Cherry Filter - Anothr Blood of Witch

This seems more like an interlude than a proper song, but it still sounds cool with Youjeen’s freakishly high ghosty wailing. The track is a nice amalgamation of a variety of her vocal styles, in a way. I love how she has mastery of everything from growling to singing in the whistle register. Happy Halloween!

Cherry Filter - Anothr Blood of Witch:

IAMX - Commanded by Voices

I know I keep posting songs off the same album by this artist, despite him having released others. I finally listened to another of them recently, and although I really liked it I still am stuck on this one, Volatile Times, for some reason.
Note: HD vooooooices!

IAMX - Commanded by Voices:

Yma Sumac - Magic

All the way from 1957 comes this otherworldly track! Some have suggested that it sounds like a chant that would accompany some kind of ancient, scary ritual, but I think it takes on a ghostly quality in the part where her voice leaps up like 3 octaves.

Yma Sumac - Magic:

Dead Man’s Bones - Buried in Water

This artist, fronted by actor Ryan Gosling, was last year’s Halloween post, and I’m posting their music again as the holiday is nearly upon us. That’s not surprising, because practically all of their music is Halloween-themed, filled with lyrics about various manifestations of the undead. The kids’ crappy singing, especially at the end, bothers me though. It makes it feel like I’m watching a school play.

Dead Man’s Bones - Buried in Water:

Nightwish - Ghost Love Score

If you’ve never heard this artist before… this is what they sound like. Symphonic metal? I can’t keep up with the kids and their terminology these days. Anyway, this level of over-the-top theatricality is pretty typical of their style. As cheesy as it is, it can also be pretty nice and is good for drowning out the rest of the world. It’s a little weird I’ve never posted music by them before, considering how long I’ve known of them, but I think their overwrought style deterred me.

Nightwish - Ghost Love Score:

Birds of Paradise - Monster of the Monastery

I came across this track through YouTube surfing. I wish the chorus were easier to hear, because from what I CAN hear it sounds nice. I don’t hate the screaming, but it’s also not that much to my taste so it’s good that that’s not the whole song.
Note: HD!!!!!!!! *scream*

Birds of Paradise - Monster of the Monastery:

Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart

A little while ago when I was looking to this artist’s music, I naturally came across this song. I even thought I’d already posted it, but a friend pointed out that I hadn’t. She also said the song has been used in a number of television shows.
Note: The song has HD, but for full-on creepiness watch the music video too. I don’t know what’s going on in it, but it can’t be good.

Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart:


Music video is here:

Patrick Wolf - Mercia

My housemates and I were just talking about the possibility that our house is haunted. So I bring you this song, which mentions a haunted house! Plus it has all those layered ghosty vocals in various parts of the song.

Patrick Wolf - Mercia:

Dresden Dolls - Missed Me

The first time I listened to this song I was struck by its interesting rhyme scheme and lyrical dexterity. This song is so… evil. It’s about a girl who tempts an older man into getting involved with her out of some sick sense of neediness and seemingly has no remorse about getting him in trouble. It’s so clever how the lyrics use a children’s nursery rhyme and twist it into a meaning both sinister and adult. There’s profanity and all that.

Dresden Dolls - Missed Me:

The Cliks - Walking in a Graveyard

Could there be a song more fitting for the season? It even sounds like it was made for a children’s Halloween movie! I don’t mean that in a demeaning way; it just has that vibe. I saw this artist live years ago and my, how their sound has changed.
Note: HD quality is available!

The Cliks - Walking in a Graveyard:

Goldfrapp - Human

All the songs on this artist’s debut album sound like something from an old horror movie/noir thriller. This is actually the most energetic track on the album, and perhaps the most conventional.
Note: The track is available in HD!

Goldfrapp - Human:

Buck-Tick - Muma ~ The Nightmare

Wikipedia names the album this song is from as the artist’s foray into a deliberate gothic image, but in my opinion they took on the gothic image long before that. However, it is true that I could pick virtually any song off the album and it would fit the Halloween theme.
Note: Holy shiznit, a Japanese song available in HD that hasn’t been taken down yet?!

