• O C T. XXXI. • Halloween — “Trick or Treat”

THE FINAL SUPER SPECIAL SAMHAIN EDITION, PART VI:

From the 1984 album Don't Metal with Evil.



Being a third-rate shock metal group meant Halloween (the band) never got too much recognition outside of Detroit, but tonight is definitely their night to shine. Hell, they even used the annoying "Silver Shamrock" theme from Halloween III for their (way too long) video to "What a Nice Place", so that scores major points in my book. This here is as good a video to end the countdown with as any, as it's about as Halloweeny is it gets, right down to it's blatantly '80s video.
Hope everyone had fun!

• O C T. XXXI. • Lucifer — “Black Mass”

SUPER SPECIAL SAMHAIN EDITION, PART V:

 From the 1971 album Black Mass

More early synth weirdness, this time from Mort Garson, later of Ataraxia. Heavy use of Moog synthesizer throughout the whole album; it's kinda like an evil Wendy Carlos.

• O C T. XXXI. • White Noise — “Black Mass (An Electric Storm in Hell)”

SUPER SPECIAL SAMHAIN EDITION, PART IV:

From the 1969 album An Electric Storm.

Flanged drums never sounded so creepy. Weird album featuring heavy use of the first commercially produced British synth, the EMS Synthi VCS3.
I've been short on the descriptions, as things are busy and I've got some movies to watch, but I'm determined to cram in as much as I can before the Pacific deadline...

• O C T. XXXI. • Bauhaus — “Bela Lugosi's Dead”

SUPER SPECIAL SAMHAIN EDITION, PART III:

From the 1979 7" Bela Lugosi's Dead.

The first Bauhaus release, and they sure got it right the first time, as I personally don't think they ever topped it. Gothic perfection.

• O C T. XXXI. • Helloween — “Halloween”

SUPER SPECIAL SAMHAIN EDITION, PART II:

From the 1987 album Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I.

Could I have linked to the 13 minute album version of this song? Sure, but then you'd miss out on that over-the-top video in all it's cheeseball glory. Helloween is one of those bands that have enough cheese that I can only tolerate so much of them at once, but when I'm in the right mood for their particular sort of power metal, they're fantastic. I draw the line at '80s power metal, though — all that modern Dragonforce stuff can still fuck right off.

• O C T. XXXI. • King Diamond — “Halloween”

SUPER SPECIAL SAMHAIN EDITION, PART I:


From the 1986 album Fatal Portrait.


Kicking off the day right with the King!
“I command you to scream!”

—• IT’S HALLOWEEN, MOTHERFUCKERS! •—

It's finally here!
A huge thanks to the fine folk of X-E that have stopped by, especially anyone who took the time to leave comments. If I managed to turn but one person on to something new and spooky, then I feel it was worth it tenfold. This was something that I was originally just going to do on my facebook account, but all of you X-E'ers got treated to a very special dedicated blog version replete with me racking my brain to try and come up with adequate track descriptions and occasionally even succeeding in doing so. Turns out my initial worry of not updating it daily was unfounded, as I ended up with the exact opposite problem—I thought of too much stuff to post! So check back here for the next 24 hours, I'm gonna be posting loads of stuff that I just couldn't fit in to 31 days.

Infernal hails, strong ales, and candy pails to all!
—Tom

• O C T. XXX. • Bezerker — “Halloween”

BONUS ROUND!

From the 1989 album Lost.


An Australian technical trash band that I don't actually know too much about, save for them evolving from a prior band called Final Warning, and then releasing this one album before disappearing. Fun stuff, though!

• O C T. XXX. • Horrific Child — “Frayeur / Angoisse” (excerpt)

Originally from the 1976 Horrific Child album L'étrange Monsieur Whinster, excerpt version from the 1999 re-release of Les Maledictus Sound's self-titled album.

THIS IS FUCKING ESSENTIAL HALLOWEEN MUSIC.

