Yes, the official day has passed, but a Friday the 13th shortly after is as good a day as any. Besides, this post isn’t limited to Halloween day, but applies to the whole season, which for me typically starts sometime in mid-September and continues through Thanksgiving. With the multitude of works I’ve been partaking in lately, including various short horror stories and the new Halloween and Hellraiser video games, the vibe remains strong even now, and it wouldn’t be complete without some music selections to represent the aural side of horror. Listed below are just a few of the many albums I’ve been spinning lately, which cross various points of the black and death metal spectrums and beyond, and hopefully this will serve to celebrate the season and keep the spirit alive for a while as I remain indefinitely swamped with life.
FRIGHTMARE – Midnight Murder Mania
Horror themes are instinctive for many death metal hordes, and now I’m drawing into the debut slab by these US maniacs titled Midnight Murder Mania. Its track titles alone show the focus on different slasher films or their villains, and movie samples are scattered throughout to raise the atmosphere, which also emanates from a production that reeks like a filthy collection of trophies decomposing in some crawlspace. One intro on “Friday the 13th” features a notable scene with Mrs. Voorhees, and like a psychotic killer in pursuit of victims, the riffs and percussive elements ravage ahead while vocals ranging from rasps to deep gurgles depict a spectrum of deranged personality. A thrashy and punky energy further distinguishes this breed of grinding death metal, along with grooved paces laced among its prevailing frenzy, and points with soloing or lead melodies are also found elevating the punishment, effectively solidifying impressions of a serial murderer who truly revels in his work.
ACID WITCH – Witchtanic Hallucinations
This US coven’s style of psychedelic death and doom thrives especially around Halloween, and there is no coincidence here based on the song titles, with one even taking its date for the close of their debut conjuring. Its Sabbathy riffing combines with the entrancement induced by leads and various tripped-out synth elements bubbling up from the cauldron, which creates a concoction playing like the soundtrack to altered states while spells are being cast. Areas of elemental interplay are notable, like when an initial arpeggiated gloom on “Beastly Brew” carries over to a synth course through madness, and organ keys are found evoking proper vibes across the work, along with sounds of howling wolves and other haunts appearing throughout. Monstrous vocals match the distorted riff crunch while shifting with dynamics like fiendish whispers, and points of rhythmic escalation to slightly above zombie crawl accommodate intricate manifestations within those riffs, sealing a vital mass whose strange intoxicating formulas will surely maximize the holiday celebration.
INFERNO – The Anthropic Sophisms (On the Heights of Despair)
This year’s latest rite from Czechia’s INFERNO deserves a notable mention here, and while the subject matter is more centered on occultism and philosophy, its wall of riff distortions and ambient effects evoke something like Lovecraftian visions of the place where Cthulhu dwells. The vocals reverberate from deep in the mix like the towering monstrosities of that mythos, and unsettling tones are maintained throughout by orchestrations laden with an imposing and malign energy, along with a spectrum of spacey trance and wrath which are driven percussively. These forms are concentrated across four tracks that create an infinite void of possibility to get lost in, but there are also enough highlightable moments to keep it all from blending completely together. Many ventures are still required to fully navigate the depth of this summoning, with the array of atmospheric dynamics capturing disembodied torments and a melodic sense that becomes more apparent over time. This work strikes like a natural progression on the course following 2021’s Paradeigma (Phosphenes of Aphotic Eternity) and is best experienced someplace dingy and in total darkness.
DENIAL OF GOD – Death and the Beyond
These Danish orchestrators have a whole discography suitable for Halloween season, and the consistency of their songwriting quality makes it difficult to choose just one for this list, so for now the focus on death from both the material and spiritual perspectives of their second full-length offering will suffice. Its melodicism weaves gloomy and majestic auras across heavy riffing, which varies with some thrashy areas and groove noted among the cold tremolo masses, and they are structured in ways to accommodate a narrative element in the lyrics. Here a journey after death takes hold with the mourning and burial of “Funeral,” and it expands to include the experience of being buried alive on “Behind the Coffin’s Lid,” an idea that has cremation standing as my own personal choice when the time comes, and also the scenes of pestilence captured during “Black Dethe.” The séance on “Pendulum Swings” is one point exploring a paranormal element, and the overall tone is fittingly conveyed with vocal rasps carrying an undead likeness, but spoken sections containing Egyptian references to rebirth after death are also found opening “The Cursed Chamber.” The atmosphere of this collective is further enhanced through clean and acoustic sections, along with piano lines and other aural features, and they appear while upholding a unique graveside style of grimness that is true to the genre’s blackened essence.
JOHN CARPENTER’s – The Cathedral
Horror icon John Carpenter has extended his vision to the medium of graphic novels, and this manifestation titled The Cathedral, which is inspired by one of his actual nightmares, takes an interesting approach that also includes a soundtrack with songs designed to accompany the scenes captured on its pages. Massive soundscapes are shaped through layers of haunting and hallucinogenic synths, along with some lead guitar melodies woven into certain points, and metal elements are further realized in heavy riffing that raises a sinister depth among the arrangements. Basic percussive sections are effective in carrying the rhythms, and sometimes they possess an industrial quality alongside techno-laced effects that could make one suspect Trent Reznor is lurking somewhere in the background. Areas without drumming seem almost ethereal, like during the violin and piano auras of “The Mapmaker,” and organ keys found on various other tracks reinforce the cathedral setting. The harmony and interplay between all these features is highly alluring, and the senses of dread, suspense, and action induced from navigating the story’s catacombic underworld are effectively conveyed across their dark progressions. Musically, this collective is able to stand on its own without being a soundtrack for the book, and it’s no surprise that the mastermind behind Halloween’s infamous theme is at work here.
The book’s story itself involves a murder investigation that becomes the pursuit after some ancient monstrosity lurking beneath the ruins of a local cathedral, and numerous creatures and characters are encountered as the protagonists descend further down the church hole, including a ferryman who takes them across a river of blood. Different stygian designs are portrayed across each scene, and their settings are as inconstant and unpredictable as you would expect them to be in the dreamworld. When the hunt finally leads to this world’s main horror, he proves to be a truly wicked and imposing force capable of inflicting pure annihilation on those who cross him, and this of course is illustrated in all its graphic and gory glory. Without spoiling the end here, I’ll just note that it fits as a ghastly finale and possibly the only outcome for this enchanting venture through hellish nightrealms, and the book together with the album offers a unique experience that is perfect for this haunted holiday season.
