History Main / SurprisinglyGentleSong

* Music/{{Crystal Castles|Band}} has "Tell Me What to Swallow" and "Celestica".

* Australian electro-industrial band Snog have the GaiasLament-themed AlternativeRock PowerBallad "The Human Germ".

* Music/FrontLineAssembly's otherwise IndustrialMetal-dominated album ''Improvised Electronic Device'' has the somber rock ballad "Afterlife".

* Music/CrystalCastles has "Tell Me What to Swallow" and "Celestica".

* {{Music/Ministry}} contributed a surprisingly faithful acoustic cover of [[Music/TheGratefulDead "Friend Of The Devil"]] to the compilation ''The Bridge School Concerts, Vol. 1'' - it turns out Al Jourgenson actually has a smooth, pleasant singing voice when he's not [[HarshVocals growling]] and/or running his vocals through distortion and processing.

* Music/DirEnGrey's "Jealous -reverse-" is a piano-vocal reworking of their single "Jealous", featuring nothing but Kyo and piano. Also, "Ain't Afraid to Die" is Kyo and piano only until the guitar solos kick in, halfway through the song. Even then, it's still very gentle.

* Music/XJapan has plenty of these. The better known ones are: "Crucify my Love", "Tears" and "Forever Love".

* Music/ThrobbingGristle, one of the TropeMakers of the industrial genre, have "United", a Music/GaryNuman-esque SynthPop[=/=]DarkWave number.

* "As Tears Go By," "Dandelion," "She's a Rainbow" and "Angie" by Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}.

* [[Music/{{Tsukipro}} [=SolidS=]]], the Fire band of Tsukipro's FourElementEnsemble, has [[https://youtu.be/i6-_r9hJJf0 "Timeless"]]. In one of their [[Theatre/{{SQS}} stage plays]], in an improvised talk scene, they and Quell, the Water group, were asked which of their new songs they like.

Wait, what? A slow, quiet, gentle piece? Beautiful and soft, it may be SugarWiki/{{heartwarming|Moments}} or [[TearJerker heartbreaking]], but the defining characteristic is that it is far less aggressive a piece than you would ''ever'' expect from this band.

* [[Music/{{Tsukipro}} [=SolidS=]]], the Fire band of Tsukipro's FourElementEnsemble, has [[https://youtu.be/i6-_r9hJJf0 "Timeless"]]. In one of their [[Theatre/SQS stage plays]], in an improvised talk scene, they and Quell, the Water group, were asked which of their new songs they like.

* [[Music/{{Tsukipro}} [=SolidS=]]], the Fire band of Tsukipro's FourElementsEnsemble, has [[https://youtu.be/i6-_r9hJJf0 "Timeless"]]. In one of their [[Theatre/SQS stage plays]], in an improvised talk scene, they and Quell, the Water group, were asked which of their new songs they like.

* ''Music/BoneThugsNHarmony'' 's signature track [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMYAEHE2GrM "Tha Crossroads"]], which is a touching pop rap ballad from a band that's otherwise known for dark themes and ominous production.

* "As Tears Go By," "Dandelion," "She's a Rainbow" and "Angie" by Music/TheRollingStones.

%%ZCE * Even Hellektro artists occasionally have these, such as "The Carnival is Over" by Leaetherstrip and "Song of No Tomorrow" by Suicide Commando.

* Synthpunk/proto-industrial band Music/{{Suicide}} of "Frankie Teardrop" fame produced the synthpop ballad "[[https://youtu.be/mwMjhWn3OQ4 Surrender]]" in 1988.

* Similarly, Sabaton has a number of softer pieces, most notably the outro of the Primo Victoria Re-Armed Edition, "Dead Soldier's Waltz", and "Purple Heart", track 8 on the same album.

