Metal for Halloween!

Halloween is celebrated through disparate traditions by cultures around the world. Globalization in the United States has turned the season into an amalgamation of customs from across the world, the simulacrum of religious traditions several degrees removed from their origin infused with capitalistic motivation having become their own deeply ingrained rituals. It is in this spirit that the modern genre of metal has developed, thus it is in this season that it shines as the avatar of all things Halloween. From the start, metal has been an exploration of our deepest existential anxieties. Even as the musical palette of the genre has evolved, it has never diverged from this conceit. While that is fantastic in theory for writing about Halloween-inspired music, it has also made the selection process an absolute nightmare! For above reasons realistically almost any metal album could fit, so I had to contrive criteria for a streamlined list. I decided against the impossible effort of creating any definitive “Halloween metal” list, though any such list would necessarily include some of these entries. The big stipulation I applied to cull the militia of metal music makers is that the album as a whole must be thematically appropriate. This list includes some of the most iconic occult metal music ever written as well as some underground albums worth exploring so that it can be useful for any level of metal fan, from metal-curious to die-hard. If the album covered is a jumping off point, then I also try to provide a brief overview of the mountain of material underneath. This list is in no particular order.

Cult of Eibon – Twilight Lycan Sorcery

Black metal often pays homage to the occult, but in no regional scene is that more evident than Greece. Hellenic black metal, in contrast to its frigid northern counterparts, constructs a humid, musty atmosphere as if recorded in a crypt as it explores black magic rituals. Nowhere is that better exhibited in the modern black metal landscape than on Cult of Eibon’s debut mini-album Lycan Twilight Sorcery (2016). As the name suggests, this project is dedicated to a Halloween mainstay, the lycanthrope/werewolf. The premise of “Greek werewolf metal” is an awesome hook, and thankfully the music is just as interesting. Choral synths used judiciously throughout provide a zealous undercurrent to the blast beats and tremolo riffs that define the subgenre. Deceptively beautiful guitar leads as in the opening to “Xothic Bloodlines” instills in the listener a sense of the grandiosity of the cult, as if hearing the rapturous proselytizing of a charismatic zealot. Hellenic black metal revels in the bombastic swagger of traditional heavy metal at times, and it is by this influence that the last chorus in “Wolf Blood Communion” will leave any listener headbanging.

More Hellenic Cult Eternal

Considering the modernity of this group, there are several key albums that any of the uninitiated must check out to understand where this music comes from. The most famous Greek black metal band also released my favorite black metal album of all time, Rotting Christ’s debut Thy Mighty Contract (1993), which leans more heavily on Satanism than the broader occult themes that color Cult of Eibon’s work. Also required listening would be fellow Hellenic pioneers Varathron, their sophomore album Walpurgisnacht (1995) being widely considered the greatest album in this style ever written, adopting a decidedly more pagan approach to their blasphemy in a way that befits the season.

Acid Witch – Witchtanic Hellucinations

Witchtanic Hellucinations (2008) is the metal album for fans of campy, exploitative horror. This album oozes fun like the titular witch excretes pestilence. With song titles like “Broomstick Bitch” and “Witches Tits,” it should be understood that the gangrene-ridden, bifurcated tongue is firmly in cheek, though the horror tropes in the lyrics are deadly serious. While the guttural, gravel-gargling vocals courtesy of Hooded Menace mastermind Lasse Pyykkö are difficult if not impossible to make out on a first listen, those lyrics are well worth checking out to fully understand the cohesive, absurdly fun tone of the album. Musically, Acid Witch on this release take the crushing strength of death metal and combine it with the heaviness of Black Sabbath-inspired bluesy doom metal to create a beloved modern death/doom releases. One aspect of this release that underlies its surprising creativity is the clear influence of Iron Maiden-esque guitar melodies that would sound saccharine if they weren’t expertly woven between mammoth verse riffs and psychedelic breakdowns. The sugar-sweet guitar also supplements the decidedly not-catchy vocal performance, turning the ghoulish chorus of “Swamp Spells” into a doom-laden prophecy that sticks in the mind of the listener. While nothing really sounds like this album – including, unfortunately, Acid Witch’s more recent output – the individual elements are used throughout the metal world. This is an album brimming with endless creative energy, where each seemingly dissimilar element locks together to seem obvious in retrospect for the overall cohesion.

