For me personally, this is my favorite time of year and I get as giddy as a schoolgirl once Halloween season rolls around. My house is already decorated for Halloween year-round, but I put in extra effort for October and go wild with Halloween decorations (just ask my boyfriend…)!
To kick off the Halloween season, I always make a Halloween music mix. My mixes don’t have your typical Misfits’ “Halloween” song (or covers) and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is no where to be found. Forget about “Monster Mash!” Though I do love those songs, everyone hears them repeatedly every time they walk into a Halloween store! So, instead, I try and unearth some industrial, goth, and EBM-type songs to set the perfect mood for a eerie All Hallow’s Eve.
There are many morbidly macabre songs perfect for Halloween, but below are some of my all-time favorite Halloween songs!
13 Songs to Haunt Your Halloween:
1.) Ministry – “Every Day is Halloween” (available on Early Trax
)“Well I let their teeny minds think
That they’re dealing with someone who is over the brink
And I dress this way just to keep them at bay
Coz Halloween is everyday…
It’s everyday…”
The title pretty much says it all…Every Day IS Halloween for some people…including me! I love how this song celebrates being different and being true to yourself year-round.
2.) God Module – “Spooky” (available on Let’s Go Dark
)“Don’t ever change
I like it spooky
Zombies eating brains
I like it spooky
Serial killers
And the insane
I like it spooky
Angry ghosts,
Rattling chains
I like it spooky”
For me, this is the titular Halloween song! With a sample from Trash’s death speech in Return of the Living Dead, this song just oozes Halloween spirit! I consider this song kinda like my theme song. Also check out “Orange and Black” by God Module, off the same Let’s Go Dark album, which features samples from John Carpenter’s Halloween.
3.) AFI – Fall Children (available on All Hallow’s EP
)“Fall children fill the streets at dusk
At last, it will all begin…”
This is old skool AFI from their All Hallow’s EP (which also includes a cover of the Misfits’ “Halloween”) and is a fast-paced punk song that begins with a very eerie intro reminiscent of a dark October night.
4.) Nine Inch Nails – Dead Souls (Joy Division cover, available on The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
)“They keep calling me…”
This Joy Division cover was originally written by Ian Curtis about spirits calling to him. How much more macabre and morose can you get? Nine Inch Nails’ cover of this song is a bit heavier and Trent Reznor’s harsh vocals are a perfect match to the tortured lyrics.
5.) Marilyn Manson – This is Halloween (available on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
soundtrack)“This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright
It’s our town, everybody scream
In this town of Halloween”
From The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack, Marilyn Manson’s take on “This is Halloween” is the perfect balance between frightening and fun. Danny Elfman’s lyrics are just so joyful and infectious that you can’t help but sing along, even though Manson gives the song a darker edge! And everyone wishes they lived in Halloweentown…I know I do!
6.) Rasputina – Transylvanian Concubine [Marilyn Manson Mix] (available on Transylvanian Regurgitations
EP)“Look into their eyes and you’ll be a Transylvanian Concubine.
You know what flows here like wine.
Stay here with us
It’s just time.
Transylvanian Concubine…”
Elegantly eerie…whenever I hear this song I can’t help but think of the Brides of Dracula seducing Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. A perfect song to accompany a sexy outfit on Halloween.
7.) The Cure – Lullaby (available on Disintegration
)“On candystripe legs the spiderman comes
Softly through the shadow of the evening sun
Stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead
Looking for the victim shivering in bed”
Definitely one of The Cure’s creepier songs, “Lullaby” is the perfect nightmare scenario of being visiting by an unspeakable evil during the night. Though probably one of the slower songs on this mix, “Lullaby” is haunting and puts me in the mood to spook!
8.) Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand (available on Let Love In
)“On a gathering storm comes
A tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with
A red right hand”
This songs just evokes evil and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up…
9.) Siouxsie and the Banshees – Halloween (available on Juju
)“The night is still
And the frost it bites my face
I wear my silence like a mask
And murmur like a ghost
“Trick or Treat”
“Trick or Treat”
The bitter and the sweet”
NOT a cover of the Misfits’ “Halloween”, instead this is a nostalgic look back at childhood. The “Trick or Treat” chorus is just too fun to pass up, though you can hear Siouxsie’s longing for the old days in her voice.
10.) Switchblade Symphony – Witches (available on Bread and Jam for Frances
)“Your dreams are filled with blood and gore.
Now they’re right outside your door.
They’re gonna get you.”
An eerie, languid and sexy song with strong horror imagery featuring witches, skeletons, spiders, monsters and goblins, “Witches” and its hypnotizing beat will have you conjuring some “toil and trouble” of your own…
11.) Velvet Acid Christ – Haunted (available on Hex Angel: Utopia-Dystopia
)“Tonight, tonight I slowly bleed
Haunted by the will of unease
Shattered by the sound of your screams
Tonight, tonight I watch you plea.”
Perfect for dancing the night away with that boil or ghoul you met on the dance floor…if you don’t mind a song about bloody murder…
12.) Voltaire – Dead Girls (available on Almost Human
)“Dead girls like me
Can’t you see?
Only dead girls like me
Oh, dead girls like me
Can’t you see?
Only dead girls don’t walk away from me
Sad as it seems…”
Halloween just isn’t complete without Voltaire, and his goth cabaret music is a delightful companion to the season. His “Dead Girls,” about, ahem, necrophilia, is excellent for a gross-out good time yet still maintains a dapper style!
13.) Type O Negative – All Hallow’s Eve (available on World Coming Down
)“Be spiderwebbed and glazed in frost
She wears death – beautifully
More stunning now – than in her life – on a bed – of autumn leaves
Into her eyes and quite surprised I whispered don’t you leave
Sing macabre songs and well dance ‘til dawn – on All Hallow’s Eve”
Mmmm…what’s more romantic than resurrecting your dead lover on All Hallow’s Eve? Peter Steele’s deep voice, the song’s slowly rising tempo and the evocatively creepy lyrics are perfect for Halloween!
And there you have it! A list of 13 of my favorite Halloween tracks! Now, this is just an example of my ideal Halloween songs, but there are many more out there and I’m well aware of that. So before you jump in to say, “What about [blank]?!” please keep in mind that my list contains selected suggestions for your spooktacular October and isn’t by any means a complete list of all Halloween-themed, scary music.
On that note, here is wishing you a BOO-tiful Halloween season full of screams and good fears!
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