Dark Ambient (in the 1980s also referred to as ambient industrial) is a genre of post-industrial music that features foreboding, ominous, dark droning and often gloomy, monumental or catacombal atmosphere, partially with discordant overtones, some of which were heavily inspired by elements of ambient music.

It shows similarities with ambient music, a genre that has been cited as a main influence by many dark ambient artists, both conceptually and compositionally. Although mostly electronically generated, dark ambient also includes the sampling of hand-played instruments and semi-acoustic recording procedures.

The term was coined in the early 1990s by Roger Karmanik to describe the music of Raison d’être and is strongly associated with the Cold Meat Industry record label.