More Tectonic Occult Death/Doom

Perhaps most similar in tone and sound is the aforementioned project by its singer/guitarist Lasse Pyykkö, Hooded Menace, which carries the fixation on campy horror, gorgeous guitar leads, and pummeling doom riffs. Less similar but highly worthy of recommendation is the recently concluded Necros Christos, which is the mature, self-serious counterpart to Acid Witch’s drug-laced campiness. If one is truly interested in the reality of death/doom occult scholarship, Necros Christos is metal to meditate on. The discographies of both acts are consistently fantastic, so any entry point is a great one.

Hagzissa – They Ride Along

Austria-based Hagzissa represent black metal in its most primitive form. If Acid Witch is Evil Dead, Hagzissa are The VVitch. Utterly evil, nihilistic, and primeval, They Ride Along (2019) is witch malice made manifest. What makes this particular album notable in spite of deliberately simplistic elements is the brilliance of the songwriting. Satisfaction in first wave black metal is, for me, a balance of tension and catharsis, and this album is a masterclass in that regard. Opener “Die Pforte (A Speech Above the Moor)” lures the listener in with an eerie, slow build to a driving rhythm and a simple four-note power-chord melody while a speech is delivered by a barely audible orator. This all serves to slowly ratchet up the tension of the music before the real evil begins – the melody falls away, the drums drop out, the guitar abandons the power chords, and then the tremolo riff begins. Harsh, reverb-laden shrieks command attention as the blast beats begin to rampage, cymbals serving to highlight the frenetic guitar as the tension skyrockets. After an excruciatingly tense measure of this nightmarish music, the power chords make their reappearance over satisfying skank beats that could convince an audience to tear apart a venue, and the band revels in that catharsis as a deliriously mad guitar solo replaces the main riff. The whole album follows this objective of the fun inherent to pure evil in a way that harkens back to classic black metal, such as Bathory’s Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987), with the kind of slick attention to detail that makes such albums classics. Without requiring spooky synths or much in the way of intelligible lyricism, this album embodies the disciplined yet ecstatic evil of a black sabbath.

More Quirky Occult Black Metal (Not Like Other Black Metal)

For those who want more in this vein, my reviews on Hexenbrett and Malokarpatan may be of assistance – the former definitely would have made this list had I not already discussed it extensively, and the latter was guaranteed a mention for its quality and cohesion.

Helstar – Nosferatu

Helstar’s Nosferatu (1989) represents a radically different style of metal than any mentioned above, as the album retells the story of the Bram Stoker horror classic, Dracula. Unlike black metal, the United States strain of power metal that Helstar play has little evil or horror inherent to it. However, Helstar cleverly play into the empowerment of this muscular style of metal to embody the fierce, otherworldly Count Dracula as he gleefully recounts his ambitious plans to reign as an eternal tyrant and terrorizes the protagonists throughout the narrative. The highly technical guitarwork will, as Dracula does, enthrall any listener with a soft spot for thrash and speed metal, while the sometimes operatic vocals instill the album with an epic resplendence worthy of the Count. The neo-classical soloing on the instrumental album highlight  “Perseverance and Desperation” should vindicate any who have claimed a musical throughline linking Vivaldi and Beethoven to modern metal, which suits the epic scope of the narrative. Clips from John Badham’s 1979 Dracula adaptation appear throughout to tastefully break up the metal assault. Widely considered one of the greatest US power metal albums of all time, it successfully embodies subject matter not common to this style of metal and uses the conventions of the subgenre to elevate the material, which takes considerable talent and forethought.

More Vampire-Slaying Muscle Metal

Interestingly, there is one other major instance of the character Dracula in acclaimed US power metal: on Jag Panzer’s iconic album and genre blueprint Ample Destruction (1984), the song “Symphony of Terror” condenses the story to a 4 minute mid-paced romp. If Helstar is too fast or not operatic enough, Jag Panzer is the solution. Just be aware, listening to any of these albums too much is guaranteed to add muscle to your frame and a mustache to your face.

Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race

A space age entry into the canon of global horror iconography is the alien grey, who hunts humans with technology so advanced it eschews the assistance of Satan for rituals of inscrutable science. The talented musicians in underground death metal darlings Blood Incantation have dedicated this project to the most cerebral, nihilistic iteration of the extraterrestrial icon. Blood Incantation have created a dystopian universe on Hidden History of the Human Race (2019) and across their discography. Humans are pawns, experiments at the mercy of alien warlocks whose eldritch science can only be scratched at by us as an all-encompassing existential nightmare that breaches our consciousness, subconscious, and the layers in between as we inadvertently tap into while drifting between psychic planes. The influence of author H.P. Lovecraft cannot be ignored here, but I deeply appreciate Blood Incantation’s dedication to cultivating their own aesthetic that takes as much from psychedelia and new age philosophy as it does indescribable tentacle monsters. It is this fact that sets the Blood Incantation mythos apart from the veritable legion of Lovecraftian metal that has dominated the genre since the watershed death metal album Altars of Madness (1989) by Floridian pioneers Morbid Angel, who Blood Incantation are nonetheless indebted to thematically and musically. The music is just as convoluted and implacable as the transcendental extraterrestrials who rule in its universe, with winding guitar passages that fill a listener with anxiety amidst strangely beautiful melodies, as if the music is being refracted by “The Shimmer” from Annihilation. Though this is their most accessible release to date, the album requires an open mind of its listener, practically presupposing the use of psychedelics to wring out meaning from its arcane sonic geometry.

More Non-Euclidean Death Metal

If this eccentric release has left you craving more and you are already well-versed with the aforementioned Morbid Angel, the debut album from the Finnish legends in Demilich, Nespithe (1993), feels as if it were written to be understood by the alien on the pulpy cover to this album. Of modern groups, the explicitly Bloodborne-inspired Tomb Mold have also made waves in the underground by taking a more simplistic, brutal approach to the astral nihilism of Lovecraft-inspired music that is no less worthwhile, though it may better suit a heavy workout than an acid trip.

Negative Plane – Stained Glass Revelations

Negative Plane are proof that Halloween is an ethos, not just a holiday. Across Stained Glass Revelations (2011), they use traditional elements of black metal alongside innovative songwriting and haunted musical motifs that ensure the uniqueness of their sound. Tremolo grooves falls away to extended lurching sections driven by clean guitar and blast beats, only for these disparate moments to conjoin into a mess of unholy chaos before all gives way to an organ or a minor-key piano. Cascading melodies by paranoid guitars are dragged out to the point of agonizing tension until they are replaced by deliriously ecstatic riffs over ominous bells. The barking vocals are soaked in a wall of reverb, like singer-guitarist Nameless Void is a lich commanding his undead hordes from a decrepit mausoleum. Extensive use of guitar pedals allow the instrument to effectively convey an unnatural range of sonic expression, as if possessed and speaking in tongues. The sharp songwriting ensures that while this disorder is tightly controlled, it feels liable to implode entirely at any moment. In that respect, this is a rewarding project to revisit; there is always something new to recognize. The album is structured to accommodate its length. Practically each lengthy musical odyssey – and no full song is shorter than 7 minutes – is book-ended by short atmospheric interludes where the black metal assault can be properly tempered by eerie, introspective darkness. It is in these moments where the classical Halloween musical palette truly reigns, where acoustic guitars, church bells, and organs blaspheme from an icy crypt. Stained Glass Revelations is the haunted house so convincing that you start to wonder why you ever thought ghosts aren’t real.

More Spectral Black Metal

Negative Plane’s debut Et in Saecula Saeculorum (2006) is similar in scope and sound, but is absent on streaming platforms – worth hunting down if this album resonates with you. Negative Plane, in true American melting pot fashion, have forged their distinct sound from a multitude of musical scenes. Funereal Presence, a project entirely helmed by Negative Plane’s drummer, is also great and understandably shares many of the same musical predilections. Italy’s Mortuary Drape has a similar flair for the Halloween black metal spirit, merging traditional heavy metal songwriting with the extreme occult metal sound best exhibited on their debut All the Witches Dance (1994) (NSFW).

