Through a intriguing journey into spine-chilling sounds, several renowned rock and heavy performers discuss the compositions that give chills down their spines.
Cosey Fanni Tutti
The Master Composer – A Chilling Score (1960)
Although frightening tunes often thrills me, the composition that most sends shivers is the bathroom sequence music from Alfred Hitchcock's iconic movie Psycho. Even after countless watchings, the slashing knife paired with Herrmann's score consistently induces fear.
More recently, the artist experienced a phase of viewing Japanese and Korean horror films. Sadly, I had to stop watching them due to a heart condition, yet not one impacted the listener like the Hitchcock shower scene. Music set to visuals heightens the sensation, holding you in a condition of heightened expectation for the unexpected.
Sunn O))) Founder
Abruptum – Evil (1991)
This notorious seven-inch was acquired from a friend in the early nineties. The listeners didn't know what this was or the correct rotation to play it, slow or fast. It's really messed up, demented, spontaneous doom/black metal saturated with pain and torture.
Stories circulated about the late frontman Tony Särkkä, referred to as IT, with a few allegations subsequently validated. At that time, it was said the recording captured an individual called IT being abused and shocked during vocal sessions.
Negative comments often arise when the genre is exposed to the mainstream, but in my view darkness is infinitely more profound in the light, and the popular culture is much more disturbed today than that obscure underground scene was in the nineties.
Witch Fever Member
An Experimental Act – Jesus and Your Living Room Floor (Recent Years)
I was drawn to this band's album Madison because it was made in a cave. This track is open to interpretation, but it seems it's a piece about isolation and wanting to be recalled after passing away. A few lyrics depict dying in gruesome ways, while other parts include ordinary descriptions like a toy figure.
Having been brought up in a religious group – basically a sect – until I was 16, the connection is strong to the spiritual themes. I find cathartic. It's a ballad, essentially, but gloomy, gothic and melancholic, and I love the unusual, alternative atmosphere.
Cabaret Voltaire Icon
Henry Blair – A Creepy Recording (The Forties)
This was part of a series of mini musical plays featuring a young child, Sparky, who was trying to master the piano. I heard it when a young age, more than a decade after its debut. The BBC broadcast a kids' program on Saturday morning airwaves, playing music that grownups thought kids would like, often 40s and 50s quirky tracks, which I found deeply disturbing.
Sparky’s Magic Piano fascinated and frightened me. When Sparky’s mother was out of the room, the piano would begin speaking to him in a voice produced by a Sonovox, a primitive voice modulator. In my opinion that was the spark for an ongoing preoccupation with altering sounds, but as a child, I was convinced it was a youngster trapped inside a piano for eternity.
Ho99o9 Artist
Herbie Hancock – A Tense Piece, from the Action Film score (1974)
My dad was a enthusiast of action films, so the viewing of Death Wish occurred in childhood. We lived in an urban environment that was similar to the New York shown in the movie, with groups, robberies and break-ins, so the connection was real. To me, that was much scarier than Halloween or horror classics.
Later on in life, the discovery of the music happened, and if you listen in isolation, it's truly chilling. Herbie Hancock's a master but what I love is he gets so much out of minimal elements – like a little percussion sound or simple synthesiser, an echo or string instruments. It just feels like darkness, or like being stalked, so you feel compelled to hold your bag or have your key ready when you approach your home.
Jinjer Vocalist
Agatha Christie – Опиум для никого (1994)
When I was young, scary cartoons or movies didn't scare the listener much. Then, after my older brother exposed the artist to rock music, the hearing took place one afternoon in winter when family had left home and truly felt scared. It's Russian darkwave. The name means A Lonely Drug. It's more dark and sad than horrifying, but the lyrics are really bleak. “Dark makeup with black substance … the stars shine beautifully at me and the underworld looks appealing.” Then: “End my life, take your own, you can't alter anything.”
As a child, I didn't know the meaning, and painted pictures in the mind. I was born in Russia but raised in a neighboring nation, and in the region in the nineties the music got quite gloomy. Currently, I live in California. All my friends have left the country, and when contacting family, occasionally I hear explosions.
Taylor Momsen
John Williams – Opening Theme, The Shark Music (1975)
I was 10 or 11 when the initial viewing of The Film and the film would not be as impactful without John Williams's theme. In my view, it's the king of scary music because of its simplicity. With just two notes and changing the intensity, it creates immense anxiety. You feel that something is coming, and the two notes replicate the primal simplicity of the predator's instinct.
The difference between Jaws and zombie or monster movies is that the danger – a marine incident – is real. The artist enjoys to swim. For a long time, there was a home in a state and would take dips in the sea for hours. God forbid, if that theme's in your head and a contact occurs, you start to freak out. You can't help thinking: “Predator!”
Creeper Frontman
A Legendary Band – Stagger Lee (1996)
The recollection bringing the Murder Ballads album home in my 20s and a friend telling me to stop the song because it was scaring him. Stagger Lee is sort of an reinterpretation on an traditional tune, but it's very different from the original. It's very graphic, but the frightening thing is that the antagonist is a person. The singer is portraying a murderous persona, but is very convincing.
It’s got that crazy, aggressive lyric: “I’ll crawl over 50 good pussies just to get one fat boy’s asshole” – it's likely more disturbing now than it was originally. Like a great horror film, the track takes your breath away. We play with a lot of gothic, spooky bands but no other as truly scary as this.
Cassyette Artist
A Modern Musician – {Perverts
