Chateau Flight - Les Vampires (2006)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Château Flight - Puzzle (2000)

Soundtrack for a silent French movie from 1915, composed for a series of screenings almost a century later. I'm taking a break from an intense study session to listen to and post this, so if you think I'm gonna put any effort into it, you got me fucked up.

8 untitled tracks

Bloodsuckers

You'd probably also enjoy:

Horror Inc. - Horrarama EP (2003)
+ I Plead Guilty (2004)

Padded Cell -
Night Must Fall (2008)

Arcane - Gather Darkness (1999)

Berlin-school excellence. Everything is completely fucked and there is no hope for any of it to turn around, so why not commit your body and mind to a churning, lushly layered ocean of Spooky Synth™, now and forever?

Track listing:
1. Dystopian Fictions
2. Gather Darkness
3. Flight from Time One
4. Requiem
5. Time Will Run Back

Vast cursed landscape

You would also like:

Software - Chip-Meditation (1985)
+ Electronic-Universe (1987)

AirSculpture -
Trick or Treat? (2009)

Ritual Suicide - Temple of Blood (2011)

Ukrainian raw black metal. Blown-out, unrelenting, and generally unpleasant, with the kind of barely out-of-tune guitars that just feel like they're sapping you of your will to live.

Track listing:
1. In Torture Exalted
2. Goddisgusting Sacrament
3. Temple of Blood
4. Baron Sademonomancy
5. Into the Night Through Suicide

Hate-filled lust
This world is grey

Also listen to:

Wolfe -
Wolfe (2006)

Blasphemous Crucifixion -
Crude Burial (2009)

AirSculpture - Trick or Treat? (2009)

Related:
AirSculpture - Thunderhead (1998)
Adrian Beasley - Powerhouse (2009)

A single, massive, intricately layered synth behemoth. Recorded live, but aside from crowd noise at the very beginning and end, you'd never know it.

One track, called "Trick or Treat?"

Graveyard shift

If you like this, listen to:

Mario Schönwälder -
The Eye of the Chameleon (1989)

Rainbow Serpent -
Futuregate (1995)

Static Movement - Visionary Landscapes (1999)

Related:
The Frozen Autumn - Fragments of Memories (1997)

Static Movement are the same male-female duo that makes up The Frozen Autumn, and aside from Arianna taking over vocal duties on more tracks, they sound more-or-less exactly the same -- like a more ethereal, goth-y New Order, essentially.

Track listing:
1. Outside the Line
2. There's No Time to Recall (Vector Synthex Mix)
3. Into Your Arms
4. She Was on the Stairs
5. Nouvelle Vague
6. The First Experiment
7. Radio Station
8. Visionary Landscapes
9. The Waveshaper
10. The Structure of Heart

Vertical movements through trapdoors

More along these lines:

Fad Gadget -
Fireside Favourites (1980)

John Foxx -
Metamatic (1980)

The Legendary Pink Dots - The Gethsemane Option (2013)

Related:
The Legendary Pink Dots - Chemical Playschool 1 & 2 (1981)
The Tear Garden - Tired Eyes Slowly Burning (1987)
The Legendary Pink Dots - The Maria Dimension (1991)
The Legendary Pink Dots - Plutonium Blonde (2008)

A late-career masterpiece from the great Edward Ka-Spel. A sinister, queasily beautiful world of shivering synths, glitchy rhythms, and the man's paranoid musings on death, justice, and isolation within "our Big Society." My introduction to this record came in the comments section of one of my previously LPD posts, so if you're the anon who posted that link: what a magnificent beast of a record, thanks so much for getting me up to speed!

Track listing:
1. A Star Is Born
2. The Garden of Ealing
3. Esher Everywhere
4. Pendulum
5. Grey Scale
6. A Stretch in Time
7. One More Dimension

No bullet is wasted when it comes to the truth

You should also listen to:

Coil -
Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) (2002)

The Residents -
Animal Lover (2005)

Euthanasia - Swarming Maggot (1993)

Related:
Clotted Symmetric Sexual Organ - Are You Excrements? (2000)

Just under 10 minutes of raw-as-fuck Japanese goregrind. Completely, disgustingly lo-fi, and punctuated by Nightmare on Elm Street samples.

Track listing:
1. Putrid Cadaver
2. Swarming Maggot
3. Rotting Genital
4. Bloody Rejection
5. Malignant Necropsy

You're mine now, piggy!