The Regal, Diamond-Shaped Hole in this List

For those who are confused, there is in fact an undisputed reigning monarch in occult metal, and he goes by Diamond. King Diamond the man, Kim Bendix Petersen, has had a deceptively pervasive influence across all of metal considering his relative obscurity outside the metal landscape. His early work with the all-time classic band Mercyful Fate has been cited as the seed that grew into black metal, sown alongside fellow NWOBHM Satanists in Venom. In fact, the metal makeup de jour, corpse paint, can essentially be traced back to the King himself, whose aesthetic has become as iconic as his music. Furthermore, the biggest metal band of all time, Metallica, have repeatedly cited King Diamond and Mercyful Fate as important influences. The King’s reign has been long and storied.

Mercyful Fate – Don’t Break the Oath

While religious themes have been a part of metal since Black Sabbath’s debut, Mercyful Fate is what solidified anti-Christian and occult lyrical themes as a mainstay in the metal canon. Don’t Break the Oath (1984) is a legendary metal album with innovative riffing, intelligent song structures, and a monstrous vocal performance balancing warm, emotional cleans with a razor-sharp falsetto courtesy of the King. While it should not be a huge factor in the appreciation of any music, the album artwork by Thomas Holm is arguably his most iconic work. Album opener “A Dangerous Meeting” describes a group of teenagers who try to call upon the dead, only to meet a grisly fate. After an extended, tense intro, the allusions to the consequences of their foolhardiness are suddenly intensified by a piercing “They’re gonna get themselves killed!” at the end of the first chorus with an intensity that consistently gives me goosebumps. The closer to the album, “Come to the Sabbath,” is one of the most legendary singles in all of metal, detailing the occult meeting of a cadre of ghoulish figures such as demons and witches through a high energy metal blitzkrieg. The epic intro sequence is groovy heavy metal bliss in its purest form, and the banshee-esque wailing of King Diamond in the verse commands the listener’s attention. The way Mercyful Fate meld groove, melody, and extremity is unmatched, and altogether has led to metal publications considering this to be extreme metal despite the lack of harsh vocals and blast beats that define the term in common parlance. What could be more metal than that?

King Diamond – Abigail

If metal is a genre made for Halloween, then King Diamond is the metal figure who solidified it. It is for this reason that I had an extremely difficult time limiting myself to a single project of his, so my compromise was to include Mercyful Fate as well as his “solo” project since they are technically different groups. More importantly, there are key musical distinctions between Mercyful Fate and King Diamond that justify their inclusion. After the release of Don’t Break the Oath, musical differences between King Diamond and guitarist Hank Shermann drove Diamond, guitarist Michael Denner, and bassist Timi Hansen (RIP) to form the eponymous group (named that way for an easier record deal on the back of a pre-established reputation). More theatrical and progressive than Mercyful Fate, King Diamond represents the vision of the man himself as well as the talented musicians around him, and has become an important piece of the metal canon that can stand apart from their first internationally successful band. The culmination of these efforts is the concept album and masterpiece Abigail (1987), which tells the tragic story of a family bloodline torn apart in the 19^th century by grievous sin, rage, arrogance, and hate. That is to say, the album is quintessential Gothic horror! Musically, the album features an unparalleled range of aggression and tranquility, melody and dissonance, and the deadly croon of King Diamond orchestrating the whole story. The way he is able to deftly portray a variety of characters in the story, conveying each unique personality despite ostensibly only having a single set of vocal chords, is unmatched: theatricality is integral to Abigail. With a standard 5-piece metal band, King Diamond’s Abigail manages to impress upon the listener a more dramatic musical than any number of symphonic imitators by the sheer bulk of songwriting talent between the aforementioned members credited on the album. If they can use their band structure to beat others at a more ambitious structural game, then it should go without saying that their metal chops are transcendent during the more conventional metal stretches. The riffs on display on Abigail are renowned for their melodic perfection, and King Diamond’s vocals complement them with excellence. Despite the fairly dense story being told, the music never feels like it is only a vehicle for it; the songs are built around the extravagance of the narrative to accommodate for it while remaining strong enough to stand on their own at all times. As an instrumental, this would still be an all-time classic album. I cannot recommend Abigail highly enough. There is an adjustment period for appreciating King Diamond’s vocals, but the experience is wholly unique and worthwhile. Suffice it to say, this is the quintessential Halloween metal album. If you have no stake in metal but want an immersive Halloween experience, turn off the lights, light a candle and some incense, and experience Abigail. 

Article by Tyler Harding