaleidoscope.
The Methodology Behind the Madness
Now, I know what you’re thinking, “How do you even begin to curate around such a specific concept?” Fair question! The answer is: very carefully, and with a lot of late-night rabbit holes.
I established some loose rules for myself:
- Death had to be present, but not oppressive: We’re talking tracks like “Make Me Wanna Die” by White Reaper, “She’s Dead” by Beach Goons, and “Death Valley Boogie” by Death Valley Girls. Notice how these aren’t your typical doom-and-gloom death songs? They’ve got energy, attitude, sometimes even humor. Death as a character in the story, not necessarily the villain.
- Ritualistic elements: This is where tracks like “Ritual Of The Crocodile Men” by The Blinders and “My Demon Brother” by Blood Ceremony come in. There’s something ceremonial about the whole playlist structure. It’s not just random songs about death; it’s a curated experience, a sonic ritual.
- The “kaleidoscopic” part was maybe the trickiest: I needed songs that felt colorful, psychedelic, or just generally mind-bending. Enter tracks like “Black Cauldron” by Devil’s Witches, “Reincarnation Rose” by Boris, and “Is This a Dream?” by Shadow Show. These songs shimmer and shift, they’re not monochromatic.
Not every track fits, per se, but I wanted to keep up a specific vibe: colorful, warm, strange.
Some Personal Favorites and Why They Work
Can we talk about “Nekrodisco” by Prettiest Eyes for a second? Because that title alone is basically the entire playlist concept condensed into one word. It’s goth club energy meets dance floor hedonism. It’s perfect.
Then there’s “Digital Gravestone” by Deradoorian near the end. Our deaths are increasingly digital. our social media profiles become memorial pages, our online presence outlives our physical one. It’s morbid and contemporary and somehow fitting for a generation that’s lived half their lives online.
“Witch Heart” by Crooked Ghost hits that sweet spot of mystical and melancholic, while “March to Your Tomb” by Brown Recluse is just aggressively perfect for this theme. Some of these track titles feel like they were written specifically for this playlist (they weren’t, but a person can dream).
The Artists Who Get It
What strikes me about this collection is how many of these artists seem to inherently understand that death doesn’t have to be boring or purely somber.
Take Thee Oh Sees. These tracks have this frenetic, almost celebratory energy despite dealing with darker themes. They get that you can be serious about mortality without being humorless about it.
Similarly, Preoccupations shows up a few times, and each track brings something different to the death-ritual-kaleidoscope table. There’s something about their sound, industrial, driving, hypnotic, that feels perfectly suited to the concept of ritual. Like these songs could actually be playing during some weird ceremony.
The Psychedelic Death Experience
One thing that became clear as I was building this was how much crossover exists between psychedelic music and death imagery. Maybe it’s because both deal with transformation, with moving beyond normal consciousness or normal existence.
Tracks like “Black Grease” by The Black Angels and “Creepin'” by Moon Duo tap into that liminal space where death becomes transcendent rather than just final.
“Into the Void” by Tomorrow Syndicate perfectly captures this. The void isn’t empty. it’s full of possibility, maybe even full of color if you’re looking at it through the right kaleidoscope.
Some Deep Cuts That Deserve Recognition
While we’re here, let me highlight some tracks that might not be on your radar but absolutely should be:
“Mharles Canson” by SANGUE is this wonderfully unhinged piece that sounds like it was recorded during an actual ritual. “Sexorexia” by L.A. WITCH combines punk attitude with witchy aesthetics in a way that’s both deadly serious and slightly tongue-in-cheek. And “Ganymede” by Writhing Squares. I mean, how do you even describe that one? It’s space-death-psychedelia, which is apparently a genre now.
“runt på stranden” by ShitKid deserves special mention for coming from a band called ShitKid, which is perfect punk energy.
The Modern Gothic Sensibility
We’re not doing Victorian mourning dress and candlelit crypts (though I also love that aesthetic). We’re doing neon-lit séances and Instagram-documented rituals. We’re processing mortality through synthesizers and distorted guitars rather than pipe organs and violin strings.
“Hi-Tech Boom” by POW! encapsulates this perfectly. it’s technological and primitive at the same time, like a ritual performed with smartphones and ancient symbols. “Digital Gravestone” brings us full circle to how death exists in our current moment.
The Final Word
Making “🍭💀 Kaleidoscopic Death Ritual” reminded me why I love music curation so much.
you’re digging up songs that already exist, but you’re also building something new with how you arrange them. You’re creating meaning through juxtaposition, through the spaces between songs as much as the songs themselves.
Its specifically, about living so fully and consciously that death becomes not an ending but a transformation, not a void but a kaleidoscope. It’s about turning the most final thing we know into something colorful.
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