This month, we’ve done something a little different for our Staff Playlist. In the spirit of the most metal holiday of the year, we’ve come up with our top 10 Halloween inspired songs. Whether they’re directly about Halloween, Halloween related topics, or just give us that tingle down our spine, these songs should get you in the mood for a chilling Halloween.
Adrien Begrand
1. Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elkind – “The Shining – Main Theme”
2. 45 Grave – “Partytime” (1983 album version)
3. Helloween – “Halloween”
4. Alice Cooper – “The Ballad of Dwight Frye”
5. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – “Red Right Hand”
6. Bauhaus – “She’s in Parties”
7. Suicide – “Frankie Teardrop”
8. Krzysztof Penderecki – “Symphony No. 3: Passacaglia – Allegro Moderato”
9. Emperor – “Inno A Satana”
10. Krzysztof Komeda – “Rosemary’s Baby Main Theme – Vocal”
Film/Book: The Shining, Stanley Kubrick, Stephen King (respectively)
Kyle Harcott
Tracks One through Five: Getting the Fear
1. Goblin – Witch
2. Pica – Caller On Line 1
3. Krzysztof Penderecki – Polymorphia (actually, all of Penderecki’s works on this soundtrack freeze my blood)
4. Throbbing Gristle – Hamburger Lady
5. Acid Bath – Jezebel
Tracks Six through Ten: Obvious but Autumn/Samhain-mandatory
6. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
7. Misfits – Horror Business
8. Electric Hellfire Club – Halloween Medley
9. Glenn Danzig – Black Aria (whole album)
10. The Cramps – I Was A Teenage Werewolf
Book: Hollywood Hex: An Illustrated History of Cursed Movies, Mikita Brottman (Creation Cinema)
Movie: Les Sept Jours Du Talion
Rob Hughes
1. Univers Zero – La Faulx (Imagine the music from the shower scene in Psycho drawn out into a 25-minute epic of mounting terror. Horrific, in the best possible sense of the word.)
2. Helloween – Halloween (So I had to go on goddamn YouTube and watch the video for this song for the first time in 20 years. Now I’m doing my best to wipe it from my memory again. “Hey, it was the ’80s!” is no excuse.)
3. Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (The first bit anyway. An obvious choice, but hey, when are you going to play this if not on Halloween?)
4. Bob Drake – The Skull Mailbox and Other Horrors (Might as well include the entire album. Fearsome heads, horrible gardens, hideous portraits, and demented statuary abound on this 27-track curiosity shop from arch freakazoid Drake.)
5. KISS – King of the Night-time World (As seen on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special, one of the pivotal moments of my childhood.)
6. Celtic Frost – Danse Macabre (The most morbid tale of all.)
7. Deceased – Fearless Undead Machines (Again, just play the whole album, because zombie-themed thrash metal is the best thrash metal.)
8. Morte Macabre – Apoteosi del Mistero (Swedish prog heads pay tribute to ’70s horror soundtracks. Here be Goblin(s), reinterpreted with creepy-as-hell Mellotrons.)
9. Mercyful Fate – The Oath (Sure, King’s also got “Halloween,” but this one really induces satanic panic.)
10. Peter Hammill – The Haunted Palace (The best song from Hammill’s Fall of the House of Usher opera. As Roderick Usher sings this song, Madeline’s true condition gradually becomes apparent…)
Albert Mansour
Halloween Songs:
1. King Diamond – Halloween
2. Helstar – Witch’ s Eye
3. Ghoul – Ghoul Hunter
4. Mortician – Zombie Apocalypse
5. Type O Negative – Halloween in Heaven
Halloween Films:
1. Day of the Dead (1985)
2. House of the Dead (2003)
3. Land of the Dead (2005)
4. Halloween – Halloween (1978)
5. House on Haunted Hill (1958)
Ola Mazzuca
1. Type O Negative – Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)
2. Rob Zombie – Dragula
3. Danny Elfman – This Is Halloween
4. Danny Elfman – Sally’s Song
5. Deadmau5 – Ghosts N Stuff
Movie: Beetlejuice, dir. by Tim Burton
Cara Cross
1. Type O Negative – Hallow’s Eve
2. Black Sabbath – Children of the Grave
3. Modest Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain
4. Alice Cooper – Welcome to my Nightmare
5. Theme for Castlevania
6. John Murphy – Theme for 28 Days Later
7. The Haunted – Bury Your Dead
8. Pantera – Cemetery Gates
9. Ministry – Every Day is Halloween
10. Yakuza – Zombies
Justin M. Norton
1. Halloween(Detroit) – Don’t Metal With Evil
2. The Cramps – I Was A Teenage Werewolf (RIP Lux Interior)
3. The Cramps – Goo Goo Muck
4. The Misfits – Halloween
5. Dead Kennedys – Halloween
6. King Diamond – Halloween
7. Samhain – November Coming Fire
8. Cannibal Corpse – Force Fed Broken Glass
9. Obituary – Intoxicated
10. Ministry – Everyday is Halloween
Sean Palmerston
1. Alice Cooper – Black Juju
2. Bauhaus – Bela Legosi’s Dead
3. Bobby “Boris” Pickett – The Monster Mash
4. Black Sabbath – Disturbing The Priest
5. Hooded Menace – the whole Fulfill The Curse album
6. King Diamond – Halloween
7. Mercyful Fate – Into The Coven
8. Pagan Altar – the whole Volume One album
9. Slayer – Dead Skin Mask
10. Venom – Buried Alive
Film: The Wicker Man (the 1973 original, not the Nicholas Cage shit show)
Jonathan Smith
1. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
2. Type O Negative – Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)
3. Pink Floyd – Careful With That Axe Eugene
4. John Carpenter – Halloween Theme
5. Dead Can Dance – The Host of Seraphim
6. Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast
7. Type O Negative – Halloween in Heaven
8. Moonspell – Vampiria
9. Lustmord – Heresy, Pt. 1
10. Michael Jackson – Thriller
Book: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft
Movie: The Wicker Man, Robin Hardy (1973)
Kevin Stewart-Panko
1. The Monster Mash
2. Misfits – Halloween
3. King Diamond – Halloween
4. That one Type O Negative song that groans on about Halloween
5. Is “Damage Inc.” about Halloween?
7. Early Mr. Bungle, when they all wore masks and costumes when playing live
8. Obviously I didn’t put a lot of thought into this…
Movies: Halloween, Dawn of the Dead
Renee Trotier
1. Bobby “Boris” Pickett – Monster Mash
2. Michael Jackson – Thriller
3. Santana – Black Magic Woman
4. John Carpenter – Theme from Halloween
5. The Misfits – Halloween
6. Coven – Black Sabbath
7. Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark
8. Dio – Shame on the Night
9. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
10. Bloodbath – Feeding The Undead
Jason Wellwood
1. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You
2. Alice Cooper – Ballad of Dwight Frye
3. Helloween – Halloween
4. Bobby ‘Boris’ Picket – Monster Mash (The Misfits version on Project 1950 is good too)
5. The Ramrods – Ghost Riders in the Sky
6. Alice Cooper – Keeping Halloween Alive
7. Misfits – Halloween (Though the cover by The Creepshow is awesome as well)
8. King Diamond – Halloween
9. Twisted Sister – Burn In Hell
10. Halloween – Trick or Treat
Movie: So many to choose from but since I just watched it: Monster Dog starring Alice Cooper.
Book: Cabal – Clive Barker
Laura Wiebe
1. Helloween – Halloween
2. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
3. Creepshow – Creatures of the Night
4. Bobby (Boris) Pickett & the Cryptkicker Five – Monster Mash
5. Concrete Blonde – Bloodletting
6. Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark
7. Judas Priest – Night Crawler
8. Moonspell – Vampiria
9. Type O Negative – All Hallows Eve
10. Entombed – Night of the Vampire
11. Type O Negative – Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-all)
12. Tori Amos – Raining Blood
13. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Song of Joy
14. Ministry – (Everyday is) Halloween
Halloween viewing: Arsenic and Old Lace
Creepy reading: Daphne du Maurier – The Birds
Adam Wills
1. Type O Negative – Haunted
2. Devin Townsend – Vampira (Enjoy the amazing music video here)
3. Secret Chiefs 3 – Halloween Theme
4. Fantômas – Rosemary’s Baby
5. Goblin – Suspiria Theme
6. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – Puppet Show
7. Zombi – Orion
8. Bloody Panda – Miserere
9. Blind Guardian – Wizard’s Crown
10. Type O Negative – All Hallows Eve
Movie: Trick ‘r Treat (dir. Michael Dougherty)
Book: Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