The twisted brainchild of Jean-Pierre Massiera (previously of Les Maledictus Sound), this amazing avant-psych meets imaginary-horror-film-soundtrack album is quite possibly my all-time favorite thing to play during spooky season. Every time I hear it, it makes me want to buy a run down old mansion, turn it into a haunted house, and blare this from it 24/7. Yes, it's that 'weenworthy.

Also, just feast your eyes in awe on a closer look at this batshit insane cover art:

A conquistador with an afro-laden hatchetfish for a head holding a skull with a lizard, spiders, a severed finger, and all sorts of other wacky shit in the background? There is just no arguing with how awesome that is.

• O C T. XXIX. • Henry Cowell — “The Banshee”

From the 1963 album The Piano Music Of Henry Cowell.

A spooky piece written in 1925 that uses the piano in a very different way—here, it's opened up and the strings are manipulated directly, giving it a truly ghostly sound. Cowell was a truly ahead of his time composer, one of the most radical of his era, and this piece was a reflection of his love for Irish mythology. Sadly, he was sentenced to 15 years in San Quentin State Prison (serving four) for the "crime" of being bisexual in 1936. After his pardon, he was a profoundly changed and perpetually scared man; still going on to compose, but now in a more conservative style, never approaching his prior groundbreaking work.

• O C T. XXVIII. • Igor Wakhévitch - “Ténèbres (Walpurgis)” / “Materia Prima”

BONUS ROUND!



From the 1971 album Docteur Faust.

These two tracks are absolutely phenomenal! Igor Wakhévitch is a French avant-garde composer who studied under Olivier Messiaen and worked with everyone from Salvador Dalí to Terry Riley, and despite his work passing by in relative obscurity at the time, was later praised by Michael Gira of Swans and Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound, giving it a small amount of renewed attention. I could gush about this particular album for many paragraphs, but I don't have to, as it just so happens that one of my all-time favorite music reviews (titled It Was the Strangest Record I Had Ever Heard) was written about this very album. Read the awesome story told in the review, and listen to the terrifying madness of Igor Wakhévitch's Docteur Faust. It's about as Halloween-worthy as music can get.

• O C T. XXVIII. • Goblin — “Witch”

From the 1977 soundtrack to Dario Argento's Suspiria.

The greatest horror soundtrack artists of them all, Goblin (led by composer Claudio Simonetti) broke free of the typical "minor key and dissonant classical strings" sound that was the stereotype for numerous decades, and instead brought their varied blend of Italo-prog and avant-garde that remains to this day some of the most unique soundtracks since Morricone. This track was used to great effect for the very best scene in Suspiria, an over-the-top murder that was filmed with such attention to color and artistic merit in general that it's by far my favorite death scene of any movie. If you haven't seen Suspiria (and if you haven't, RENT IT NOW!) just stick with the audio-only version above, but if you have, take a moment to revisit how well this amazing soundtrack helps elevate the stunning cinematography into a total nightmare:

• O C T. XXVII. • Iron Maiden — “Fear of the Dark” (live at Donnington, 1992)

BONUS ROUND!

From the 1993 VHS Donington Live 1992

I tried to keep it down to one Maiden vid, really, I did! But I just couldn't do it. So have some classic Halloween fare, this time from the Bruce Dickinson era. UP THE IRONS!

• O C T. XXVII. • Iron Maiden — “Phantom of the Opera”

From the 1980 album Iron Maiden.

How could I not have some Maiden on the countdown? This is just one of those songs that's so perfect that I refuse to believe that mere mortals created it. Just one awesome catchy riff after another, and just when you think that it would be physically impossible for it to get any more awesome, 4:34 comes along, and what's that? Yes! Yes, it's getting more awesome! But hold your horses, it actually gets EVEN BETTER. Wait for it... wait for it... There! There, at 4:52! Holy fucking shit! Pure "triumphantly standing with one foot on the stage wedge while wearing stripy trousers" glory! They just out-perfected perfection. Fucking A.

Despite it using footage of the 1980 performance at The Rainbow which doesn't always sync up to well with the studio version of the song, I had to post this version, because it's got all the awesome 1925 Lon Chaney film bits in it.

