Spooky Songs For Your Halloween Playlist
Halloween is the favourite time of year for your average goth/alt person and it deserves a suitable soundtrack. Whether it's for a party, walking through the crumbling golden leaves, or to enjoy in the warm comforts of home on a dark evening. Anyone in the know is already familiar with the likes of CREEPER and ICE NINE KILLS who are taking the helm on Halloween metal, so here is a list of some songs and artists you may not be aware of to elevate your spooky playlists. This list hosts a number of artists, some very well known, some underground, all spanning a wide variety of sounds, styles and themes. Get your spooky season off to a good start.
MOTIONLESS IN WHITE - Werewolf
MOTIONLESS IN WHITE have since their inception been a quintessential Halloween band. From their early days wearing stage makeup and songs about Tim Burton movies, to their modern radio metal antics and larger-than-life stage shows, they truly embody everything spooky. Werewolf was a stand out track on their sixth studio album Scoring The End Of The World, this is a masterclass in catchy hooks, cheesy 80s synth lines and embellishments from sleeve worn influence, including a fun arrangement of outfit and dance taken from MICHAEL JACKSON's Thriller. This could easily have been the soundtrack to an 80s horror classic.
CROSSES - Bitches Brew
One of the side projects of DEFTONES frontman Chino Moreno, CROSSES is a mostly synth based venture away from the more traditional shoegaze influences and heavier nu-metal stylings that DEFTONES are known for. While not traditionally a band you might associate with Halloween, there is a palpable dark and chilling atmosphere across their music as well as lyrical content exploring the seductiveness of the obscure. Bitches Brew is their magnum opus, a sensual display of desire for an unearthly enchantress and a tentatively chilling moment within your playlist while still being acceptable for a party.
KNOCKED LOOSE - In The Walls
Crossing now into much heavier territory, KNOCKED LOOSE are still a massive artist in the alternative scene, but their second album, A Different Shade Of Blue, rarely gets as much praise as it seems to deserve. The album's title track is certainly one of their darkest and their first attempt to bring aspects of horror into their writing. With its tension throughout building to the line “I will hold on to that memory until your skin turns grey”, it certainly paints a gory and disturbing picture. Finally, as the track concludes with a sample from the Kojima horror phenomenon PT, it cements its place in this list.
MIRRORCELL - Glitter
MIRRORCELL are still a smaller band, yet to have their breakout moment, but have already released one of the most fun and interesting metalcore albums of the year. Their sound revolves around heavy pop and electronic elements to build and create their atmosphere, but what makes their particular track Glitter a good addition is its lyrical and thematic parallels to this year's horror blockbuster Obsession. A song about a love that ends in blood feels fitting and its carefully crafted sound makes it dreadfully appealing to anyone with a penchant for low tuned guitars.
GRAUR - I Don’t Belong Here
GRAUR is an artist that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information about online. Existing in the sub-style of electronic music known as “angelcore”, they are best represented by their use of ghostly vocals and haunting synth top-lines. While I Don't Belong Here is a lot different to all the others on this list, it is exemplary of the atmosphere created by a cold, rainy October day or exploring around a haunted abandoned building in the countryside.This recommendation serves to help expand the horizons of anyone into heavy music that has not yet found the wonders of obscure internet electronic artists.
LIFE ON VENUS - What Lies Beneath
LIFE ON VENUS is a dream pop trio from Russia which blends joyful and dramatic feelings expressed with noisy, reverberated instruments and hazy vocal lines, reminiscent of the 80s and 90s shoegaze scenes. What Lies Beneath encapsulates that sound as well as the late autumn gloom that can only be lovingly expressed with these melancholic chords and soundscapes. Much less of a party track and more of an accompaniment for a walk in the grey dusk of self reflection and contemplation.
ZEAL AND ARDOR - Ship On Fire
Another outlier to this list, ZEAL AND ARDOR are unique, beloved by many and incredibly outlandish for their blend of black metal and early American gospel. Ship On Fire is infectious in its continuously building vocal lines to each chorus, its virulent distorted guitar lines and the breakdown of the song in which vocalist Manuel Gagnuex seems to be summoning demons. This is a piece of the occult in audio format, a sermon and a ritual contained in three and a half minutes.
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - Mama
Everyone knows who MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE are. Their seminal album The Black Parade is a world renowned exploration of death and the afterlife that has influenced countless pieces of art, movies, books and music. Mama is one of many that could have made it on to this list, but above the others it offers a dramatic descent into madness comprised of eastern european musical stylings seldom seen in rock and alternative music.
MAGIC WANDS - Black Magic
This track differs a bit from most of the others in this list. Rather than being based in metal stylings and electronic sensibilities, Black Magic takes more from a 2010s indie rock sound synonymous with the golden age of tumblr and pumpkin spice lattes. Its guitar tones are gross and stand out amidst the driving bass and drum loops and hypnotic vocals. One might almost call this witchy in nature, something to be enjoyed and admired between rewatches of The Addams Family movies or Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost.
METHWITCH- Crimson Halo
For the final track on this list, this is the heaviest and most abrasive by quite a significant margin. Where halloween is concerned, it seems pertinent that there should be something truly horrific to listen to in comparison. METHWITCH is a one man mathcore/deathcore project heralded by some to be one of the heaviest bands in existence. Crimson Halo is loud, fast, aggressive, schizophrenic even. Everything is distorted, even down to the church choir sample wrapped around the beginning and end of the track. This song is not for the faint of hearted so be careful where it goes on your playlist.
Words: Alex Boyd
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