These records—from appropriately named bands—offer the ghoulish ambiance of cobwebs and boiling cauldrons, just the right mood to complement All Hallows' Eve, the darkest of all holidays.
Fit For An Autopsy
Entertainment One Music
Decadently evil death metal seems to go with Halloween like peanut butter with chocolate, and New Jersey band Fit For An Autopsy released its doomsday laden album Hellbound just in time. It not only sounds scary, it's about the sometimes disturbing direction the world is taking of late.
Explosive drums detonate underneath rumbling guitar while guttural vocals scream out reprimands to world leaders and commoners alike on songs such as "Still We Destroy" and "There's Nothing Here Worth Keeping." Hellbound is an unsettling record, terrifying enough even without understanding the lyrics.
True Widow
Relapse Records
From the cavernous grumble that begins Circumambulation—the latest offering from Dallas band True Widow—the record is a resounding melodic post-rock album that sends chills up the spine. Songs with titles like "Creeper" and "Numb Hand" add to the unease with oozing guitar that coagulates around palpating drums. Eerie, low howling vocals round out the murderous album that could easily play during the credits of a movie like Seven or the first installment of the Saw series.
Terror Bird
Night School
The sixth album from shadowy Canadian rock-tronica group Terror Bird might just have the best Halloween inspired track of the albums featured in this piece; the second track "Costume." It might also be the most creepy sounding.
On that song, space synth screams during the intro, eventually tempering to echo off of lead singer Nikki Nevvers' macabre voice. The music on the rest of All This Time is hypnotic; often times the musical equivalent of a deep and dark trance-like possession.
Terror Bird's music is beautiful with an underlying—and worrisome—touch of sinister with Nevvers providing the kind of sneaky angelic voice that ultimately leads to a horrific end.
Darkside
Matador
The debut album from New York electronic duo Darkside is the kind of stuff nightmares are made of.
A primarily instrumental album full of grisly composition, Psychic plays off of a number of fears. The second track "Sitra" starts off with the heart pounding representation of footsteps crunching over a forest bed, perhaps slowly stalking hiding prey. That song is followed by "Heart," a song with the fearful cadence of death catching up to the living. Darkside achieves its morbid sound with off kilter guitar and asymmetrical synth beats.
As a result, Psychic is likely the scariest album of 2013, and one best listened to with the lights left on.
