The nights are dark, the veil is thin, and suddenly we're not the only people on the street wearing black. Yes, it's Halloween, so in celebration of every metalhead's favourite holiday, we've brought you a list of the spookiest tunes to soundtrack your festivities.
Whether it's haunting your local graveyard, shaking your bones at a metal club, tricking your neighbours or treating them to the sound of your speakers blasting this playlist, the fun starts here. Plus, each track has been handpicked by some of our favourite rock/metal bands, including London doom heroes Green Lung, 'wannabe witch' Taylor Momsen from The Pretty Reckless, British-Iranian prog metallers Lowen and plenty more. Happy Halloween and happy listening.
Shocking Blue - Daemon Lover
"Everyone will be picking Type O Negative so I’ll take the original slinky, seductive spook rock legends from the late Sixties - Daemon Lover is the perfect soundtrack for a romantic Halloween night in with a bottle of red wine, some black candles and a ouija board. Samhain blessings all."
Tom Templar, Green Lung
Cradle Of Filth - Lord Abortion
"There’s regular Cradle and there’s extra spooky Cradle, so this is hard! Let’s go with Lord Abortion, because it has that whole mid-section that’s extremely spooky. It’s an incredible song. It’s from the Midian album, which is how I discovered Cradle: when I was a kid, I’d stay up really late watching metal music videos, and Her Ghost In The Fog came on TV. It shifted my perspective a little bit."
George Clarke, Deafheaven
Bobby Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers - The Original Monster Mash
"I can’t remember who sings it, but it always gets me: The Monster Mash. And you’ve got to watch Carry On Screaming on Halloween, as well. Many, many moons ago, as a child, I remember that coming on TV, watching it, going to bed and absolutely shitting myself. Now I watch it and go, ‘How the hell could I have been scared of this thing?’ It’s ridiculous, and you’ll go, ‘Benji Webbe, you fucking saddo!’, but it’s brilliant, mate! Carry On Screaming and The Monster Mash: two things that have to happen on Halloween."
Benji Webbe, Skindred
Ozzy Osbourne - Steal Away (The Night)
"Honestly, the whole of Blizzard of Ozz is kind of perfect for this time of year, but something about Steal Away (The Night) by Ozzy Osbourne feels like what wild kids dressed up as ghouls in the early 1980's would be listening to as they ran around the neighbourhood trick-or-treating."
Chelsea Wolfe
Jimmy Page - Lucifer Rising
"This was intended as the soundtrack to the occult film of the same name by Kenneth Anger. The film took ages to make, and before Page got involved, Mick Jagger had done a load of music as well, also very weird. This ended up not being in it after Page and Anger fell out, but it's incredible. It's really atmospheric and haunting, and if you focus it gets really trance-like. Definitely one for if you're spending Halloween getting evil on your own."
Nick Ruskell, Witchsorrow
Opeth - Sorceress
"I love how uniquely evil this song sounds, and that it’s about a uniquely evil woman with unholy power. Whoever wronged Mikael Åkerfeldt so deeply to have inspired these lyrics has alchemised one of the best riffs in Opeth’s mighty discography. Witches are a Halloween staple, but Sorceresses are underrated - and far more threatening due to their innate blood-sprung power. Women can forge life with their bodies and take it just as easily. What a dark and beautiful reminder of our abilities." Nina Saeidi, Lowen
Type O Negative - Black No. 1
"On Black No. 1, Peter Steele says ‘every day is Halloween’, and that’s the vibe I get from Type O Negative. I love gothic music, because it’s a celebration of the purity of sadness. It feels good! There are tribes in the world who have a designated day, every year, where they are just really sad for having left childhood behind, for moving towards death, for things decaying… That’s the thing that Type O give me: it’s nostalgic, but more than that. Sometimes, it’s good to just be sad."
Ivar Bjørnson, Enslaved
![Type O Negative - Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare -All) [HD Remaster] [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vFwYJYl5GUQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
Meshuggah - Future Breed Machine
"It's just so creepy! There's the machinery [sound effects] and then that riff comes in. The Swallowed By The World breakdown is very much a Meshuggah-inspired breakdown. There's always a time for Meshuggah in Cenobia's life, no matter what she's doing. They've always stuck with her."
Cenobia
The Cure - Lullaby
"The gothic atmosphere of The Cure, combined with the haunting lyrics 'Spiderman is having me for dinner tonight', makes this the perfect Halloween song. The wonderfully creepy music video captures the mood perfectly. It feels like you’re floating through a nightmare, but somehow, all you want to do is dance."
Eivor
Ghost - Satanized
"I mean, if we’re talking metal songs that are Halloweeny, pretty much anything by Iron Maiden should qualify. But I absolutely love Ghost. Satanized is perfectly spooky though, you could basically put that on or anything from their first album and have an instant Halloween party. It sounds like The Addams Family went, ‘Let’s make a band.'"
Luke Caley, Unpeople
The Pretty Reckless - Witches Burn
"I am a huge Halloween fan, maybe people don't know that about me, but it is my favourite holiday. We have a Halloween song on almost every record. Witches Burn is about the oppression of women through history, but also using witchcraft as the metaphor to get through oppression. So it's actually a deep song, but for a Halloween playlist, it's totally about witches. If I could be a witch in real life, absolutely I would. I watch Buffy and I just go, ‘I wanna float pencils. I wanna be Willow [Rosenberg]’. Like, fuck yes."
Taylor Momsen, The Pretty Reckless
Cradle Of Filth - Cruelty Bought The Orchids
"I think it's their best song. Big leads, the big Iron Maiden dual guitars - I love it when Cradle of Filth go a bit Thin Lizzy! And Cradle, they've got that vampiric essence to them. I love that album, Cruelty and the Beast, and what a song. That keyboard sound is genuinely spooky."
Serena Cherry, Noctule