• O C T. XXVI. • Gnaw Their Tongues — “Sound the Horns, the Water is Poisoned”

From the 2007 demo Spasming and Howling, Bowels Loosening and Bladders Emptying, Vomiting Helplessly.

Absolutely FILTHY. It's the only word I can think of that can describe this Dutch one-man sonic endeavor. Ostensibly, it usually gets classified as black metal due to the vocals (not present on this instrumental track), but it goes so far beyond the boundaries of that genre that it doesn't seem adequate to encompass what GTT mastermind Mories does. Incorporating cinematic soundclips, horror film influenced synths, and orchestral dissonance into the sludgy soup of churning minimal guitar, Mories crafts a perfect audio nightmare that makes you want to take a shower after listening.

Normally, I cringe at the introduction of "symphonic" elements to metal, as it almost always seems to be some sort out-of-place sounding neoclassical cheese, rife with unconvincing Roland "orchestral stab" samples, but GTT eschews such florid romanticism in favor of subtly incorporating elements of modern orchestral music more along the lines of Krzysztof Penderecki or György Ligeti.

Also, there's no way in hell that Spasming and Howling, Bowels Loosening and Bladders Emptying, Vomiting Helplessly wasn't the best awkwardly long album title of 2007.

• O C T. XXV. • Antonius Rex — “Devil Letter”

From the 1974 album Neque Semper Arcum Tendit Rex.

Formed initially as Jacula in 1968, Antonius Rex was the musical brainchild of Italian occultist weirdo Antonio Bartoccetti. The Jacula/Antonius Rex sound is hard to pinpoint, as despite their use of insanely heavy-before-its-time guitars, I wouldn't actually call what they did rock or metal. It was more about creating some sort of esoteric and atmospheric soundscape, this track in particular being a prime example. Some 17th century magic sigils and diabolical themes don't raise many eyebrows today, but in the mid '70s, it must have been a different matter, as when they first submitted Neque Semper Arcum Tendit Rex to Vertigo Records, they objected to both the sinister nature of this track and the cover art. Subsequently, it was only released on a small label (Darkness) in a limited run of 400.

This particular track makes good use of extended periods of silence, causing one to occasionally jump out of their seat when the sound comes back in, so try not to get fooled into thinking it's over and end up spilling your beer everywhere...

• O C T. XXIV. • The Cramps — “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” (live)

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART II !

An outtake from the 1980 film .

The lowest rise trousers in the music industry, and terrifying for that reason alone.
R.I.P., Lux.

• O C T. XXIV. • Peter and the Test Tube Babies — “Zombie Creeping Flesh”

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART I !

From the 1983 7" Zombie Creeping Flesh

I ain't late; it's still the 24th on the west coast!
Also, I'm tired as all fuck, so while I'm not running out of songs, I'm kinda running out of interesting commentary right now. So  what does that mean? It means you're going to get a song from a classic UK punk band (probably most known for their song "Banned from the Pubs") named after a third-rate Italian zombie film, and you're going to like it, damn it. Or not.

• O C T. XIII. • UK Decay — “Werewolf”

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART II !

From the 1982 EP Rising from the Dread.

A great post-punk band from (big surprise here) the U.K., UK Decay didn't last long or find much success, but their sound played a big part in influencing the beginning of the goth scene. Totally hypnotic track.

• O C T. XXIII. • The Birthday Party — “Release the Bats”

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART I !


From the 1981 7" Release the Bats.

Easily the best of the Australian post-punk scene, and by far the most influential, The Birthday Barty's wild Stooges-meets-no-wave sound was a force to be reckoned with. Nick Cave certainly was a dark and powerful character later on with The Bad Seeds, but with The Birthday Party, he was a fucking animal. They definitely knew what they were doing, but that didn't stop everything from sounding like it was on the verge of totally falling apart. Utterly visceral stuff.

Part II coming later; as I'm barely awake right now...

• O C T. XXII. • Annihilator — “Alison Hell”

From the 1989 album Alice in Hell.

