10 Scarily Good Albums to Prepare You For Spooky Season

It’s almost time for Halloween! October/November always brings out the best in music, as there are so many dark, cold, and unwaveringly creepy albums one could listen to. From the depressing to the creepy and in between!

Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You

2001

Indie rock, post-hardcore, post-rock, art rock, gothic rock

Favorite tracks: all (particularly October All Over, Demons Sing Love Songs, Summer Freeze, Look a Ghost, Terminus, Off This Century, One Lick Less, Treachery, Below the Salt)

Least favorite track: n/a

14 tracks, 1h 16m

Much like fall itself, Leaves Turn Inside You is cold and crisp, biting at you while also managing to stay within a certain level of normalcy. Unwound’s jangly, aggressive brand of indie cuts through any expectations you might have of the genre like a hot knife through butter, and its more experimental tracks often delve into a complete and utter cacophony of textured instrumentation and ambience. It’s dark. It’s contemplative. It’s off the wall. It’s perfect for a rainy nighttime walk.

Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I May See

1993

Dream pop, neo-psychedelia, psychedelic folk, alt-country, slowcore

Favorite tracks: Fade Into You (obv), Five String Serenade, Bells Ring, Blue Light, Mary of Silence, She’s My Baby, Into Dust

Least favorite track: Unreflected

10 tracks, 51m

Blending the sugary sweet sound of dream pop with a hazy spin on alt-country a la Fleetwood Mac, “So Tonight That I May See” is probably one of the most cozy and chilly examples of dream pop to come out of the '90s. Drenched in reverb, Hope Sandoval delivers poignant, poetic lyrics of love with her vibrant, mesmerizing, and practically unclassifiable voice, backed by punchy drums, light distortion, transcendental slide guitar solos, floaty organ lines, and unearthly strums. It’s ideal for sitting around a bonfire and drinking hot chocolate while talking with friends.

Billy Woods - GOLLIWOG

2025

Abstract hip hop, experimental hip hop, East Coast hip hop, jazz rap, drumless

Favorite tracks: all (particularly Misery, Waterproof Mascara, BLK XMAS, Counterclockwise, STAR87, A Doll Fulla Pins, Lead Paint Test)

Least favorite: n/a

18 tracks, 51m

Named after the racial caricature of the golliwog, a kind of 19th-century ragdoll depicted on the cover, Billy Woods' newest album is a brutal living hell, dealing with some of the most horrifying subject matter I’ve heard on a recent rap album. With Billy's monotone, poetic flow, he skitters over insanely dark production from big names like SadhuGold, frequent collaborator Kenny Segal, The Alchemist, Conductor Williams, and El-P, delivering cutthroat verses about domestic violence, Marxism-Leninism, urban gun violence, the Israel-Palestine war, the harrowing struggles of the homeless, and the hells faced by those in marginalized/low income communities. It pulls no punches, going completely off the deep end with lyricism and rhyme schemes. It’s just completely horrifying.

Pale Saints - Flesh Balloon

1991

Dream pop, shoegaze, neo-psychedelia, ethereal wave

Favorite tracks: Hunted, Kinky Love

Least favorite track: Porpoise

4 tracks, 19m

On this 19-minute EP, Pale Saints utilizes the power of the humble guitar pedal to create some darkly sweet soundscapes. The vocals, provided by Lush member Meriel Barham, are super ghostly, and they evoke a sense of mystique and otherworldliness. The guitarist's guitar work switches between floaty, jangly strumming and explosive distortion in a heartbeat. The band’s cover of Nancy Sinatra’s single “Kinky Love” is easily one of the most infectiously replayable songs I’ve ever heard.

Mayhem - De mysteriis dom Sathanas

1994

Black metal

Favorite tracks: Freezing Moon, Life Eternal, Funeral Fog, Pagan Fears

Least favorite track: Buried by Time and Dust

8 tracks, 46m

De mysteriis dom Sathanas easily has one of the most insane histories of any metal album, involving satanism, arson, murder, and severe mental illness.  It features rapid blast beats (created by alternating or simultaneously hitting the kick, snare, and sometimes cymbals at high speeds), gritty, lo-fi production, thunderous tremolo guitars, and dirgelike screaming. It sounds like a mix of screeching owls and Mongolian throat singing. It’s a vampiric, Lovecraftian display of musicianship and vocal ability that will send shivers down your spine with every note.

