6 epic Godzilla moments in classical music

What's the best Godzilla music? If you're a 500 foot reptilian monster and want to brutally smash up a metropolis, here's the playlist for you.

Verdi: Dies Irae

Huge orchestral crashes, trumpets, thunderous wallops of the bass-drum and epically cascading notes from the choir. It's just perfect for when everything is being reduced to rubble. Verdi's masterpiece gives the sacred text all the drama of an opera - if you hear anything like this, you know it's time to flee. 

Mozart: Requiem

Mozart has all the drama, but in an exquisite, classical frame. The Lacrimosa here paints a darker, more elegiac scene, possibly as our monster surveys his carnage. It's something for the more reflective, discerning monster, as he artfully smashes up Vienna.  

Wagner: Gotterdamarung 

Nobody does the apocalypse in music like this guy. But the real question here is who would win if Godzilla was pitted against Wagner's Norse giants and anthropomorphic deities. Come on Hollywood, this needs to happen.


Eric Whitacre: Godzilla Eats Las Vegas

Hold up. Eric's already been here, and his wind symphony tour de force is everything you could wish for. Hilarious, geeky and bombastic, this is for the educated, hipster 'daikaiju', who desperately wants to get back to his rampaging, murderous roots.

György Ligeti: Atmospheres

The Romanian composer's sliding clusters and torrential textures are the perfect depiction of the chaos resulting from the reptile's good time. Used with amazing effect in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, this eerie exploration also made on to the trailer for the 2014 version of Godzilla, with terrifying effect.