Annihilator's line-up changed more times than I can count without a graphing calculator, the only constant being the guitarist and backing vocalist Jeff Waters. I'm pretty sure this group of Canadians would have made it a bit bigger if they were just a little more stable and didn't take so damn long to release a proper album. Despite being active and releasing a demo as early as '85, it took until '89 for them to come out with their first album, and by that time, thrash was sadly already starting to wane a bit. As it was, they were cursed to release most of their albums in the mid '90s, when practically nobody in North America cared about the genre anymore.

Of all the varied albums (with equally varied line-ups), their first one, Alice in Hell is my favorite, and this song is the best one on it. This official video surprised me when I first saw it on youtube, as for some reason, despite remembering the album quite well, I have zero memory of ever seeing the video on TV back when I used to sit on the floor and watch Headbanger's Ball with my older sister when I was a kid. It's quite possible that I was just subconsciously trying to block out the memories of Randy Rampage's radioactively-blond hair.

• O C T. XXI. • Shub Niggurath — “Yog Sothoth”

From the 1986 album Les morts vont vite.

Another "Rock in Opposition" band chock-full of terrifying modern classical influenced prog rock weirdness, this time from France. Taking the name of both the band and the song from God-like entities of H.P. Lovecraft's weird fiction, if you haven't read The Dunwich Horror (in which Yog Sothoth features prominently), you owe it to yourself to set aside some time this spooky season to do so. Shub Niggurath was rather close to Univers Zero in sound, but featuring a bit different instrumentation and the chilling soprano vocals of Ann Stewart. Churning nightmarish compositions of the highest order, it manages to be both chaotic and highly focused at the same time.

Oh, and before you say “Hey, this video is broken! All I'm hearing is one note!” simmer down—this song just starts out with a long single-note harmonium drone. Trust me, your patience will be rewarded.

• O C T. XX. • Jonathan Briley — “Whimpering Wails of Woe”

From the 1985 album Darker Profits

Johnathan Briley was an experimental musician with a knack for manipulating sounds into a strange and sometimes unsettling collage. He was active as a solo artist from 1985–88, releasing seven cassettes under his name, but is probably best remembered for his extensive work with Sleep Chamber, a group fronted by John Zewizz (founder of the Inner-X-Musick label) that evolved from Nurse With Wound style musique concrete cut-ups, ritual industrial and ambient, and eventually even EBM influenced stuff.

• O C T. XIX. • Pentagram — “The Ghoul”

From the 1985 album Pentagram

If you happened to tune in to DJ D's show last night, you already know this song, as in a quirk of synchronicity, he played it with a shout-out to me, not knowing that I had already selected it for today's track days in advance! I've got my tinfoil hat on now, so hopefully my mind is safe from any further psychic intrusions...

Anyway, of all the Black Sabbath influenced bands playing the less flashy, and more slow-to-mid-paced and downtuned music that later was to be commonly known as "doom metal" (a sub-genre that I have a profound love and obsession for), Pentagram have been around the longest. Formed as Pentagram in 1971, they released their first single ("Be Forewarned" / "Lazy Lady") in 1972 under the name Macabre. Despite being active and recording of multiple demos, it took until 1985 for them to finally put out another official release, but it was well worth the wait. The 1985 self-titled album (later to be renamed Relentless and given a different track order for reasons that are beyond me when it was re-issued by Peaceville records in 1993) is an absolute landmark of doom metal, and has influenced countless bands since.

Despite enough drug use to kill an entire Roman legion, nearly 40 years later, Pentagram still tour, and are currently on break while working on a new album, as well as a documentary DVD to be released sometime next year.
 

• O C T. XVIII. • Vladimir Ussachevsky — “Piece for tape recorder”

From the 1957 album A Poem in Cycles and Bells & Other Music for Tape Recorder.

Vladimir Ussachevsky was one of the true pioneers in electronic music, especially in the field of tape music, which he pretty much invented with Otto Luening. Born in 1911 in Manchuria (just south of the Siberian border) to a pianist mother and a father who was a Captain in the Russian army and an honorary Mongolian prince, at age 19, Ussachevsky and some of his family immigrated to the U.S. when Japanese invasion looked imminent, later working for the OSS and State Department in WWII. For over 30 years, he taught at Columbia University, where he co-founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center with Luening.