Knocked Loose - A Tear in the Fabric of Life

2021

Metalcore, deathcore, beatdown hardcore 

Favorite tracks: all (big ups to God Knows, Where Light Divides the Holler, Permanent)

Least favorite track: Return to Passion

6 tracks, 21m

One of the most exhilarating projects on this list, Knocked Loose’s “Magnum Opus” is a brutal display of grief, loss, frustration, and helplessness, following a protagonist who loses a loved one, seemingly his partner, in a car accident and struggles to accept her death. He’s suffering a mental breakdown and believing it was his fault, along with seeing her ghost. It pulls absolutely zero punches, with some of the most insane lyricism I have ever heard on a metal album. Every breakdown hits like a train, with slamming riffs, discordant pinch harmonics, tribal blast beats, and blood-curdling screams from lead vocalist Bryan Garris and backing vocalist Isaac Hale, along with Matt King of black metal band Portrayal of Guilt, who has a feature on “God Knows.” The production is crushing and claustrophobic, further trapping the listener in an inescapable world of despair. 

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

2012

Alternative metal, shoegaze, post-metal, alternative rock, dream pop

Favorite tracks: all (particularly Rosemary, Entombed, Romantic Dreams, Leathers, Swerve City, Tempest, Gauze

Least favorite track: Graphic Nature

11 tracks, 51m

On “Koi No Yokan,” Deftones proves their ability to blend sheer aggression with atmosphere and depth. Walls of guitar effects from Stephen Carpenter and chilling vocals from Chi Cheng collide to create an otherworldly environment that feels like armageddon in your eardrums. Disgusting riffs, spacey synth pads, insane vocals, head-splitting drums, and layers of explosive strumming all culminate in 51 minutes of nocturnal, apocalyptic alt metal. Not only does every song sound like a disturbing, alien cult meeting put to music, “Tempest” is lyrically based on a series of Mayan myths that claimed the world would end on December 21, 2012, 43 days after the album’s release, a creepy fact for a haunting album. 

Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red

2020

Rage, trap, experimental hip hop, Southern

Favorite tracks: Sky, ILoveUIHateU, Rockstar Made, Stop Breathing, Vamp Anthem, M3tamorphosis (ft Kid Cudi), Control, On That Time, Slay3r, New Tank

Least favorite tracks: Punk Monk, JumpOutTheHouse, Meh

24 tracks, 1h 3m

Taking a complete 180 from everything else on this list so far, Carti’s colossal “Whole Lotta Red” blends horror movie and punk rock aesthetics, eclectic fashion design, and buzzy rage melodies for an aggressive, vampiric album that you’ll definitely want to play while trick-or-treating. Over grinding bass, industrial synths, clicky hi hats, and explosive 808s, he braggingly screams in autotune such lines as “I could make an opp disappear like mag ic,” ”I just hit a lick with a mask, MF DOOM,” “Spent 100K on my son, I bought my sister a Jeep,” and “SRT with no mileage; SRT, it’s not silent.” Across 24 tracks of nonstop adrenaline, he flaunts his luxury lifestyle and brutally disses his foes, switching from happily singing about cars and private jets to FWÆHing about court cases and calling rival rappers weak in a heartbeat. Features from Kid Cudi, Kanye, and Future add to the chaos with fire flows and amazing bars. WLR is dark, angry, and brooding, much like the horror villains Carti tries to portray himself as. It’s good!!

Frank Ocean - Blonde 

2016

Alternative R&B, art pop, neo-soul

Favorite tracks: all (big ups to Nights, Skyline To, Solo, Nikes, Ivy, Pink + White, Self Control, Godspeed, Seigfried)

Least favorite track: Facebook Story

17 tracks, 1h 

I had to do at least one end-of-summer album this month, and I’ve gone with the GOATED Blonde. Blonde is melancholic and heartfelt, but behind all that sadness comes a gorgeously composed, beautifully written, and atmospherically stunning masterpiece of musical genius. Frank beautifully belts out his feelings about his lover with smoothness and grace, like a penguin gently gliding across a patch of sea ice. The mournful pads, somber strings, vulnerable guitar strums, soulful church organs, and thick bass plucks of the instrumentals perfectly match the tone and energy of the lyrics. The concept follows a search of self, sexuality, youthful nostalgia, an exploration of feelings, loss, and love, and Frank perfectly captures these themes with his super chilling voice.

Portishead - Portishead

1997

Trip hop, dark jazz, acid jazz, turntablism

Favorite tracks: All Mine, Cowboys, Only You, Mourning Air, Over, Humming, Undenied

Least favorite track: Half Day Closing

11 tracks, 50m

Portishead’s self-titled sophomore album is a departure from their magnum opus, Dummy, relying entirely on original material made to sound like samples through editing rather than actual samples, the only samples being vocal snippets from The Pharcyde’s “She Said on Only You.” This album is cold and gripping like a nighttime thunderstorm, with deep bass lines, reverb-heavy drums, unsympathetic piano melodies, shrill brass, haunting vocals, and airy guitars that all culminate in a peculiar and ominous collection of uneasy jazz hits. Cinematic, chilling, and atmospheric, it’s one of my personal favorites on this list for its sheer depth and production quality.

Thanks for reading the Blue Devil Beat this month, and Happy Halloween!!