Mercyful Fate - Return of the Vampire (1992)

Unless you're either young or not at all into metal, it's safe to say that you love Mercyful Fate's first two albums, Melissa and Don't Break the Oath. If not, you've got problems, son. For the rest of us, here's Return of the Vampire, which collects a bunch of demo recordings, revealing a rawer, unpolished, but still totally awesome version of the band that we know and love. Happy Halloween, nerds!

Track listing:
1. Burning the Cross
2. Curse of the Pharaohs
3. Return of the Vampire
4. On a Night of Full Moon
5. A Corpse Without Soul
6. Death Kiss
7. Leave My Soul Alone
8. M.D.A.
9. You Asked for It

There’s only one way you can stop him
You gotta trace the vampire to his liar, oh yeah
And then you gotta drive the stake
Right through the heart of the living dead, oh yeah

Oneiroid Psychosis - Stillbirth (1995)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Oneiroid Psychosis - DREAMS (With Pollutions When Virile) (2002)

In the OPIUM HUM household, no Halloween is complete without the traditional listening to of Oneiroid Psychosis' entire catalogue. It's a tradition because I am a total sucker for their sound -- straight-faced, electro-industrial-tinged darkwave with horror movie keyboards and self-consciously creepy vocals and lyrics -- but as I mentioned last year, it doesn't feel socially acceptable to listen to them at any other time of year. I go back and forth on what my favorite album of their is, but as of press time, I'm going with Stillbirth, their first and least cheesy record.

Track listing:
1. Succubi
2. Prurience
3. Fleshmachine
4. Bloodlust
5. Menarche
6. Hypnagogic Existence
7. Psychopathia Sexualis
8. Mind's I
9. Motionless
10. Broken Eyes
11. (Untitled)

Swallowing blood
Running red
Spits down the neck
Spreads on the bed

Khlyst - Chaos Is My Name (2006)

Khlyst was a one-off project formed by James Plotkin of Khanate (duh) and Runhild Gammelsæter, vocalist for the great, short-lived Thorr's Hammer. Musically, it's difficult to pin down with a simple description -- as I am wont to do -- but can be largely summed up by its first two tracks: the deranged burst of cacophonous guitars and vicious, banshee-like shrieks that opens the album, and the eight minutes of cavernous, ghostly dark ambient that follows.

The song names are all Roman numerals, I-VIII, so no need to list 'em out.

A voice means you get cut
Don't you talk
Don't you move

"You wanna go for breakfast later?"

School's been keeping me pretty busy of late, y'all. I'll be back to regular posting tomorrow, but in my absence please enjoy this, the most brutal murder scene in Halloween II.

Fabio Frizzi - L'Aldila (The Beyond) OST (1981)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Walter Rizzati - Quella Villa Accanto Al Cimitero (The House by the Cemetery) OST (1981)

Though Zombie might be Fulci's most popular movie -- you can't really top the zombie versus shark underwater fight scene -- The Beyond is his masterpiece. It's brutal, frightening, and mysterious, like any quality Italian horror flick should be, and Fabio Frizzi (who also did the music for Fulci's City of the Living Dead) delivers a perfectly creepy soundtrack.

Track listing:
1. Verso L'Ignoto
2. Voci Dal Nulla
3. Suono Aperto
4. Sequenza Coro E Orchestra
5. Oltre La Soglia
6. Voci Dal Nulla
7. Suono Aperto
8. Voci Dal Nulla
9. Giro Di Blues
10. Verso L'ignoto
11. Sequenza Ritmica E Terna

Who else is here?

Helium - Pirate Prude EP (1994)

First EP from this phenomenal band. It's Helium's slowest, moodiest, sludgiest record, and a beautiful showcase for the ramshackle, effortlessly brilliant guitar work that defined and continues to define Mary Timony's music (and in a more general sense, much of the best 90s indie rock.) It's not really all that spooky/scary/disturbing, so it doesn't exactly fit the whole Halloween theme I have going on here, but it's of my all-time favorite EPs -- one of the first vinyl purchases I ever made -- and there's an ample amount of vampire talk, so I'm calling it good.

Track listing:
1. Baby Vampire Made Me
2. Wanna Be a Vampire Too, Baby
3. XXX
4. OOO
5. I'll Get You, I Mean It
6. Love $$$
7. (Untitled Hidden Track)

Evil watch me
Watch over me
Give me eyes like yours
So I can see like you
I want evil eyes so I can spy

Sistrenatus - Sensitive Disturbance (2012)

Dark ambient with elements of harsh noise. Tense, dissonant sounds punctuated by pounding percussion, heavy drone, and fragmented explosions of jagged aural terror. The 'musical' equivalent of getting chased down, stabbed to death, and left for dead in the moss of a pitch-black forest.

Track listing:
1. Disrepair
2. Frequency Contamination
3. Rusted Earth
4. Echoes from the Past
5. Slow-Wave
6. Lost Transmission
7. Forgotten...

The face at the window

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If you like this, you'll probably enjoy other genuinely frightening albums like:
Funerary Call - Nightside Emanations (2012)
The Rita & Wilt - Werewolf in the Black Space (2008)
Enemite - Wuyuan (The Necrolatry) (2008)

Fade to Black - Corridors of Gender (1984)

A too short but still killer five song EP of first-rate goth rock. Some great synth and organ work, male-female vox, blah blah blah cool shit. They do it right. Every Halloween, I make a mix for driving around to whatever ghoulish events I might attend -- from haunted cover band shows to gory house parties to terrifying barhopping -- and "Soundtrack" has been the lead-off track for the past three years. So... I dunno, that's my story.

Track listing:
1. Black Box
2. Forward from Hell
3. Towers Open Fire
4. Soundtrack
5. Cinema Blue

I'll burn for you 'til the end of time

Nurse with Wound - Ostranenie 1913 (1983)

Two long, disturbing tracks of feedback, dialogue samples, tape manipulation, music boxes, spoken word, clanging percussion, and generally unsettling sounds. One of my very favorite of NWW's many, many releases.

Track listing:
1. Ostranenie
2. Dada

I cannot feel you as the dogs are laughing and I am blind

Ennio Morricone - La Corta Notte Delle Bambole Di Vetro OST (1971)

La Corta Notte Delle Bambole Di Vetro ranks among Morricone's more disturbing scores. I recommend putting this on in the background the next time you have company, and watching their faces as moans of orgasmic pleasure and/or terror and a cacophony of pounding, dissonant, symphonic anxiety fill the air, convincing your guests that you are, in fact, a serial killer.

Track listing:
1. Valzer
2. Emmetrentatre
3. Notte E Bambole
4. Brividi Di Archi
5. Oppressione
6. Depressione
7. Oppressione Di Mostri
8. Incoscientemente
9. Incubi Solitari
10. Bambole Di Vetro
11. Il Bisturi
12. Irrealtà E Follia
13. Sospiri Di Morte
14. Valzer

Horrible discovery

The Ravenous - Assembled in Blasphemy (2001) + Three on a Meathook E.P. (2003)

Assembled in Blasphemy: Good fucking lord this album is sick. It's death metal with doom tendencies -- much like Autopsy, two members of whom are on this record -- and thanks to reverb, gnarly bass/guitar tones, and some effectively edited and placed samples, it has this dense, dark atmosphere that makes it unique and positively disgusting. Plus, the riffs and songwriting are really good, so that helps. Includes members of Brutal Truth, Nuclear Assault, Necrophagia, and, like I just goddamn said, Autopsy. God I hate you sometimes.

Three on a Meathook: Great 4-song EP. Less atmosphere, but the songs are just as good.

Track listing:
-Assembled in Blasphemy-
1. Shrieks of the Mutilated
2. Dead, Cut Up, and Ready to Fuck
3. Orgy in Dog's Blood
4. Feasting from the Womb
5. Keep My Grave Open
6. Assembled in Blasphemy
7. Perverted Before God
8. Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind
9. Ageless Existence
10. Anointing the Worms
-Three on a Meathook-
1. Clotted Cryptic Writings
2. I Drink Your Blood
3. Three on a Meathook
4. Apocalyptic Paranoia

Intestines now slither
Like snakes betraying Christ

Black Putrefaction & Crucivomitorial Butcher - Black Putrefaction / Exploring the Limits of Unnecessary Surgery (2008)

Two bands, two quite different takes on goregrind/gorenoise. Black Putrefaction is/was (I seem to remember hearing that the project is defunct) one of the most unique, even artful voices in this absurd subgenre, and their four tracks are cacophonous, atmospheric washes of hyperspeed drum machine blastbeats, black static, reverb-drenched electro beats, and monstrous gutturals; their impact is virtually indistinguishable from that of harsh noise. Crucivomitorial Butcher, on the other hand, is far more typical, in that they have recognizable guitars, semi-comprehensible riffs, deranged samples at the beginning of every song, etc.

It's kinda shitty to discuss splits in terms of "Band A vs. Band B", as splits are done by bands that are cool with each other, and music isn't a contest. BUT if some asshole did act like this split was a fight, then the winner would be Black Putrefaction, absolutely no fucking contest. If you agree, then you should head over to Blogged and Quartered (this megapost, specifically) for more.

