Awful about death — they hang (8)
I believe the answer is:
pendants
'they hang' is the definition.
(items of jewellery which hang down)
'awful about death' is the wordplay.
'awful' becomes 'pants' (pants can informally mean poor quality).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'death' becomes 'end' (synonyms).
'pants' going around 'end' is 'PENDANTS'.
(Other definitions for pendants that I've seen before include "Bits of jewellery" , "Hanging ornaments, often on necklace" , "Items of jewellery" , "They hang around the neck" .)