Eminem Drops Surprise Album, Lead Single 'Darkness' Recreates Vegas Shooting

Eminem has violence on his mind -- as in America's mass shootings, and the Ariana Grande-concert bombing -- and poured his thoughts into a surprise album filled with dark images.

He unexpectedly dropped "Music to Be Murdered By" at midnight, and if the title doesn't say it all ... the lead single, "Darkness" and its music video will. The video recreates the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting and imagines the thoughts of the shooter.

Em seems to be sitting in a room at the Mandalay Bay -- just as the mass murderer did that night -- as he loads up on booze and then opens fire.

Another track on the record called "Unaccommodating" references the violence at Ariana's Manchester show, also from 2017. Em raps, "I'm contemplating yelling 'bombs away' on the game like I'm outside an Ariana Grande concert."

Just last summer, Madonna did this with her "God Control" music video -- depicting the Orlando nightclub mass shooting -- and got a ton of backlash for the graphic imagery.

So, Eminem has to expect he'll get the same treatment.

However, the "Darkness" music video -- especially the ending -- makes it clear, he's not trying to glorify mass shootings ... but instead questioning what's behind them.

Interestingly, the album is packed with 20 songs and not a single one seems to reference Nick Cannon ...who's desperately been trying to lure Em into a rap battle for months.