His soundtracks to the Orson Wells directed film version of Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit, and Lloyd Williams' film Line of Apogee are eerie and fantastic, and are well worth tracking down. Speaking of soundtracks, this particular piece was posthumously used to great effect in one of the final scenes of the 2001 film Session 9, one of the few "recent" horror films that I truly love.

• O C T. XVII. • Death SS — “Vampire”

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART II !



From the 1988 album …in Death of Steve Sylvester.

There's just something about Italy. When it came to movies, they took the format of the American Western and totally outdid us by pushing the boundaries further than we were comfortable with at the time.They were able to take the generic "killer on the loose" genre and turn it into amazing stylized gialli films. And when it came to metal... well, they certainly pushed things there, too. Sometimes, they push it so far in a cheesy direction that it just doesn't work for me. The whole synth-laden symphonic metal thing seems to be pretty big over there, and it just does nothing for me. But in the late '70s and early '80s, there was another sort of totally over-the-top metal band that opted for a much nastier horror vibe: Death SS. To say they had a penchant for the dramatic would be an understatement. The outrageous make-up and costuming alone was like KISS meets Mercyful Fate. Italy, don't ever stop being you. They later went on to a more industrial metal sound, but it's this earlier stuff that really does it for me.

Because I'm feeling generous tonight, here's a bonus track called “In Ancient Days” (a cover of the aforelinked Black Widow) just for DJ D, who shares my belief that there just isn't enough saxophone in rock anymore:


(From the 1993 & 1997 re-issues of the album …in Death of Steve Sylvester, and the 2000 tribute album to Black Widow, King of the Witches.)

• O C T. XVII. • Black Widow — “Come to the Sabbat” (live, 1970)

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART I !


From the 2007 DVD Demons of the Night Gather to See Black Widow Live.

Y'know what I was just saying about the alternate universe version of Jefferson Airplane? Well, I guess this is the evil alternate universe version of Jethro Tull. OK, maybe not, but it's flute-rock, damn it, and I'm tired and running out of clever references, so that'll have to do. A fine prog band from the U.K., Black Widow put on a hell of a stage show, rife with mystery and ritual, culminating with something that totally improves any concert: a mock-sacrifice of a naked girl! Pretty out-there stuff for it's day. Kinda hard to believe this track actually used to get some limited air-play back when it first came out, though I ain't holding my breath for it to start showing up on any ClearChannel-owned classic rock stations.

• O C T. XVI. • Coven — “Dignitaries of Hell”

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART II !


From the 1969 album Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls.

See what I did there connecting this old band with that black mass link in the prior post? That was pretty sly of me considering it's 3:00 in the morning and I've been up since 5:00 a.m..

Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe.
An alternate universe where Grace Slick was a hot blonde, and Jefferson Airplane  weren't a bunch of hippies singing about drugs, but were instead a bunch of hippies singing about Satan. Well, it turns out that you don't need to imagine that alternate universe, because Coven was exactly such a band!
 Plenty of great songs on this album to choose from, but this is probably my favorite. I love that Hammond organ in the right channel. It's a rare thing that evil ever gets to be this groooooooovy, man.

As an odd coincidence, they had a song called "Black Sabbath", and their bassist was named Oz Osborne, this despite releasing their album months before Black Sabbath's debut. They even beat Sabbath to the punch by a full decade when it came to "raising the horns" at their concerts, although in fairness to Dio, it never actually caught on until he started doing it with Sabbath.

Amazingly enough, despite the band's infamous pro-diabolical history, lead singer Jinx Dawson actually managed to make it to  the #17 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 in the fall of 1971 with her cover of Original Caste's anti-war song "One Tin Soldier" (credited to Coven, despite being just her and a Warner Brothers orchestra), which was used in the film Billy Jack.
Must have been some sort of magic...

• O C T. XVI. • Mercyful Fate — “The Oath”

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART I !


From the 1984 album Don't Break The Oath.