More like this:

Malignant Tumor -
Crush Syndrome Surgical Problems
(1997)

Gore Beyond Necropsy -
Noise-A-Go Go!!! (1998)
+ Go! Filth Go! (1999)

Oneiroid Psychosis - Sentient (2008)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Oneiroid Psychosis - Stillbirth (1995)
Oneiroid Psychosis - Fantasies About Illness (1996)
Oneiroid Psychosis - Garden of Remembrance (1999)
Oneiroid Psychosis - DREAMS (With Pollutions When Virile (2002)

Perfectly spooky, synth-heavy darkwave from Oneiroid Psychosis, who pretty much serve as the OPIUM HUM house band every Halloween. As of now, Sentient is the most recent album they've put out, and unfortunately, I'm starting to think that it might be their last.

Track listing:
1. Adipocere
2. Coalesce
3. The Child Spell
4. Ambivalence
5. Away My Life
6. As I Wake
7. It Won't Go Away
8. I Am the Totality
9. Incarnate
10. The Sardonic Smile

When you take your last breath
Know that I'm the cause of your death

You would probably also enjoy:

Lycia - The Burning Circle
and Then Dust (1995)

The Days of the Trumpet Call -
I Saw No Temple in the City (2001)

White Zombie - Make Them Die Slowly (1989)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
White Zombie - Gods on Voodoo Moon (1985) Pig Heaven (1986) Psycho Head Blowout (1986) + God of Thunder (1989)

White Zombie's second full-length, the Bill Laswell-produced Make Them Die Slowly was, as they say, a transitional record. It splits the difference between Soul-Crusher's noise-sludge trash-art and La Sexorcisto's psychedelic groove metal, landing in territory that didn't really make anyone happy -- including White Zombie, who were dissatisfied with it before it even came out. Except for a 13-year-old me, of course, who bought the cassette under the false assumption that it contained the song I'd heard on the radio, then nonetheless listened to it on repeat all summer.

Track listing:
1. Demon Speed
2. Disaster Blaster
3. Murderworld
4. Revenge
5. Acid Flesh
6. Power Hungry
7. Godslayer

Doomsday for all the beautiful people

You might also enjoy:

Fudge Tunnel -
Hate Songs in E Minor (1991)

Therapy? -
Suicide Pact - You First (1999)

Mephistofeles - ( ( ( I ' M H E R O I N ) ) ) (2017)

Argentinian occult stoner doom perfection. In a crowded field of throwback-occult-doom, Mephistofeles stand apart from the false through sheer force of griminess and commitment. They're true believers in the power of horror, narcotics, the Devil, and the Riff, and it all adds up to one of my favorite doom records in recent memory. I've seriously been wanting to post ( ( ( I ' M H E R O I N ) ) ) since the day it came out, and I can wait no longer.

Track listing:
1. Transylvanian Funeral
2. The Rogue
3. White Butterfly
4. Trash Lord
5. Heroin
6. Addicted to Satan
7. Into the Night

Death spell of hate that burns my head
Inhaling demons from her grave
The sky above is turning black
This funeral of drugs is hell, yeah

I command you to also listen to:

Horrors of the Black Museum -
Gold from the Sea (2008)

Deathbell -
With the Beyond (2018)

Eerie Von & Mike Morance - Uneasy Listening (1996)

Related:
Mourning Noise - Dawn of the Dead (1982)

Spooky instrumentals courtesy of a horror-punk all-star duo -- Mike Morance was in Mourning Noise, while Eerie Von was in Rosemary's Babies, Samhain, and prime-era Danzig. Mostly synth, including lots of synthetic horns and strings, and tons of samples.

Track listing:
1. Cinerarium Waltz
2. Nightmare
3. Scared, Runnin'
4. Misery's Drag
5. The Witches Lament
6. Half a Gurl (Is Better Than None)
7. The Dark Sleep
8. Into the Night

Hail Mary full of grace
The righteous know no better

You should also listen to:

Twice a Man - The Sound of
a Goat in a Room (1983)

Vond -
Green Eyed Demon (1998)

Carnivorous Vagina - Bagno di Sangue (2005)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Carnivorous Vagina - Istinto Omicida (2004)

Second full-length of Mortician-worshipping Italian death/grind from the charmingly-named Carnivorous Vagina. Drum machine, synth, samples, incomprehensible guitars, and unintelligible growls.

Track listing:
1. Sangue
2. Rampant
3. Deranged of the Hills
4. Embodiment of the Demonic
5. Rimorso
6. Disfigured
7. Embalmer
8. Maimed, Chopped, and Slaughtered
9. Autopsia
10. Fierce
11. Coven
12. Malignant
13. Ossario

Massive bloodshed

You'd also like:

Holocausto Canibal -
Sublime Massacre Corpóreo (2002)

Psychotic Homicidal Dismemberment -
Haunted Catacombs (2007)

Lost Sounds - Black-Wave (2001)

Synth-powered garage-y deathrock. One of Jay Reatard's old bands. Picture a young Jay Reatard gone full horror punk, and you're probably imagining pretty much exactly what Black-Wave sounds like.

