Of all the holidays to come around each year

There’s one that beats the rest for spookiness and fear.

‘Tis Halloween, a favourite of nigh-on every metalhead

And while we don’t have candy, we have metal that we’ll spread.



If spooky, scary, silly, fun, or evil’s what you seek,

You’ll find all that, plus more I bet, so come and take a peek!

When I think of Halloween, I think costumes, 80s movies, and an overconfident (and slightly sexual) attitude. The spandex-clad Grailknights undoubtedly capture this essence, especially in their latest album, Knightfall. Aside from the unlimited, 80s cheese in tracks like ‘Pumping Iron Power’, it’s even got some spooky songs in ‘Grailskull Asylum’, ‘March of the Skeletons’, and ‘Ghost Town’. It’s about as Halloweeny as power metal gets.

Kane Gagen-Parry

Taking equal parts thrashy death metal, horror punk, and Tales from the Crypt, The Lurking Corpses will haunt your dreams and eat your soul. Rollicking spookiness and voracious riffery collide with B-movie horror hell. The perfect soundtrack to stealing candy from all those babies.

Shawn Miller

Halloween, for me, is all about generic spooky imagery: a jack o’ lantern here, a skeleton there, a cauldron here, a black cat there. The very image of a black crow on a tombstone just fills me with all the frightful fun of the season. The inherent genericism of this track (along with most of the album) only enhances my October mood. Best song on an otherwise dull record.

Larry Best

Horror themed progressive deathcore? Why not? Dreamcatcher is the second release from San Francisco Bay Area’s Aenimus, a mind bending concept album inspired by horror novels like The Shining, The Dead Zone and It. The band plays… you guessed it, progressive deathcore, but with a cinematic touch that makes their horror stories come to life in full swing. Technical, expressive and cohesive at the core, further enhanced by the guest performance of singer Mike Semesky, this album is a rather original genre-topic combination that crosses reasonable expectations. Dreamcatcher promises to make this year’s Halloween djent considerably more than the norm.

George Dan

Hooded Menace has been the gold standard in doom/death for a while now, and their second full-length Never Cross the Dead is the album that cemented that for me. It’s full of massive, crushing riffs and morbid atmosphere, sounding like Asphyx crossed with Candlemass. The band really knows their horror too, with songs and art inspired by Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead series, Hammer, and Eurotrash.

Nathan Hare

When it comes to music that fits Halloween, I generally turn to especially Symphonic Black Metal because great keyboards add a dark and haunting atmosphere to the rest of the composition. It gives the listener a sense of foreboding and nobody is better at that than Morfeus was in the early days of Limbonic Art. His incredibly haunting keyboard lines coupled with Daemon’s unique tortured screams on In Abhorrence Dementia are enough to haunt your face off. Just listening to the incredibly spooky intro of ‘Deathtrip to a Mirage Asylum’ is enough to get you in the mood for Halloween and by the time it kicks into high gear, you are already along for the epic, haunting journey.

Eric Ward

The most obvious band to use for this list – yet I’m deliberately avoiding 1987’s uber-popular Halloween in favour of one of their more modern (and, in my opinion, best) releases. The sinister-but-fun artwork, aggressive mood and extensive structures of Gambling With The Devil put it among the best of the pumpkins’ output and for power metal in 2007 in general. ‘The Bells Of The Seven Hells’ is the spookiest of them all, with its eerie glockenspiel motif and neckbreaking mid-section riff.

Larry Best

Dungeon synth gets spooky for Halloween time. Guild of Lore is known for epic soundscapes that are straight from the realms of medieval RPGs like Skyrim and The Witcher, and Autumn Macabre basically builds on that. It’s like the kingdom is being attacked by undead scarecrows and various other spooky entities. Epic dungeon synth that can be the soundtrack to gutting pumpkins and scaring children away.

Shawn Miller

What says Halloween better than a bunch of face painted Satan worshiping knuckleheads? If you’re not already familiar with the comic book band Belzebubs, you owe it to yourself to check them out. The debut album Pantheon of the Nightside Gods is the pinnacle of melodic black metal and a truly rewarding and captivating listening experience. No wonder all demons hear their calls. With strong epic symphonies, harsh agressive riffs and growls, and even some progressive tendencies, Slöth, Hubbath, Obesyx and Samael, will carry you into a hilariously scary world, perfectly suited for this year’s spook season.

George Dan

An Old Sad Ghost is quite an excellent dungeon synth project that pays a lot of attention to spooky atmosphere. Their weirdly titled ‘Path of a Tongueless Knight’ in particular works in a lot of great nat sound bits like ominous footsteps, cawing blackbirds, and doors creaking open, to great effect.

Jackson French

Ok, maybe gothabilly is a bit of a stretch, but fuck it. The other guys chose dungeon synth, and gothic southern rock is WAY more metal than that. Anyway, if the name “Ghoultown” isn’t Halloween enough for you, maybe a ominous, dangerous overtone and tracks like ‘Werewolves on Wheels’ and ‘Under the Phantom Moon’ will get the fright flowing!

Kane Gagen-Parry

Somewhat of an obvious choice but is it really Halloween without King Diamond? The musical reincarnation of Edgar Allen Poe has become known for his twisted tales of horror set to kickass heavy metal. However, back in the days of Mercyful Fate, the King made music that was more sinister in nature but equally compelling and spooky. The height of that was the seminal Don’t Break the Oath album, which still holds up as one of the spookiest and most evil albums ever made. The guitar tone is one of a kind, the riffs are absolutely stellar and King’s transitions from the high end of his voice to the low end and then to the middle and back are so seamless it is scary. ‘A Dangerous Meeting’ opens this amazing album with a bang in the from of sensationally sinister riffs from Denner and Sherman and it never lets up from beginning to end.

Eric Ward

By now, you’re set with tons of spooky metal to display

For parties, friends, yourself, or ghosts that live just down the way.

While robbing kids of candy be sure not to make a scene

And have yourself a scary, unsafe, metal Halloween.

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