The over-the-top Satanic lyrics of this soul-selling epic (taken directly from a black mass) must have come as an absolute shock to any parent snooping through their kids record collection, and I can only imagine how many "confiscations" and stern talks must have taken place upon finding it. This track really has it all when it comes to theatrical evil: a thunderstorm, church organs, bells, evil laughter — the works. Even the album cover ranks high on the sinister scale.

Couple that with that amazing NWoBHM-esque riff that kicks in two minutes in, and King Diamond's unearthly falsetto (that I will badly sing along with every time if I'm alone), and you've got yourself a heavy metal classic.


"I will kiss the goat!"

• O C T. XV. • Zero Kama — “Night of Matter”

From the 1984 album The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H..

Eerie ritual music. I'm not much for listening to music while reading, as it's usually too distracting for me, but this album is a real favorite of mine to put on while reading good ol' H. P. Lovecraft or other such weird fiction. Knowing that all the instruments on this album were actually made from human skulls and tibias? Well, that certainly adds to the experience.

• O C T. XIV. • Venom — “Buried Alive / Raise the Dead”

Two tracks from the 1982 album Black Metal.

Despite being highly influential, Venom is one of those bands that always gets shit from all sorts of people—on one hand, from fans of traditional metal, because they clearly weren't technically proficient (guitarist Mantas once proclaiming on stage “A lot of bands are out there tonight, waiting for Venom to make a mistake. Well, we are the fucking mistake!”), and on the other, from fans of “extreme” metal, because Venom are clearly having way too much fun with it all.

Personally, I can't get enough of 'em, and their deliberately campy videos and guest spots in comics only endear them more to me. Albums like Welcome to Hell and Black Metal are evil party music of the first order, and every time I hear them, they make me want to get totally shitfaced and smash things in a motel room.

By a nifty coincidence, this is a fan-made vid featuring a clip from the 1981 Italian horror film Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror, a movie that was actually just mentioned a couple of days ago by X-E's Astro Zombie. I haven't seen it yet, but from this clip alone, I'm totally sold.

LAY DOWN YOUR SOUL TO THE GODS' ROCK AND ROLL.

• O C T. XIII. • Einstürzende Neubauten — “Armenia”

From the 1983 album Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T..

Proper industrial music at it's finest. The whole thing is creepy, but HOLY SHIT does Blixa Bargeld's scream ever send shivers down my spine. Not to mention the those gurgling sounds over power tools that are no doubt being used for some decidedly non-manufacturer approved purposes.

The original album version posted here is my favorite performance of this track, but the video version from Sogo Ishii's 1986 film Halber Mensch is so awesome that it really must be seen, as well:

• O C T. XII. • Radio Werewolf — “The Night” (demo version)

From their unreleased 1986 demo tape.

Radio Werewolf frontman Nikolas Schreck truly was to gothic music what Boyd Rice was to noise & industrial music. Much like Rice, Schreck delighted in the role of the shocking Satanic provocateur,  appearing on talk shows in support of Charles Manson, shamelessly reveling in Nazi imagery, and giving long deadpanned interviews to total nutjobs like televangelist Bob Larson and racist asshole Tom Metzger. They even appeared alongside Wolfman Jack in the horror comedy Mortuary Academy, playing themselves as a band killed in a car accident, but re-animated by a former Disney engineer for one final concert at a Bar Mitzvah.

The original incarnation of Radio Werewolf disbanded in 1988, when drummer "Evil Wilhelm" left the group (along with bassist James "Filth" Collord) after becoming fed up with so many people taking the band's fascist schtick at face value, leading to numerous real neo-Nazis attending gigs and causing trouble. Schreck reformed the band a year later, along side his wife Zeena (daughter of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey), abandoning the fun campy death rock of their old tracks like "1960 Cadillac Hearse" in favor of weird ritual music they described as "A long range experiment in the use of sound and symbol as magical influence on the human psyche.", releasing four albums and a couple of 12"s before finally calling it quits in 1992.

As for former keyboardist Paul Antonelli? Well, he ended up as the Daytime Emmy Award winning musical director for the soap operas General Hospital, Santa Barbara, All My Children, Sunset Beach, Passions and As The World Turns.
No, I'm not kidding.

