Fall may be a magical time, but when it comes to setting up Halloween music playlists, you may find the lack-o-options frustrating. Sure, “Thriller” helps even the most uncoordinated shake their booty, and of course “Monster Mash” is a classic, but these tired songs don’t always cut it when you’re trying to envoke the feeling of the holiday to liven up your shindig.
Rather than throw a spoopy cd on repeat, here are a couple of off beat albums to flesh out your playlist that no one will bat an eye at.
NIGHTMARE REVISITED
Of course we couldn’t kick off this list without some iteration of everyone’s favorite hybrid holiday movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. While every Halloween playlist is sure to have at least one instance of Danny Elfman warbling about his conflict of interests from the cult favorite The Nightmare Before Christmas, there are a surprising amount of people who still haven’t revisited the nightmare. Nightmare Revisited is exactly what it sounds like – a group of popular bands and artists collaborating to cover the entirety of the Tim Burton phenomenon. But this collection isn’t limited to hits like “This is Halloween” or “Sally’s Song.” The album also covers the instrumental tracks, which will give you over an hour of ambiance. What’s this?
NATIVE CONSTRUCT
The collaborative group of Berklee students blend the modern metal genre with a wide spectrum of compositional influences and come up with a uniquely textured sound that lends itself perfectly to any playlist. With Native Construct’s extended-range guitars, theatrical vocals, and full complement of symphonic instrumentation, their 2011 album Quiet World can be thrown into the Halloween music mix on random or go the entire distance as a stand alone.
THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN
Not feeling the more modern metal? Go for something more “traditional.” Older albums from The Dillinger Escape Plan offer just enough of the creepy vibe without the haunting idea that your guests would turn up their noses at the screaming vocals. The album Miss Machine in particular sounds as if it was pulled straight from the soundtrack of any popular horror flick.
MR. BUNGLE
Perhaps a random addition to mix into a Halloween-centric playlist, but party goers aren’t going to be picking apart your musical tastes. And if they are, they really shouldn’t be invited. Mr. Bungle’s album California adds a random and moderately terrifying ambiance to what is otherwise background noise for bad decisions. Eat all the candy!
THE DARKNESS
Halloween doesn’t have to be all dark and dismal, and adding glam rock band The Darkness to any playlist will prove to be quite the misnomer. Their album To Hell and Back offers lighthearted songs that all your partygoers know by heart with just enough 80s to inspire a fun atmosphere and sing-a-long moments.
Honorable mention goes out to Jason Segel’s hit, Dracula’s Lament, because obviously.
Halloween Haunts | Visiting Sleepy Hollow
BOO-It-Yourself Halloween Costumes – Terra from Teen Titans!
Ten Family Friendly Halloween Movies!
BOO-It-Yourself Halloween Costumes – Ariel from The Little Mermaid!
NaNoWriMo Starter Prompts And Exercises
BOO-It-Yourself Halloween Costumes – Regina George
Last month, metal band Veil of Maya grabbed a new singer and fictional female inspiration for their recent album, Matriarch.
Arguably among top ten best metal albums of 2015, no one member in Veil of Maya’s roster is overshadowed in this new direction. This time around, the entire band’s talent is showcased more evenly than in previous albums. Graduating from six string baritones to sevenS and upping the ante with recently acquired vocalist Lukas Magyar, Veil of Maya’s Matriarch delivers a little little less flash while still holding on to the thrashy-ness that fans have grown to love.
Though Magyar’s high screams, low growls, and clear vibrato are brought to the table on a glorious china plate encased in a catchy melody sandwich, the introduction of the first clean vocals since the band’s inception isn’t the most notable change from previous vocalist Brandon Butler, who left the band during Matriarch’s inception due to “creative differences.”
While Veil of Maya has always included little easter eggs in their track titles, such as the Game of Thrones headnod “Winter Is Coming Soon” from their 2012 album Eclipse, Martiarch goes further by being their first album to follow a female inspired theme. Guitarist Marc Okubo fit the album’s concept around strong female characters from different fictional genres.
“All the tracks are named after powerful female characters that I found interesting,” he explains. “I always make code names for whatever songs I’m writing, and this time they all stuck to a theme.”
Fans will recognize some of their favorite characters as title tracks scattered throughout the album, from Final Fantasy VII‘s “Aeris,” to the mother of dragons, “Daenerys” from Game of Thrones, and even a few lesser known fandoms, such as “Lucy”and her split personality “Nyu” from Elfen Lied. As a huge fan of Brian K. Vaughan, Okubo’s “Three-Fifty” pays homage to Y: The Last Man‘s Agent 355, and he is currently reading the immensely popular Saga. Cue me on the edge of my seat waiting to hear Okubo riff some justice to the character Alana.
Although Okubo wrote the album to fit into his theme, new vocalist Lukas Magyar penned the lyrics separately and has only within recent months acquired the Internet to catch up on shows like Attack on Titan, with Matriarch‘s single named after the female protagonist, “Mikasa.” Watch the official video from Sumerian Records below, and be prepared for the tasty chorus to get stuck in your head for weeks. Sorry not sorry.
Matriarch also features less of the band’s old signatures, choosing instead to limit the vocals and blast beats to more appropriate timing. When used more sparingly, this enables the songwriting to effectively place pieces to create a better dynamic, rather than barrage the ears with consistent noodling. Though this is outside of the box for Veil of Maya, the execution is effortless as usual and there’s no doubt the album is a sleeper. There’s a song for every fandom, and obviously “Daenerys” is the best, because I’m 100% biased.
Veil of Maya’s Matriarch can be purchased here and tickets for the Summer Slaughter tour are on sale now at TicketFly. If you attend the Dallas date, don’t be surprised by the small, dark-haired gal bopping around. Just wave.
First Impressions of the GotG Doritos Bag
Five Albums To Flesh Out Your Halloween Music Playlist
“The Last Five Years” Trailer is Already Breaking Our Hearts
Comikaze is Coming!
Ready to Fight Evil by Moonlight?
If “Glee” Wasn’t Evil Before, Now They’re (Probably) Ripping off JoCo
Tonight, in a riveting change of a pace, yours truly was a guest on the DeLOL Show with Del Pullen! What is The DeLOL Show? It’s a fantastic local show that features local people, local artists and local talent and luckily, I was on hand to talk about our little site!
Amongst touching anecdotes about my driving (I drive GOOD, I swear!) and general comic goodness, there were tidbits on how IHOGeek got it’s start.
You can check out the video here for the entire show, LIKE The DeLOL Show on Facebook or hey, just go to the DeepEllumLive site and check them out there.
If you’re Dallas based, perhaps you know of a band that would like the exposure, if so drop The DeLOL Show an email!
Emerald City Conversation with Jen Wang
Interview | Dante Basco
CONversations: Faith Erin Hicks
CONversations: Camilla d’Errico
Meet the Staff: Colby Sites
