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Through a intriguing journey into fear-inducing audio, several well-known goth and metal artists discuss the compositions that give chills down their spines.

An Experimental Artist

The Master Composer – A Chilling Score (1960)

While scary tunes frequently excites this artist, the piece that most induces chills is the bathroom sequence music from Alfred Hitchcock's classic movie The Thriller. Even after countless watchings, the slashing knife synched with the composer's score consistently creates terror.

More recently, the artist went through a phase of viewing Japanese and Korean horror films. Unfortunately, I had to stop watching them due to a heart condition, yet none affected me like the Psycho sequence. Audio paired with images heightens the experience, holding you in a state of elevated expectation for the unexpected.

Sunn O))) Founder

Abruptum – A Sinister Track (The Nineties)

The notorious seven-inch was acquired from a acquaintance in the early nineties. We were unsure its nature or the correct rotation to listen, 33rpm or 45rpm. It's really disturbing, deranged, improvised heavy music filled with agony and suffering.

Stories circulated about the late frontman Tony Särkkä, referred to as IT, with a few allegations later validated. At that time, it was said the audio documented an individual named IT being abused and electrocuted during singing recordings.

Negative comments often arise when black metal is introduced to the mainstream, but I believe darkness is infinitely more profound in the open, and the mainstream is much more disturbed today than that obscure underground community was in the nineties.

Amy Walpole

Sloppy Jane – A Haunting Song (2021)

I was drawn to this band's album The Cave Album because it was made in a cavern. This track is open to interpretation, but it seems it's a song about isolation and desiring to be remembered after passing away. A few words depict death in gruesome ways, while others include mundane imagery like a toy figure.

Having been brought up in a charismatic Christian church – essentially a sect – until adolescence, the connection is strong to the religious aspects. I find cathartic. This is a ballad, fundamentally, but dark, macabre and sad, and the artist adores the strange, underground atmosphere.

Cabaret Voltaire Icon

Henry Blair – A Creepy Recording (The Forties)

It formed part of a collection of mini musical plays starring a young child, Sparky, who was trying to master the piano. The experience occurred when a young age, years after its debut. A radio station used to run a kids' program on Saturday morning radio, playing music that adults felt children would like, often 40s and 50s quirky tracks, which proved very unsettling.

Sparky’s Magic Piano fascinated and terrified the listener. When Sparky’s mother was out of the room, the piano would begin speaking to him in a tone generated by a Sonovox, a primitive vocoder. In my opinion that was the spark for an ongoing fascination with altering sounds, but as a five-year-old, the belief was it was a small boy trapped inside a piano for eternity.

Ho99o9 Artist

Herbie Hancock – Paint Her Mouth, from the Death Wish soundtrack (1974)

The artist's father was a big fan of thrilling movies, so the viewing of Death Wish occurred in youth. Residence in an urban environment that was similar to the metropolis shown in the movie, with groups, muggings and break-ins, so the connection was real. To me, that was more frightening than slasher films or horror classics.

As an adult, I stumbled across the music occurred, and if you listen in alone, it's genuinely eerie. The musician's a genius but the impressive aspect is he achieves a lot out of so little – like a small snare drum sound or simple synthesiser, an echo or some strings. It just seems like gloom, or like being stalked, so you need to hold your bag or have your keys out when you approach your home.

Jinjer Vocalist

A Russian Band – Opium for No One (1994)

When I was young, scary cartoons or movies didn't scare me much. Then, after my older brother introduced the artist to rock music, I listened took place one afternoon in winter when my parents had gone to work and truly got the chills. It's Russian darkwave. The name translates as A Lonely Drug. It's more gothic and melancholy than terrifying, but the lyrics are really dark. “I paint my lips black with black substance … the celestial bodies shine beautifully at me and the underworld looks attractive.” Then: “End my life, kill yourself, you can't alter a thing.”

As a child, I didn't know what it was about, and imagined scenes in the mind. I was born in Russia but raised in a neighboring nation, and in the region in the 90s the songs got quite gloomy. Now, residence in the US. All my friends have departed the country, and when contacting family, sometimes I hear bombing.

The Pretty Reckless Singer

John Williams – Main Title, Theme From Jaws (1975)

I was 10 or 11 when the initial viewing of The Film and the movie would not be as impactful without the musician's score. In my view, it's the ultimate of scary music because of its simplicity. With just two notes and slightly varying the velocity, it generates immense anxiety. You sense that something is coming, and the motif replicate the primal simplicity of the predator's instinct.

The difference between the shark film and supernatural films is that the threat – a shark attack – is real. The artist enjoys to swim. For a long time, there was a house in a state and would swim in the sea for extended periods. God forbid, if that music's in your head and something touches your foot, you start to freak out. You can't help thinking: “Shark!”

William Von Ghould

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – A Dark Ballad (1996)

I remember acquiring the The Album album home in young adulthood and a friend asking the listener to stop the song because it was scaring him. The song is sort of an update on an American folk ballad, but it's nothing like the first version. It's very graphic, but the frightening thing is that the antagonist is a person. Cave is inhabiting a murderous character, but is very convincing.

It’s got that crazy, violent line: “I’ll crawl over many individuals just to get one fat boy’s asshole” – it's likely more disturbing now than it was back then. Similar to scary movies, the track leaves you stunned. Performances with a lot of dark, Halloween-type bands but nothing’s as truly scary as the song.

Cassy Brooking

A Modern Musician – {Perverts