Track listing:
1. Black Putrefaction - Senotainia Albifrons
2. Black Putrefaction - Pyrellia Vivida
3. Black Putrefaction - Muscina Stabulans
4. Black Putrefaction - Stomoxys Calcitrans
5. Crucivomitorial Butcher - (Intro) Into the Fly-Clustered Maggotomb
6. Crucivomitorial Butcher - Homicidal Hallucinations from the Chainsaw Fumes
7. Crucivomitorial Butcher - Exploring the Limits of Unnecessary Surgery
8. Crucivomitorial Butcher - Involuntary Projectile Vomiting
9. Crucivomitorial Butcher - Sacrificial Slaughtersex
10. Crucivomitorial Butcher - (Outro) A Fetid Trail of Muck Left Behind
11. Crucivomitorial Butcher - Femalevolent Uterslicer
12. Crucivomitorial Butcher - Her Catheter Is My Straw
13. Crucivomitorial Butcher - I Cum Sewage

Behold the freshness of tenderized human meat

Nigga Creep - Demons Takin' Over Me (1995)

Nigga Creep was one of the lesser known rappers associated with Hypnotize Minds in the early/mid-90s. Aside from guest spots on a bunch of records, he released just one record of his own, and it's fucking ACE Memphis horrorcore. A cassette-only release, it's harsh, lo-fi, violent, warped, and exists in a terrifying world entirely devoid of positivity.

Copped from the amazing, defunct Mid 90's Memphis Underground Rap Tapes blog. If you dig this, I strongly recommend a trip through that blog's archives.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Killaz Outta Frayser
3. Fuckin' with the Killaz
4. Reachin' for My Mask
5. Hoes Ain't Just Hoes
6. Need Yo Cheese
7. Turn into Killaz
8. DJ Sound Outro

Ain't no love, ho
Hatred, hatred

Dead Times - Dead Times EP (2009)

Disturbing, sample-driven, blackened industrial/noise from Providence, RI. A grainy, heavily distorted funeral march of plodding drums, terrified screams, atonal guitars, and warped samples, that nonetheless maintains a trace of melody that hints at a haunted emotional core.

Track listing:
1. Nothing Out of Life
2. Procession
3. Reliquary Engulfed in Flames
4. Christ Mourners I
5. Christ Mourners II

I'm so devastated. I get nothing out life. I can't see anything in the future. I wish that they'd just killed me too that day.

Goblin - Patrick OST (1978) + Tenebre OST (1982)

Since we've all heard the soundtracks to Deep Red, Suspiria, and Zombie a million times (right????) how 'bout we check in with some of Goblin's less celebrated, still totally sweet works. I'm ashamed to say, I've never seen Patrick, so I can't vouch for its quality, but I can tell you its tagline: "He's in a coma... yet, he can kill." Tenebre, on the other hand, I have seen, and though it's not quite on par with Argento's best work, it's definitely great, provided you like brutal stabbings, barely coherent plot lines, stilted acting, funky, synth-driven jams, and boobs, a.k.a all of the best things in life. Watch this, and if you're not scrambling to watch this movie ASAP, then I'm worried about you.



Nerd note: Although Goblin were broken up when Tenebre came out, Argento managed to convince three members to work on the soundtrack; thus, it is officially credited not to Goblin, but to Simonetti-Morante-Pignatelli. Also, both of these are the "complete" editions, meaning that there are a bunch of alternate versions tacked on.

Track listing:
-Patrick-
1. Patrick
2. Transmute
3. Bagliori Di Luce
4. Visioni
5. Snip Snap
6. Metamorfosi
7. Follie
8. Vibrazioni
9. Metamorfosi II Parte
10. Transmute
11. Visioni
12. Metamorfosi
13. Patrick
14. Transmute
15. Bagliori Di Luce II
16. Patrick
17. Patrick
18. Patrick
19. Patrick (Finale)
-Tenebre-
1. Tenebre
2. Gemini
3. Slow Circus
4. Lesbo
5. Flashing
6. Tenebre (Reprise)
7. Waiting Death
8. Jane Mirror Theme
9. Flashing (Film Version)
10. Gemini (Film Version Suite)
11. Flashing (Intro Film Version)
12. Gemini (Alternate Film Version)
13. Jane Mirror Theme (Film Version)
14. Tenebre (Alternate Film Version)
15. Slow Circus (Film Version Suite)
16. Lesbo (Film Version)
17. Tenebre Maniac (SFX Bonus Track)
18. Tenebre (Remix)
19. Flashing (Remix)

He had broken the most deep-rooted taboo, and felt not guilt, not anxiety or fear, but freedom.