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I had this whole favorite John Peel Sessions thing I was going to do until I remembered that today is Halloween. Well, there that goes. Here are some of my favorite albums to spin on ol’ Hallow’s Eve. None of it is really “scary” but the themes are festive.
Samhain – Initium (Plan 9)
Yeah, I could have gone Misfits on ya but Samhain was always scarier. There is a more aggressive re-working of the Misfits’ “Horror Business,” née “Biz,”. The tracks “Samhain,” and “Archangel,” also rank at the top of Danzig‘s second band’s catalog. More on Danzig next week, for sure.
Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast (EMI/Harvest)
Easily Maiden’s finest album and, along with the the title track, has several good Halloween tracks and the second best use of Vincent Price dialogue in music history.
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult – I See Good Spirits And I See Bad Spirits (Wax Trax!)
This is the group’s first full-length and most evil effort. There’s tales of witchcraft, Satanism, and cults. What more could you want?
Goblin – Their Hits, Rare Tracks & Outtakes Collection: 1975-1989 (DRG)
When this time of year comes around, I think of George Romero and Dario Argento. When I watch movies by these gentlemen, I often hear Goblin. This collection features tracks from classic films Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebre, and Dawn Of The Dead (here it is referred to by the Italian title, Zombi).
Slayer – Reign In Blood (Def Jam)
Torture, dismemberment, black magic. Slayer has it all. You could take your pick on which Slayer album is the “scariest”. Personally, South Of Heaven is my favorite but I love the way “Raining Blood,” segues into…
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (Warner Bros.)
The raining of blood carries over into the first track of this album. Pretty much, only the title track is even sort of scary. At the time of its release, it scared parents but so did Elvis. It is still enough to scare the crap out of first-time trick or treaters, if that’s your game. I still like the album.
Type O Negative – Bloody Kisses & October Rust(Roadrunner)
Both albums are excellent doom metal with plenty of tongue-in-cheek lyrics sung by the late Peter Steele. Tracks from both albums, along with 1991’s Slow, Deep, And Hard, made up the soundtrack to a 1998 remaster of F.W. Murnau’s silent classic Nosferatu. It was introduced by the equally dead, equally creepy David Carradine.
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads (Mute)
Cave is another artist that you could have picked almost any album and it would be fitting for Halloween. This one is my favorite with “The Curse Of Millhaven,” and “Henry Lee,” with PJ Harvey.
The Electric Hellfire Club – Empathy For The Devil (Cleopatra)
A few covers with “Devil” in the title but the real Halloween-y track is the medley with original track “Incubus,” mixed with covers of Bauhaus‘s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” and Type O Negative‘s “Black No. 1,”.
Mike + The Mechanics – “The Living Years,” (Atlantic)
I really just play this song to remind myself of how silly it was that this song freaked me out as a kid. A bunch of little kids singing about death and then there was the visual of the close-up of Paul Carrack’s face. Frightening.