• O C T. XI. • Throbbing Gristle — “E-Coli”

From the 1978 album D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle.

I know the TG track people always mention when the subject of creepy music comes up is "Hamburger Lady", but "E-Coli" has always given me ten times the unease. The ominous pulsating synth, the creaky bowed instrument (dunno what it is, but it sounds a bit like a kemençe), and the ghostly guitar moving around the stereo field all add up to something really unsettling to me. Top it all off with the scientists talking over the whole thing (double-tracked, making it rather disorienting and hard to follow), and it becomes the soundtrack to a biological Armageddon.  A good one to listen to on headphones in the dark.

• O C T. X. • Dead Kennedys — “Halloween”

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART II!



From the 1982 album Plastic Surgery Disasters.

A Halloween song that isn't about the horrors of Halloween, but rather the horrors of the other 364 days of the year that some folks spend as bottled up fun-hating slaves to their inhibitions.
"Why don't you take your social regulations and shove 'em up your ass", indeed. You tell 'em Jello.

• O C T. X. • The Ramones — “Pet Sematary” (live in Barcelona, 1991)

WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE ALERT!
That's right, from here on out, every Saturday and Sunday I'm gonna post twice the music! I simply have too much fun stuff to narrow it down to a mere 31 songs...


From the 1991 album Loco Live.

OK, here's one that you all should know, albeit in a different form here. Despite being a live track from later on in their career after the departure of Dee Dee, this is still one of my favorite vocal performances by Joey. There is a raw viciousness here that is totally absent in the original album version of this song on Brain Drain, which seems downright timid in comparison. Gone are the poppy backing vocals and slow tempo. Instead, you have Joey's voice at it's most hoarse backed by pure punk-fucking-rock riffs. They should have played it this way from the very beginning!

• O C T. IX. • Nurse With Wound — “I’ve Plummed This Whole Neighborhood”

From the 1984 Inner-X-Musick compilation VHS The Other Sound.


There are plenty of NWW tracks with a high unease-factor to choose from, but this one has the bonus of being one of the few on youtube with a proper (and appropriately creepy) video. WHAT THE FUCK IS BEHIND THAT DOOR? Stuff like this makes me wish I had trick-or-treaters out here in the country, as it would be the perfect sort of weirdness to have blaring when they arrive.

There's a bit of not-safe-for-work content in the video, but you shouldn't be slacking off here if you're at work to begin with.

• O C T. VIII. • Coil — “Main Title” (unreleased Hellraiser theme)

From the 1987 album The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser.

That soundtrack that Christopher Young did for Hellraiser? It wasn't Clive Barker's first choice.
Barker had initially commissioned Coil to crate the soundtrack, as he was a big fan of theirs, stating they were “...the only group I've heard on disc whose records I've taken off because they made my bowels churn.”. According to a 1992 interview with Coil, some of the ideas for Pinhead may have even come from a stack of piercing magazines and other such items that they gave Barker when he visited their house around the time he was working on the story.

So what happened? Why does Hellraiser have that "generic horror film orchestral music" soundtrack, despite Barker being so keen on using the Coil soundtrack? Well, Coil was unhappy about the way the film was being watered down from it's initial vision and the way the studio was treating the people involved, and they pulled out right around the same time the studio execs at New World rejected it because they didn't think it sounded "commercial" enough, and were more interested in giving the job to someone more like Howard Shore than a group of Hollywood outsiders.

Hellraiser could have been a film known not just for Lemarchand's box and Pinhead, but also (much like Suspiria, and other Goblin scored horror movies) for its rather unique and unsettling synth-driven soundtrack. Alas, this never came to be. The movie still rules, though.

• O C T. VII. • Saint Vitus — “Return of the Zombie”

From the 1995 album Die Healing.