* The Christian Hard Rock Band Music/{{Red}} tends to have at least two per album, beginning with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uw8mIcQJn8&feature=related 'Pieces']], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZPjiUimhck 'Already Over (part 2)']] in "End of Silence," [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAHCsyOb3Rc 'Take it all away']] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WptwYUp-sJ8&feature=related 'Nothing and Everything']] (Which is an alternate version of the opening song 'Fight Inside') on Innocence and Instinct, "Not Alone" and "Hymn for the Missing" on Until We Have Faces, "Hold Me Now" and "As You Go" on Release the Panic, "Of These Chains" and "Part That's Holding On" on Of Beauty and Rage, and "Coming Apart" and "Still Alive (Looking for a Reason)" on Gone. While they aren't as intensely loud or grating as bands such as Devil Wears Prada, RED is loud enough to warrant these songs being Surprsingly Gentle.

%%ZCE** Compare a [[TastesLikeDiabetes diabetes-flavored]] love ballad like ''Your Guardian Angel'' with their SignatureSong, the powerful rant against domestic abuse "Face Down". You wouldn't believe they were the same band.

%%ZCE* "More Than Words" by Extreme, which ironically is their biggest radio hit, remains [[SignatureSong their most well-known song]], and is the [[OneHitWonder only song]] they're really remembered for.
%%** Their other top 40 hit, the relatively obscure "Hole Hearted" was another similar ballad.

* Music/TheSmashingPumpkins's "Stumbeline" off of ''Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'' is a wistful, acoustic song sandwiched between two much louder and guitar-heavy songs, "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" and "XYU", which is the hardest song on the album.

* Music/IronMaiden has "Wasting Love" (the closest they got to a ballad), "Journeyman" (their first acoustic track), and "Empire of the Clouds" (an [[EpicRocking 18-minute long]] piano-driven song).

** A Tout Le Monde, a song about loss and grief.

* Music/{{Metallica}}'s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye24cqG8j3M Nothing Else Matters]]".
** Before this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEQnzs8wl6E Fade to Black]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WElvEZj0Ltw&feature=related Welcome Home (Sanitarium)]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw&ob=av3n One]], which are what's usually called "semi-ballads": songs that start as traditional ballads, but around the middle of the song they become a lot heavier.
** Following this was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlahvvymkxc The Day that Never Comes]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Qq_tBhDsQ Low Man's Lyric]].

* Future of the Left, a band known for their aggressive post-hardcore sound and singer Andy Falkous' often darkly funny lyrics, has "French Lessons", a quiet song about love and unhappy marriage. The band's playing is much more subdued on this one, and while Falkous' lyrics are still humorous, their tone is much bleaker than it is on their usual songs.
* Though [[Music/HuskerDu Hüsker Dü]] gradually got a bit LighterAndSofter musically, "Never Talking to You Again" could be considered one at the time of it's release: an acoustic, folk-influenced (though still bitter-sounding) ballad in the middle of what was mainly a noisy HardcorePunk album. The album in question, ''Zen Arcade'', also featured a couple of melancholy piano instrumentals, "One Step at a Time" and "Monday Will Never Be the Same". They would continue to include at least one example of this trope on each album from then on, amongst which are "Don't Know Yet", "No Reservations", "Perfect Example", "Too Far Down", "Hardly Getting Over It", and "No Promise Have I Made".

* "Come Away Melinda" on Music/UriahHeep's first album. Especially since the rest of the album is Very 'Eavy (and very 'umble). It's also this song that made them become Uriah Heep (having gone into the studio as a band called 'Spice' and using a session keyboardist on the track made them realise they needed a permanent keyboadist, which led to them changing their name to Uriah Heep)

This very often appears as the last song on an album, in an example of AlbumClosure. May be a BlackSheepHit, but differs from that trope in that it's not necessarily a hit, and ''only'' applies to normally aggressive bands. Many {{Power Ballad}}s also prove to be examples of this trope. Compare PlayingAgainstType, RatedGForGangsta (for rap musicians specifically) and ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic.

** "When I'm Gone" is this for the Slim Shady persona - a ballad in which Slim uncharacteristically raps kindly snf sincerely before killing himself to return to being Marshall.