Which Soundtrack Tracks Feature Pretty Monster Themes?

I’m the kind of person who saves playlist snippets of tracks that make monsters sound stunning rather than just scary. Short and sweet picks: 'Unravel' (from 'Tokyo Ghoul') for raw, painful beauty; 'Glassy Sky' for melancholy piano and strings that humanize the monstrous lead; 'The Opened Way' from 'Shadow of the Colossus' for massive, mournful brass and choir that turn giants into tragic icons.

Add 'Hanazeve Caradhina' from 'Made in Abyss' for eerie wonder, 'Ofelia’s Theme' from 'Pan’s Labyrinth' when you want a fairytale monster vibe, and 'Song of the Ancients' / 'Weight of the World' from 'NieR:Automata' for machines rendered soulful. These tracks are my comfort when I want a creepy scene to feel beautiful, and they tend to crop up on my playlists when I need something emotional and uncanny. Listening to them always leaves me with a weird, satisfied ache.

I get a little giddy thinking about music that makes monsters sound beautiful — the kind that turns a roar into a sorrowful lullaby. One of my go-to picks is 'Unravel' (the TV opening from 'Tokyo Ghoul') — it’s jagged and fragile at the same time, and it frames the protagonist’s monstrous side with heartbreaking melody. Paired with the OST track 'Glassy Sky' from the same show, those two pieces paint ghoul-ness as tragic and oddly elegant rather than purely terrifying.

If you like orchestral majesty, the main themes of 'Shadow of the Colossus' (think 'The Opened Way' and the sweeping motifs by Kow Otani) make the giant creatures feel more like fallen gods than enemies. They’re statuesque and melancholy — you end up empathizing with the colossi even while trying to defeat them. For a darker, fairy-tale kind of beauty, the score for 'Pan’s Labyrinth' (look up 'Ofelia’s Theme' and other tracks by Javier Navarrete) treats monstrous visions as poetic and tragic instead of grotesque.

On the more modern-pop side, 'Kaibutsu' by YOASOBI (the theme tied to 'Beastars') literally sings about the beast inside with glossy production that makes being a monster sound almost glamorous. And if you want ambient horror rendered pretty, Kevin Penkin’s work on 'Made in Abyss' (beautiful tracks like 'Hanazeve Caradhina') mixes wonder and menace into something you want to listen to again and again. These are the tracks that made me feel sympathy for the creature, not just fear — they haunt me in the best way.

Late-night listening will show you how monster themes can be heartbreakingly lovely; I keep circling back to a handful of tracks that humanize beasts and machines. From the delicate to the grand, these pieces rewrite the soundtrack of fear into something poignant.

Start with the hauntingly pure choir and synth textures in 'Song of the Ancients' and 'Weight of the World' from 'NieR:Automata'. The game presents machines as philosophical beings, and these songs give them voices that are aching and graceful rather than merely mechanical. Similarly, Kevin Penkin’s score for 'Made in Abyss' turns bizarre creatures into sources of wonder; tracks like 'Hanazeve Caradhina' float between innocence and dread.

On the film side, the ethereal 'The Host of Seraphim' (Dead Can Dance) has been used in movies to elevate monstrous scenes to something almost sacred, while 'One Summer’s Day' from 'Spirited Away' makes the spirit-world feel nostalgic and strangely kind. If you want vocal pop with monstrous metaphors, 'Kaibutsu' by YOASOBI — which braids catchy melody with a theme of inner beasts — is a modern staple. Each of these choices treats monsterhood as complexity rather than caricature, and I find that endlessly moving.