Musicians from the goth and metal scenes have shared their picks for the most terrifying music ever recorded, offering a Halloween playlist far removed from traditional novelty songs. The selections range from horror film scores to obscure Russian darkwave, with each track described as deeply unsettling by its proponent.
Stephen O’Malley of the drone metal band Sunn O))) named Bernard Herrmann’s score for the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho as a perennial source of dread. Despite knowing what is coming, O’Malley admitted the stabbing knife synched with the music “always freaks me out”. He also noted that Japanese and Korean horror films had to be avoided due to his heart condition.
Rok of the black metal band Abruptum selected their own track Evil from 1991, describing it as “messed up, demented, improvised doom/black metal saturated with agony and torture”. He recalled rumours that the vocal sessions involved the leader being tortured and electrocuted, though he acknowledged that such stories have since been validated by engineer Dan Swanö.
Hannah from Creeper chose Sloppy Jane’s Jesus and Your Living Room Floor, a ballad recorded in a cave that she finds cathartic for its religious themes and grotesque lyrics about dying. She related it to her upbringing in a charismatic Christian church, which she described as a cult.
Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke highlighted Henry Blair’s 1947 children’s record Sparky’s Magic Piano, which he found terrifying as a child due to the piano’s voice produced by a Sonovox vocoder. He was convinced a small boy was trapped inside the piano for eternity.
Other selections include Herbie Hancock’s Paint Her Mouth from the Death Wish soundtrack, chosen by Joe Talbot of IDLES for its minimalist synthesiser and echo that “feels like darkness”, and Agatha Christie’s Russian darkwave track Опиум для никого (Opium for No One), which chilled the unnamed selector with its wintery atmosphere.