 Buck-Tick - Muma ~ The Nightmare:

Ceylan Ertem - Çok Yakın

While looking for Turkish music on YouTube, I came across this music video. I’m not sure what’s going on in the video, plotwise, but both sonically and visually it seems pretty unsettling.
Note: This is the official video, and it has HD!

Ceylan Ertem - Çok Yakın [Very Close]:

Caravan Palace - Sydney

This song takes the scariest elements of old timey music and the scariest elements of new music and puts them together. I like it, but it sounds like something that should accompany a disturbing fever dream sequence in a movie or something. This song is significantly more downtempo than their other music and doesn’t have quite the same effect, so in its lazy gait it doesn’t come across as “scary” so much as “spooky.”
Note: HD listening is here!

Caravan Palace - Sydney:

Evanescence - Even in Death

This artist is well-known for their mildly gothic image and less-than-upbeat sound. This song is no exception, but while many of their songs could be characterized as brooding and melancholy, this one leaps right into unsettling. It’s about someone who’s obsessed with her dead lover, staying at his grave and it even sounds to me like she plans to dig up the body.
Note: I found it in HD, and with a cool background image!

Evanescence - Even in Death:

Richard Marvin - Burying Lisa

This piece is quite a departure from yesterday’s rather upbeat track, and is from the television series Six Feet Under. It’s a pity that this song title is so spoilery, but not much I can do about it. The beautiful and refreshing thing about the series is that it addresses the topic of death in an unflinching way that takes into account its reality and inevitability while not neglecting the sadness that accompanies it. I feel like that tone is reflected in the music, as it conveys a tone of mourning and loss without being overwhelmingly tragic.

Richard Marvin - Burying Lisa:

Lee Jung Hyun - V

Yes, that is the artist attempting to pronounce “V.” The music of this video isn’t what grabbed my attention, but the video itself did. It was sent to me by a friend because the video was directed by none other than Korean filmmaker Park Chan Wook (director of some of my favorite movies, which have unsettling air). Infantile women (i.e. lolita chic) ain’t my style at all, but this video has some distinctive elements of the director’s other work. The harpsichord music, the awkward humor in dark situations, and of course the cinematic nature...
Note: It’s a K-pop video, which means it has HD.

Lee Jung Hyun A.K.A. 이정현 - V:

Tiger Lou - The Loyal

I'm not in love with this Swedish artist, but I found the band through the related videos margin on YouTube and liked the creepiness of this song. The video is up that alley as well.

Tiger Lou - The Loyal:

Snow Ghosts - Murder Cries

Hollyoaks, you’ve done it again. I’d never heard of this artist before this song was used in an episode I watched. Although I heard this song months ago I saved it for now because it seems perfect for the Halloween season. It also has a bit of a Southern (American) gospel sound to it.
Note: I could only find this song in the music video, but that’s OK because it’s in HD! Be warned, though, it features some freaky ish.

Snow Ghosts - Murder Cries:

Gackt - Lust for Blood

Theatrical as always, this artist brings us another song that sounds like it belongs in the ending credits of a Japanese horror film or something. This song actually manages to sound pretty creepy. To me, at least.

Gackt - Lust for Blood:

Angela Lansbury & Len Cariou - A Little Priest

This song is from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd, the original cast recording. I saw Tim Burton's movie version when it came out in theaters, and from the start of this song I appreciated the macabre humor of the lyrics. They struck me as painfully clever. This version is longer than the movie version, which means even more punchlines packed into one song. In case you aren’t familiar with the play or can’t derive the meaning from the lyrics on their own, the two characters are scheming to use human meat to save their impoverished meat pie business.

Angela Lansbury & Len Cariou - A Little Priest:

Sting - The Last Ship

This British artist is practically a legend in his longtime fame, so I suppose it’s odd that the song I’m choosing by him is from his most recent release. He wrote the music for his own Broadway musical, The Last Ship. This is the title track. I love ghostiness of it, combined with the Celticness and pirateyness.
Note: HD listening here!

