Our selection of royalty-free cinematic music with an emphasis on tension, danger, nerve, and a sense of unease. Sometimes more subtle and sneaky music, other times more overt threatening music and soundtracks for critical situations, this music is made for action thrillers, police operations, stakeouts, spy / undercover agents, dangerous missions, hurricane-chasing and more.
Fast and urgent orchestral action music, coloured with electronic drums. Great for actions and thrillers. A sense of pressure is very prominent, with pounding brass, stabbing strings and thunderous percussion. [Tempo: Fast / 160 BPM]
Edgy rocky, heavy ambient industrial. Sort of ambient electronic at the beginning. Kicks off towards the end of track with a build up. [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 105 BPM]
A Percussion Only track, with big pounding drums in various more and less intense patterns. Useful for sound design, film scoring, games and more. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 150 BPM]
Dark ambient, Horror underscore. Mysterious / Suspicious / Ominous / Sickly. Dark sound design. [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 75 BPM]
Dark and ominously hybrid tension music with electronica elements, pulsating rhythm, deep, impactful taiko percussion, and ambient pads. Suitable for suspenseful film scenes, thriller documentaries, and crime investigation podcasts. (Stem files available.) [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 100 BPM]
A dark, foreboding, gloomy, orchestral cinematic / soundtrack piece. A sense of slow forward movment or progress. [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 120 BPM]
The tension is high, preparations are place for the heist. All is going to plan but time is running out... will the robbers make it out in time before the authorities arrive? Orchestra, electric guitars, choir and synth. Music gets epic, trailer style with grinding processed guitars. For trailers, promos and action scenes (especially those involving a heist!). [Tempo: Fast / 148 BPM]
A very dark and edgy track with a slow, pounding rhythm and a raw, destroyed sound. Available with, or without, the tribal shout vocals. Primal and futuristic at the same time, this track would go well with an ominous Sci-fi or Fantasy production. The version with the vocals has a more Savage / Barbarian feel, and the version without the vocals has a more Sci-fi / Metallic / Apocalyptic feel. [Tempo: Slow / 55 BPM]
Dark, grand, glorious, glorifying soundtrack piece. Rising up, epic, dominant, malevolent. Low choir voices. Pounding rhythm. Staccato brass stabs. Powerful, determined. [Tempo: Medium / 100 BPM]
Orchestra, piano, choir and drums suggest a foreboding realization. Ominous and haunting. [Tempo: Slow / 100 BPM]
A tough, uncompromising and dynamic soundtrack with a driving, futuristic feel that would suit epic visuals, contemporary gaming, modern war themes, movie trailers & films. Stark instrumentation leaves room for narrative, epic sound design or added SFX. [Tempo: Slow / 0 BPM]
A Percussion Only track, with big pounding drums in various more and less intense patterns. Useful for sound design, film scoring, games and more. [Tempo: Medium / 150 BPM]
A brooding, ominous and dark soundtrack for mystery, thriller or drama. Foreboding / Tense / Threatening. [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 65 BPM]
An atmospheric and mystical, orchestral track. Suitable for adventure, fantasy and any project that needs orchestral flavoured atmosphere in dark and mysterious tones. [Tempo: Slow / 110 BPM]
Modern suspenseful music played by orchestra, synths, and ethnic instruments. Sounds like the opening credits for a spy movie based in the middle east. Driving, pulsating rhythms keep the energy up, while atmospheric sections create a moody, dramatic feel. [Tempo: Medium, Fast / 99 BPM]
Richly harmonized strings combine with dark brass undertones to create a cinematic vibe in this dramatic orchestral piece. [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 0 BPM]
Ambient, semi-orchestral track with suspended strings and deep percussion hits. This tense music cue has a sense of historic drama, lurking danger, impending tragedy, conflict and betrayal as war plots being brewed. Highly suitable as a soundtrack for historical documentary, drama, as medieval/fantasy material, be it films, fantasy games, TV specials or other installations. Easy loopable and editable. [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 0 BPM]
Classic dramatic Western style theme. Long shadows over Rio Grande. A hanging at dawn. A lone horseman riding into the sunset. A Mexican woman in distress. Shootout at the O.K. Corral. You get the idea. :) Very cinematic - Great stuff for Westerns, similar to soundtracks by Ennio Morricone. [Tempo: Medium / 75 BPM]
This track is Jekyll and Hyde. The tense intro has techno beats and synth sequences which build in intensity until all hell breaks loose and the guitars enter with a hellishly ferocious and relentless riff. Contains synths, drum machines, guitars and bass. [Tempo: Medium / 127 BPM]
Dark ambient, Horror underscore. Mysterious / Suspicious / Ominous. [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 80 BPM]
Spacey, slow and slightly dark electronic piece. Trancey synth-piano lines are overlaid with more jagged synth and drum noises to produce an ethereal and yet quite emotive soundscape. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 60 BPM]
A pensive, rhythmic underscore for a dark thriller, drama, crime mystery or documentary. The percussion carries a slightly ethnic or tribal feel, while the wailing, screeching metallic pads give the track a sense of fear, anxious waiting or nervous movement. Great for film, television drama, crime scene investigation, reality show and much more. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 86 BPM]
Dark ambient, Horror underscore. Mysterious / Creepy / Echoey / Haunting [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 80 BPM]
This is a dark and claustrophobic adventure that’s soon to come to a bloody ending. Transparent piano harmonies accompany a mellow, yet terrifying string melody, building up to an unfortunate ending. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 60 BPM]
A Percussion Only track, with big pounding drums in various more and less intense patterns. Useful for sound design, film scoring, games and more. [Tempo: Medium, Fast, Very fast / 150 BPM]
A dark, brooding underscore for mystery and tension. Sci-fi / Futuristic; can also be desert / wasteland, abandoned warehouse or other location. Doom laden, cold, desolate. Threatening / uneasy. There is also a "No Drums" version which works well as a dark ambient background track. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 90 BPM]
An underscore track for use in film, games, and media. Varying intensities of fantasy / adventure background music, good for in-game, in-film, drama, cultural, historical and discovery. Has a sense of dark mystery, exotic mysticism, perhaps ancient dark secrets or undiscovered lands. [Tempo: Slow / 0 BPM]
A mysterious cinematic thrill ride with tense edgy percussion, strings, harp, brass, pizzicato. Good for reality television, trailers, action, adventure, advertisements, and any production needing relentless heart pounding excitement. [Tempo: Fast / 121 BPM]
Tense / Bustling / Active / Urgent / Mystical / Pulsating Music. Small orchestra soundtrack piece, featuring live performed orchestral instruments, suitable as music for film and other media. [Tempo: Fast / 160 BPM]
Ever felt that you were being watched by someone? Your every move being monitored from afar. A sinister, fevered, twisted and unnerving piece. Contains violins, cellos, xylophones, string plucks and some quite twisted melodies that slowly unfold, creating lots of tension. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 75 BPM]
A swarm of rogue Robots is loose in the city: will our hero save the day? Orchestral, electronic and rock elements build a SciFi atmosphere with dynamic and tension shifts. Good for opening credits or action sequence score. [Tempo: Medium, Fast / 123 BPM]
This horror underscore has hellish overtones and would be well suited for, horror, thriller, or fantasy footgae about paranormal and occult subject matter as well as video-games and trailers. Its' slow, slithery pace has suggests something evil lurking, and makes for a nice tension builder that features an intense, climactic riser. [Tempo: Very slow, Slow / 0 BPM]
Action oriented hybrid orchestral track, with a lot of metallic percussion and powerful blasts. Starts off with distorted electronic percussion and mystery strings, then develops into a powerful tense motif. Good for spy, military, invasion and high octane action. [Tempo: Medium / 110 BPM]
This track was made in electronic style with a slightly oriental atmosphere. Pulsating synth and arpeggiators, Arabian percussion, strings. Will work well as a main theme for the movie in action style about Middle East and Oriental countries. Tense, slightly pensive, dynamic. [Tempo: Medium, Fast / 120 BPM]
Electronica infused orchestral music. Tension build throughout the piece, ending with a big boom, but retaining a somewhat anticipative aura. Good for war preparation, rendezvous scenes and crime investigation and chase. [Tempo: Medium / 120 BPM]
A hybrid orchestral / electronic track with a strong sense of amazement and drama. Dark, but also soaring, this track has a Sci-fi / Future feel, but also an almost primal edge to it. Good for Scifi / Fantasy / Action adventure. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 70 BPM]
Nervous action / thriller underscore. Stakeout, movement, urgency, ticking bomb. This track has a strong and tense nerve, as if everything is going to blow at any second. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 131 BPM]
Intense drama themed piece that uses driving percussion and urgent strings to full effect. It relentlessly builds to a dramatic conclusion.