Track listing:
1. Reasons to Kill
2. I'm Not a Machine
3. Plastic Skin
4. Don't Turn Around
5. Do You Wanna Kill Me
6. 1620 Echles St.
7. Throw Away
8. Citats Blanc
9. Ocelots Rising
10. I See Everything
11. Dark Shadows
12. Lost and Found
13. Saturn Stomp
14. I'm Not Me
15. Die Pax
16. What'd I Say
17. Soon This Tomb
18. Heart Felt Toys
19. Walk in Line

Some say the end is near
But I think it's already here
See the whole sky turn black
It's worth a laugh

If you like this, you should hear:

Fliehende Stürme -
Hinter Masken (1999)

Disappears -
Era (2013)

Guttural Engorgement - The Slow Decay of Infested Flesh (2007)

US brutal death. Completely dissonant and obscenely punishing at all times. Does it count as a breakdown if it goes on for the whole song? They finally got around to releasing the follow-up to this record yesterday.

Track listing:
1. The Process Begins (Intro)
2. The Slow Decay of Infested Flesh
3. Job for a Hammer
4. Bile Defilement
5. Molested Dissection
6. Cadaveric Maggot Copulation
7. Omnipresent Ecchymosis
8. Cinder Block Facial Reconstruction
9. Steak Knife Face Fuck
10. Chopsaw Sodomy
11. Gangrenous Torso Fermentation
12. Beyond Recognition (Interlude)
13. Wretched Sacrament

Wiping the shit off my saw
Evidence all over the walls

You'd also like:

Cephalotripsy - Uterovaginal Insertion
of Extirpated Anomalies (2007)

Condemned -
Desecrate the Vile (2009)

Lucifer - Black Mass (1971)

Related:
Ataraxia - The Unexplained (1975)

The great Mort Garson treats us to an experimental, instrumental (aside from some moans of carnal delight), synth-fueled black mass in the name of Our Dark Lord Lucifer. Much like the above-linked Ataraxia record, Black Mass is pretty much the epitome of what this blog is all about -- Satan and synths -- so either get it or get yer basic ass gone.

Track listing:
1. Solomon's Ring
2. The Ride of Aida (Voodoo)
3. Incubus
4. Black Mass
5. The Evil Eye
6. Exorcism
7. The Philosopher's Stone
8. Voices of the Dead (The Medium)
9. Witch Trial
10. ESP

Ave Satanas!
I do not belong to these things
These things belong to me

If you like this, listen to:

Heldon -
Heldon IV: Agneta Nilsson (1976)

Asmus Tietchens -
Nachtstücke (Expressions et Perspectives
Sonores Intemporelles) (1980)

Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare on Elm Street (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1984)

Synth-fueled horror perfection. There's some stuff that kinda sounds like guitars but I'm pretty sure it's just more synthesizer magic. At this point in the franchise, Freddy Krueger hadn't really started incorporating pun-filled one-liners into his murder game, making it easily the most 'serious' entry in the series. It also contains arguably its two most iconic death sequences -- the one where slash marks start spontaneously appearing all over Tina while she spins around in mid-air, and the one where Johnny Depp's character gets swallowed by his own bed and transformed into a physics-defying cascade of carnage. Plus, the bathtub scene. With all this on-screen excellence, it's easy to forget, or not even realize in the first place, how great the soundtrack is.

Track listing:
1. Prologue
2. Main Title
3. Laying the Traps
4. Dream Attack
5. Rod Hanged, Night Stalking
6. Jail Cell
7. Confrontation
8. Sleep Clinic
9. Terror in the Tub
10. No Escape
11. School Horror, Stay Awake
12. Lurking
13. Telephone Terror
14. Fountain of Blood
15. Evil Freddy
16. Final Search
17. Run, Nancy

I could be bounded in a nutshell
And count myself a king of infinite space
Were it not that I have bad dreams

More 80s horror:

John Harrison -
Creepshow (1982)

John Carpenter & Alan Howarth -
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1989)

Tearstained - Final Thoughts (2003)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Tearstained - Nightmare Visions (2008)

US black metal with elements of heavy metal and DSBM. Here, you can hear that the King Diamond-esque falsetto that he'd more fully embrace on later records is actually a natural progression from a more traditional high-pitched, DSBM-style shriek.

Track listing:
1. Emotionally Massacred
2. Cold and Distant
3. Trust No One
4. Grim Bitterness
5. Failed Suicide Attempt
6. The Shallow Pool of Life
7. Hopeless Emptiness
8. Final Thoughts
9. Raise the Dead (Bathory cover) / Black Masses (Mercyful Fate cover) [Unlisted track]

Let everything die... slowly

You should also hear:

Desaster -
A Touch of Medieval Darkness (1996)

Belenos -
Errances Oniriques (2001)