Sting - The Last Ship:

Florence + the Machine - Spectrum

Earlier today, my friend got into this artist’s music. Hurray! This is one of the songs she named as among her favorites from her sampling of Florence's music today. The first time I heard this song, the word that crossed my mind was “triumphant.” Although many of this artist’s songs are filled with melancholy, there’s something jubilant, strong, and celebratory about this song’s sound, especially the chorus. Although I haven’t a clue what the lyrics are actually about (and believe me, I’ve tried to figure it out), it feels like she’s singing about a victory of some sort, in a “We shall overcome” kind of way.
Note: Hdeeeeeeeeeeee!

Florence + the Machine - Spectrum:

Jeong Dong In - 홈페이지

From one soundtrack of a horror movie directed by a Korean filmmaker to another… This piece is from the soundtrack of the Korean horror film Arang. I did watch the movie, but not until after I’d listened to the soundtrack several times. By then, I recognized the pieces when they arose in the movie, and this piece, despite its brevity, is what stood out to me the most.

 Jeong Dong In A.K.A. 정동인 - 홈페이지 [Homp’eiji - Homepage]:

Emily Wells - Becomes the Color

When I was trying to think of a likely way to find eerie-sounding music to fit this month’s theme, I thought, “I should look up the song that was used in the ending credits of Stoker.” I didn’t remember the music, but I figured that the disturbing movie’s soundtrack would be a good place to look for the type I wanted. I ended up not even having to look it up myself, because that information came to me shortly after when I quickly searched for information about something else that was, like Stoker, directed by the esteemed Park Chan Wook. This artist is actually the violinist as well, which I think is pretty cool. Compound that with her skills on a variety of other instruments and we have a winner.
Note: This song has HD quality available!

Emily Wells - Becomes the Color:

Delta Rae - Surrounded

A nice song by this group, with a male vocalist singing lead instead of the usual female vocalist. The lyrics of this song appeal to me—they’re unconventional in a way, and are seemingly about how history weighs on us all. (Interesting that this all-white southern group specifically alludes to slavery in the song when evoking the past of the region.) I can’t help but notice the despite the lyrics that might read as forlorn on their own, the tone of the melody is uplifting and—dare I say it?—worshipful. Perhaps this is because there’s something awe-inspiring and beautiful about the knowledge that where you stand now is the site of a deep, rich history that is so formative to your situation as to be all-encompassing and inescapable. All that you are is the culmination of everything that came before, and there’s a certain reverence to be held for the idea that you are built upon generations of a past you’ll never know.
Note: Eyy, HD!

Delta Rae - Surrounded:

Poe - Haunted

I looked up music by this artist because of her work as the featured vocalist in the Conjure One song I’ve previously posted. Her singing style is pretty lacking in flourishes and embellishment, which I’m normally a sucker for, but in this case it’s actually the smoothness of her voice that appeals to me.

Poe - Haunted:

Puscifer - Rev 22:20

I can’t remember how I heard this song, but it sounds darn good. I didn’t realize this artist consists of the lead guy from Tool and A Perfect Circle. This song is not family-friendly and it has Christian references that might be considered offensive…

Puscifer - Rev 22:20:

Lana Del Rey - Once Upon a Dream

This song takes the cheery love song from the 1959 Disney movie Sleeping Beauty and reappropriates it for the modern Maleficent movie. Just as Maleficent twists the original fairytale into a haunting story, this song twists the upbeat song to suit the mood of the movie, infusing it with a haunting quality.
Note: HD listening is recommended.

Lana Del Rey - Once Upon a Dream:

Placebo - Sleeping with Ghosts

One of my friends said this artist’s music has a sound of “emptiness” to it. I think I know what he meant by that, because their songs are indeed imbued with a sense of melancholy, like a hollow ache. Somehow, though, this is part of what’s so appealing about them to me. This is one of the first songs I heard by this British band, and clearly it made a good impression because it still ranks among my favorites by them and led me to look up more music by them.
Note: HD quality, yo!

Placebo - Sleeping with Ghosts:

Tribalistas - O Amor é Feio

It’s October, which means, at least for me, Halloween season! This is one of the eeriest-sounding songs about love I’ve heard. Nothing in the lyrics is explicitly spooky, but the sound of the song overall sounds well-suited to the Halloween season.

Tribalistas - O Amor é Feio [Love is Ugly]: