Around here at Hellbound Halloween may just be our favourite holiday of the year. In honour of the creepiest, eeriest and most delightful of seasons, here are our staff picks for Halloween 2014. (Acid Witch photo above courtesy of www.metal-archives.com).
Jay H. Gorania
BLACK SABBATH – “Black Sabbath”
TYPE O NEGATIVE – “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)”
KING DIAMOND – “Halloween”
ANNIHILATOR – “Alison Hell”
DARKTHRONE – “In the Shadow of the Horns”
Danielle Griscti
Type O Negative – “Summer Breeze”
Mercyful Fate – “Desecration of Souls”
Acid Witch – “Beastly Brew”
Demontage – “Entourage of Demons Dances”
Protokult – “Green Light (lament)”
Gruesome Greg
King Diamond – “Halloween”
Helloween – “Halloween”
Kyle Harcott
Happy Samhain, infidels! Now, while I still stand by my last Hellbound Halloween playlist as a personal best of the season, here’s a few more tricks and treats for your Hallow’s Eve listening pleasure. Personally, I recommend you listen in the dark for full effect.
1) Halloween – “Scared to Death”
Classic heavy metal horror-tude from these early ‘80s Detroit bashers. First they warned you, “Don’t Metal With Evil,” and now they decide to scare you to death with razor-edged hooks that come sharper than a bag of tainted candy apples. Raging metal aside, props for having the cojones to call your band Halloween and actually deliver the goods.
2) Tjolgtjar – “Halloween”
The Reverend JR Preston knows his horror, and loves him some Halloween. With his one-man project Tjolgtjar, he put out this concept album in homage to the Carpenter classic. The entire album is a bone-chilling, blackmetal, riff-driven tribute to everyone’s favorite Samhain-slasher, but for me the standout track is the opener, a faithful rendition of the original John Carpenter Halloween theme. Bonus points if you’re brave enough to make it all the way through to the Silver Shamrock theme.
3) György Ligeti – “Lontano”
Half the fun of a Halloween playlist for me is finding music that gets me right in the pit of my stomach, that piece of music that causes the hairs to stand on the back of your neck and makes you want to be sure of just what’s in that dark corner of the room over there. This Ligeti piece, which was featured in what is probably the most jarring film soundtrack of all time, does just that. Massive, massive dread at every turn.
4) Acid Witch – “Trick or Treat”
These Detroit creeps ooze horror from every note, so it’s a no-brainer including them on this list—especially this little ditty about that one guy on the block, you know, the guy with the white cargo van, who’s just a little bit too into dressing up his house for Halloween.
5) Gnaw Their Tongues – “My Orifices Await Ravaging”
Should such a place as the vasty, wind-swept plains of Hell, littered as it were with damned souls, and all manner of eye- and soul-gouging abomination, human or otherwise, happen to exist, I know, deep down, in that wretched and terrified black little corner of my beating heart, that the soundtrack to such a wretched and stinking place would most certainly sound like the music of Gnaw Their Tongues. Hell is right here, my friends. All you have to do is listen.
Bonus selections:
Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Gesang der Jünglinge”
Acid – “Halloween Queen”
Hour of 13 – “Rite of Samhain”
Bartòk – Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Adagio)
Matt Hinch
THE LURKING CORPSES – “The Leech and The Worm”
WHITE ZOMBIE – “Thunder Kiss ’65”
MURDERDOLLS – “Dead in Hollywood”
MARILYN MANSON – “This is Halloween”
OCTOBER 31 – “Salem’s Curse (Live at Maryland Deathfest X)”
Rob Hughes
Mercyful Fate – “The Oath”
Because of the King’s diabolical laughter. Scariest intro ever!
Entombed – “Left Hand Path”
Because Phantasm.
Deceased – “The Doll With the Hideous Spirit”
Because it’s based on the most frightening thing I’ve ever seen, and because Deceased rule.
Winger – “Seventeen”
Because it still chills me to the marrow.
Ola Mazzuca
1. “Dragula” – Rob Zombie (Hellbilly Deluxe)
2. “Black No. 1” – Type O Negative (Bloody Kisses)
3. “Dead Skin Mask” – Slayer (Seasons In The Abyss)
4. “In the Nightside Eclipse” – Emperor (In The Nightside Eclipse)
5. “Follow the Reaper” – Children of Bodom (Follow The Reaper)
SEAN PALMERSTON
October 31 – “Bury The Hatchet”
How can you not have some October 31 on a Hallowe’en playlist?
Mercyful Fate – “Evil”
No one is more necessary than King Diamond on Hallowe’en
Mares of Thrace – “The Perpetrator”
Yum, live worms! I hear they are full of protein. Killer song too.
Morbosidad – “Hammer of Satan”
Mexican black metal, doing a cover of an Archgoat song about Satan. Why not!
Black Widow – “Come To the Sabbat”
Just for the flute. I figured I needed some flute on my Hallowe’en playlist.
Laura Wiebe
An introduction: Hypocrisy – “The Arrival of the Demons”
Concrete Blonde – “Bloodletting”
The Creepshow – “Zombies Ate Her Brain”
Blood Ceremony – “Ballad of the Weird Sisters”
Bloodbath – “Eaten”
Entombed – “Night of the Vampire”
Adam Wills
Black Sabbath – “Black Sabbath”
Type O Negative – “Haunted”
Blind Guardian – “Wizard’s Crown”
Chuck Billy – “Thriller”
Secret Chiefs 3 – “Halloween Theme”
