Six Truly Frightening Songs For Halloween

Halloween is here! Though due to the fact that Halloween is on a Monday, most of you are likely just nursing post-Halloween hangovers from the fright night debauch on Saturday night.  For those of you who want to celebrate Hallow’s Eve on its true date though here is a short soundtrack of truly horrifying (well, with a little creative thinking) songs to get you shivering.  No “Monster Mash” here.

1. Carmine & Francis Ford Coppola – “Do Lung” (from Apocalypse Now Soundtrack)

Apocalypse Now – Do Lung

Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam masterpiece “Apocalypse Now” rarely gets associated with the horror genre though it is probably more terrifying than most movies you will find in the horror section of your local Blockbuster. One of the scariest parts of the movie comes at the Do Lung Bridge where all hell has broken loose and the war exists as some kind of warped, psychedelic nightmare. The sequence is helped greatly by the truly fucked up original score by the director (Coppola) and his wife Carmine.  It’s just one gem off of a soundtrack that is both highly underrated and highly terrifying.

2. Hasil Adkins – “We Got A Date”

Hasil Adkins – We Got a Date

Hasil Adkins was an influential musician is the nascent genres of both rockabilly and primitive jazz.  And he wrote some truly fucked up songs – many of them about hot dogs and/or cutting women’s heads off.  “We Got a Date” is the latter variety – and consists of Adkins rambling and screaming and generally sounding like the last person you ever want to show up at your front door with roses.

3. Henry Hall – “Hush Hush Hush, Here Comes the Bogeyman”

Henry Hall – Hush Hush Hush Here Comes The Bogey Man

Thanks to The Shining, I now have a generally horrifying connotation with anything from the 1920’s, including music.  While Henry Hall’s ancient tune “Hush Hush Hush, Here Comes the Bogeyman” isn’t really scary per se, for me I can’t really listen to it without imagining some 1920’s ballroom somewhere full of undead ghouls.

4. Krzysztof Penderecki – “Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima”

Krzysztof Penderecki – “Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima”

Speaking of The Shining, who remembers the score from that terrifying film which includes Krzysztof Penderecki’s manic classical piece “Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima.” A truly horrifying orchestration, fittenly dedicated to one of humanity’s most horrifying moments in history. Good dogs, the string sound like people screaming.

5. Scott Walker – “Jesse”

Scott Walker – “Jesse”

Legendary experimental crooner Scott Walker takes a dark turn on “Jesse” off of his album The Drift. It sounds a bit like Antony Legarty might if he was facing his impending doom to the tune of a string quartet.

6. Whitehouse – “Ripper Territory”

Whitehouse – Ripper Territory

Its not too difficult to find terrifying examples of music in the catalog of noise/experimental group Whitehouse. Here is one such gem, off of legendary record Dedicated to Peter Kurten. “Ripper Territory” features a newscast about the Yorkshire Ripper (who killed at least 13 women in England in the seventies) as well as piercing electronic noise.

Happy Halloween!

— Jon Behm

.

Jon Behm