[Tempo: Medium, Fast / 130 BPM]A stirring and uneasy, urgent feeling, underscore for film/drama. Tension / Unease / Urgency / Foreboding. Great for things like a courtroom drama or perhaps police, detective work, crime in progress, etc. (Stem files available.) [Tempo: Medium, Fast / 70 BPM]
Dark, gloomy, sinister underscore for film, TV, games, thriller, chiller, horror, etc. Darkly sparkling. Suspenseful, few notes, somewhat experimental, ambient soundscapes. [Tempo: Very slow, Medium, Fast / 122 BPM]
A brooding sense of danger that builds to a climax. Heavy brass are aided by stabbing strings and thumping percussion which is great to use as trek music with big landscape shots, in which the bad guys are after the good guys. [Tempo: Medium / 89 BPM]
A doom-laden and magic-infused epic cinematic track. The mystical and magical opening part soon gives way to a dark, pounding, methodical and determined, marching beat with big orchestral brass stabs. Foreboding and tense, this is a great 'going to battle' track, suitable for fantasy, adventure, action, war, invasion and power. Music not unlike what you will find in cinematic trailers for big and epic fantasy movies. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 165 BPM]
An intense epic action cue that starts mysterious and builds to full out action with driving percussion rhythms, orchestral energy, and big drums, underscoring anything from a fast car chase to a battle between man and machine. Very much in the vein of John Powell's "Bourne" movies and the scores of Hanz Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky ("Batman Begins" and "Transformers"). [Tempo: Fast / 138 BPM]
Pushing through on an adventure filled with dangers and threats. Courage and bravery send bring hope to the listener. [Tempo: Slow / 120 BPM]
Pulsating, monotonous bass. Occasional repetitive piano melody. Minimal percussion, building sound effects. Evokes a sense of menace, mystery, uncertainty and tension. Suitable for dramatic films, spies and undercover agents, criminals / crime in progress and stakeout operations. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 77 BPM]
A pensive, determined, cinematic score. Perhaps the pivotal point or turning point in a story - a decisive moment. A sense of urgency, determination and drama. Also good for commercials / advertising with a mysterious, dark edge, perhaps technology, power or determination. [Tempo: Fast / 142 BPM]
Dark, moody, modern action track. Percussion based with electronic and rock elements. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 86 BPM]
A slow and dramatic hybrid orchestral track that brings to mind struggle, confrontation, battles, war and the fallen soldiers. Reflecting and dwelling on past events. Heavy drums, electronic elements, pulsating strings and slow somber brass. [Tempo: Slow / 108 BPM]
This string-focused track takes the listener on a journey - danger/apprehension felt throughout, with hints of hope. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 120 BPM]
A dark, orchestral trailer track with a serious, brooding and war-like character. Starts with an eerie "calm before the storm" feel and gradually builds into an epic and intense finale. [Tempo: Slow, Medium / 120 BPM]