Every time I hear reversed reverb, it always makes me think of Poltergeist.
Some slow plodding doom for ya, this song is a sequel of sorts to their 1984 track "Zombie Hunger". After a string of excellent albums fronted by the very different (but just as good) Scott "Wino" Weinrich, and one underrated album fronted by Christian Lindersson of Count Raven, this album marked the return of their original singer Scott Reagers. Despite being their final album after a long career (although rumor has it there could be something new in 2011), Die Healing was just as fresh as ever, and if forced to choose, might even be my favorite of theirs.

“Arise! Arise! Zombie!”

• O C T. VI. • Univers Zero — “Dense / La Faulx” (live, excerpt)

From the 1980 bootleg album Mauberge.

A dark Belgian progressive group of the Rock in Opposition movement, Univers Zero were masters of "chamber rock" creepiness. I couldn't find a studio version of anything from their 1979 album Heresie on youtube (though there are some brief clips of the recently remastered & remixed version on their website), but here's an excerpt of an amazing live performance of one of those songs. Menacing stuff.
This is a long-ass performance, so I only posted part III of a 37 minute track, as it had one of my favorite sections on it. To hear the rest, here are parts I, II, and IV.

• O C T. V. • Mighty Sphincter — “Ghost Walking”

From the 1985 double EP Ghost Walking.

Haha, what a video… and a suitably morose sounding song, as well. I had no clue these guys had even had put out videos (there's another one uploaded for "Kingdom of Heaven") 'til I checked to see what I could find of theirs on youtube for this countdown. An Arizona punk/death rock/goth band with a rather complicated history and ties to everyone from 45 Grave and The Feederz to Nervous Gender, this iteration of the band fronted by Doug Clark is a bit more more gothic and not quite as frantic as their earlier stuff with Ron Reckless, whom despite all the stories the band told at the time, never really died. Kind of like how they said Doug Clark died, too. Or how they advertised that one of their albums was produced by Alice Cooper. What a naughty bunch of fibbers. All in good unclean fun, though.

• O C T. IV. • Atomic Rooster — “Death Walks Behind You”

From the 1970 album Death Walks Behind You.

Atomic Rooster had a few things in common with Black Sabbath — they both manged to release their first albums on Friday the 13th of February, 1970, their second albums in September of the same year, and as this track shows, they both had the capability to be darker and heavier than a lot of the popular fare of their time. This title track from their second album manages to be both funky and spooky at the same time, and is by far my favorite song of theirs. Much of that funkiness comes from the great keyboardist Vincent Crane, formerly of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

Update: Somehow, after being on youtube for a couple of years, they decide to yank down the vid the day after I post it here. Link now updated to a working version.

• O C T. III. • Black Sabbath — “Black Sabbath”

From the 1970 album Black Sabbath.

A tale of evil supernatural visitation from the first proper heavy metal album that never fails to bring a chill. Pouring rain, a ringing bell, cracking thunder... and then that massive guitar riff; that sinister devil's tritone! A groundbreaking song that is still absolutely perfect forty years later.

• O C T. II. • John Zorn — “Black”

From the 1992 album Elegy.

When I first heard whatever the metallic crash was after the squeal (believe me, you'll know it when you hear it),  I nearly fell out of my chair. Makes me think of Leatherface slamming that door in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Some prime creepy atmospheric stuff from one of my favorite Zorn albums.

• O C T. I. • Roky Erickson and the Aliens — “Night of the Vampire”

Yes, after a long dormancy, the Jukebox of Horrors has awakened from its slumber! 

October has arrived, and tonight, we're kicking things off right. For tonight... is the Night of the Vampire!



From the 1981 album The Evil One.

Plenty has been said about Roky Erickson's life and stuggles with schizophrenia (too much to mention in this post), but what's of real importance here is the music.

Starting his career fronting The 13th Floor Elevators, a band that was to the birth of psychedelic rock what Black Sabbath was to the birth of heavy metal, Roky and his bandmates made some of the most original  '60s psych rock of all time. He spent time in and out of institutions in the years after the 13th Floor  Elevators fell apart in the late '60s, but returned to music in the mid '70s with a very different style, and finally released a couple of great albums in the early '80s from which this track was taken.

He's certainly had loads of rough times since then, but is finally back on track (and back on his meds!) and released his first new album in 14 years this April.