Welcome to Metal Lair’s Seven Deadly Songs feature: Spooktober edition! Throughout October, we’ll delve into the chilling and eerie aspects of metal music—those spine-tingling sounds, blood-curdling screams, and the shadows lurking just beyond your sight. Each week, our staff will share their picks of terrifying metal tracks. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
Wednesday 13 – Insides Out. Album Horrifyer Via Napalm Records
With a chorus that urges you to “scream for me, bleed for me, cry for me, die for me,” you know you’re in for a wild ride. If you enjoy visual horror and gore, this is perfect for you—it’s a sadist’s dream come true. Directed by Vicente Cordero (Room 37 – The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders), a talented feature film and music video director, this work truly highlights his artistic vision.
“Insides Out” is possibly the band’s heaviest track, crafted in true Wednesday 13 style. With its intense themes of torture and violence, the continued horror movie aesthetic perfectly complements the song.
Venom – Buried Alive. Album: In League With Satan via Spinefarm Records/BMG
Venom’s “Buried Alive” highlights their signature theatricality, featuring a bludgeoning and raw instrumental assault that captures the chaotic essence of their sound. The track opens with the recitation of last rites and the sound of dirt being shoveled onto a coffin. As the song unfolds, the vocals distort in a haunting manner, tapping into the primal fear of being buried alive. Whats not to love about this song? The concept of being buried alive is inherently unsettling, and this track might just be the standout on the album.
Celtic Frost – Danse Macabre. Album: Morbid Tales via Noise Records
Though legendary Swiss metal band Celtic Frost disbanded in 2008, their catalog remains impressive. Danse Macabreshowcases their early material, beginning with their debut album, Morbid Tales, released in 1984. This album significantly influenced the thrash and death metal scenes, often hailed as a masterclass in relentless riffs and dark themes. The powerful, bludgeoning riffs—more influential on death metal bands like Obituary than many second-wave black metal acts, aside from Darkthrone—combined with Tom Warrior’s proto-death growls create some of the most intense music of 1984, both compositionally and tonally.
Get The Danse Macabre Box Set Here
Cattle Decapitation – Scourge of The Offspring. Album : Terrasite via Metal Blade Records
The band masterfully weaves a nightmarish tapestry of death metal, prog, and grindcore in Scourge of The Offspring. With jarring, chaotic rhythms that erupt and collapse, they juxtapose violent, crushing riffs with breakdowns that send listeners spiraling into a moshpit frenzy. The overall sound is a frenzied assault, punctuated by the chilling gurgles, grunts, and howls of vocalist Travis Ryan.
“Scourge of the Offspring” serves as the haunting core of the overarching theme in Terrasite: the grim reality of human existence in a post-Anthropocene world. Cattle Decapitation has long delved into apocalyptic visions, and Terrasiteplunges deeper into this abyss, exploring a disquieting “daytime horror,” embodied by the grotesque post-human mutant on the album cover.
Get Terrasite here: USA Store or European Shop
Opeth – Ghost of Perdition. Album: Ghost Reveries via Peaceville Records
Okay, I know it sounds dramatic, but the first time I heard this song, it felt like I’d been possessed by a metal demon. Few tracks can grab you by the throat and shake you into submission quite like this one. It’s rare for a band to unleash such a masterpiece so late in their career, but Opeth defies the odds and keeps raising the bar. This one still haunts my top three Opeth albums.
“Ghost of Perdition” was my gateway into Opeth’s dark, twisted realm, and let me tell you, it was unlike anything I’d encountered before. I was immediately entranced and devoured the entire album like a ravenous ghoul.
Is it the perfect song? I’d argue it’s perfect for all music, not just progressive metal—or should I say, progressive death metal? It weaves stunning melodies entwined with ferocious, guttural roars that give off an ominous vibe, creeping under your skin like a chill in the night. The atmosphere is magnetic yet unnervingly menacing.
Mikael Åkerfeldt is a sorcerer of sound, effortlessly balancing hauntingly beautiful clean vocals with spine-chilling death growls that could raise the dead. This track is a masterclass in contrasting serenity with sheer terror, making it an essential listen for your Halloween metal playlist!
Type O Negative – Creepy Green Light. Album: World Coming Down via SPV Entertainment/Steamhammer
Creepy Green Light is a song by Type O Negative, included on their fifth album World Coming Down, released in 1999.
Originally named “Spooky Green Light,” this track was rebranded during its eerie production. With a haunting chorus reminiscent of Alice in Chains, it tells a bone-chilling tale of a spouse clawing their way from the grave on Halloween night.
Divided into three sinister cantos, the first and third are titled “Creepy Green Light,” while the spine-tingling middle segment is called “Frightening Black Night.” This central canto is an instrumental descent into darkness, featuring an ominous organ that wails like a banshee, layered with crushing doom metal riffs. The lyrics pulse with dread in the opening and closing cantos, enveloping you in a narrative of the undead rising to reclaim their lost love. This is a must-listen for those who crave the unsettling thrill of Halloween!
Akhlys – Somniloquy. Album: Melinoë via Debemur Morti Productions
The chilling atmosphere that permeates this spiritual, mystical, and emotionally charged narrative is nothing short of suffocating. Naas Alcameth’s vision unfolds brilliantly, not just through the music itself but also thanks to Dave Otero’s exceptional sound engineering, which captures the essence of the project with chilling precision. In this interplay, the music and its spiritual elements find a disturbing harmony, achieving the core goal of Melinoë.
This album isn’t merely a highlight of Naas Alcameth’s career; it stands poised to be one of the most significant metal releases of 2020. Each note drips with darkness and fear, evoking a malevolent presence that lurks in the shadows of our consciousness, ever-watchful and preying on our primal anxieties. It’s the creeping darkness in the corner of your room, the thing that huddles beneath your bed—a lurking evil that our logical minds try to ignore, even as we feel its breath on our neck.
