Mood music for writing horror

I like to listen to Silent Hill and The Ring soundtracks.

Creepy.

When I'm in a 60's mood:

Clear Light
Bubby Puppy
Lothar and the Hand People
Blue Cheer
Spirit
The Kinks
The Hullaballoos
Blues Magoos
Country Joe and the Fish
Fever Tree

The 70's:

Alice Cooper Band
Grand Funk
The Frost
Kiss
Dust
Three Man Army
The Groundhogs
Collosseum
Greenslade
The Godz
Uriah Heep
Jan Dukes de Gray
Lucifers Friend
Kraftwerk

The 80's:
Iron Maiden
Anthrax
Helloween
Battleaxe
Bathory
Celtic Frost
Picture (Holland)
Bolt Thrower
Slayer
The Rods
Venom

90's:
Cannibal Corpse
Bolt Thrower
Carpathian Forest
Napalm Death

Up Till Now:
Nightwish
Celtic Frost
Bolt Thrower
Slayer
Cradle of Filth
Avigal
Picture
Battleaxe

Too many more to remember now. I can't always listen to them so I play them in my head.

meowzbark said:

I like to listen to Silent Hill and The Ring soundtracks.

Creepy.

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I don't listen to anything in particular while writing horror--I have playlists for various projects, but it doesn't depend on genre, really--but I just wanted to add that the Silent Hill soundtrack is awesome. Akira Yamaoka does the BEST music.

I listen to horror movies playing in the background. The soundtrack from Jaws is a good one to listen to it was built specifically to create the sound of impending doom ending in a scream.

I don't know, sometimes I just listen to an old cheap clock ticking as I jerk the skin off the back of someones knee in time with the ticking.

I tend to listen to similar music (rock, for the most part) whatever the scene. Maybe I should give some of the stuff here a go and get dark.

Well, darker.

Every time I have to kill off a character, I put on John Mayer and pretend it's him.

Sorry Mayer fans.

You need one album: Workshop of the Telescopes by the Blue Oyster Cult. Creepy, weird and largely unintrusive.

Justin_AC said:

You people need to learn how to make a proper music thread. Suggestions are great (and I'm definitely looking some of these up) but use links! You gotta have links!

All the stuff by Akira Yamoaoka, like the Silent Hill soundtracks, is gold:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyd2loU5eOw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4HfgwLmyd8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI5YV-jok1U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCoRc3hX99U

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Yes yes yes! I swear by the SH soundtracks. Daniel Licht's work on Silent Hill: Downpour is great, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiciNBtURLo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5vv9TO8W0

Deftones, and their lead singer's side projects Team Sleep and Crosses also have a lot of great tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTPn4Jlrjb0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7at110cEohs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJLdiRWKG5E

Renholder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQlxg7Zkr-A

Puscifer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3RacVQ_Jq4

How to Destroy Angels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWbfgGDl6XE

Silent Hill and Res Evil for sure. Some albums that I have are good general background music.

Ashes by Two Steps From Hell
Shadows and Nightmares by Two Steps From Hell
Blood, Death and Fears by Audiomachine
Paranormal by Killer Tracks
Christmas by Position Music

And songs by Martjin de Bont are great.
I could go on and on, but these are just a few I love. (EPIC Music for the win! lol )

You can listen to these on YouTube

Black Sabbath 'Born Again', in particular, 'Disturbing the Priest'. That insane laughter and metal screaming guitar are infectious. Better than any coffee, ever.

I just got this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw_Codf29Pw

I like film scores for writing - they do what they're designed to, which is set a mood and then get the hell out of the way. Often, I find songs too distracting - but then that's just me. 28 Days Later is a great score to write to.

If I do go for songs, it's usually either drum and bass (dark, evil stuff like Black Sun Empire or Noisia) or metal (better for action-oriented scenes).

For me, it depends on what type of horror film I'm writing. If it's like zombie horror, than I listen to fast pumping rock music like Rob Zombie, Disturbed, Linkin Park. If its like Paranormal/poltergeist horror, I listen to music like Tool, Metallica and even the soundtrack to the film The fourth Kind. Sometimes listening to other horror movie soundtracks is great for writing horror too, but if you want to use rock music to write horror to, really, to be honest, the best is Rob Zombie. His songs just sound---horrific, lol

Really anything by Skrillex however the song "Kill everybody" is my favorite.

I also listen to less angry music like:
Muse
Citizen Cope

While writing the story I'm subbing, I listened to the Cure's Disintegration album (specifically Lullaby); for the one I'm currently writing, I switched to Nox Arcana (mostly Darklore Manor).

Some of the Gregorian chant stuff is super-creepy.

'Join Me' is a particular fav. of mine. But, if listening online, you must use headphones. You need the music to be in your head.

Nox Arcana

A Perfect Circle

The Synthetic Dream Foundation

Tool

Vampire The Masquerade Soundtrack

Disturbed

Carfax Abbey

Puscifer

Disturbed and some AC/DC often gets me in a good mood to write horror. Also sometimes just some nice, slow folk/country songs, for some reason.

DeleyanLee said:

I don't write horror (intentionally), but I do write Dark Fantasy.

I put on music I hate so much that it makes me want to kill things gruesomely.

Stuff like I'm Walking on Sunshine by whoever that was that should eat s*** and die horribly. Anything by Michael Bolton also qualifies.

I know that Michael Bolton worked really well when writing the torture scene on my present MIP, FWIW.

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I could actually picture the song Walking on sunshine being played in a s king movie scene where a guys going around butchering people. Maybe thats just my messed up mind lol.

Lux Aeterna by Gyorgiy Ligeti
Polymorphia by Krzysztof Penderecki
Moon by Fracture 4
Todesvogel by Stormtrooper
Exit to Extinction by Chris McCormick
What is that Sound by Chris McCormick

There's only one thing I listen to when I need to get into a "creepy"/"horror" mood: The Thing score (the 1982 film, not the ridiculous 2011 remake-billed-as-a-prequel nonsense which I refuse to see).

Best track from the score is:
The Thing Main Theme

followed closely by:
Solitude

and:
Contamination

Check out YouTube for the rest of the score.

Xelebes said:

Lux Aeterna by Gyorgiy Ligeti
Polymorphia by Krzysztof Penderecki
Moon by Fracture 4
Todesvogel by Stormtrooper
Exit to Extinction by Chris McCormick
What is that Sound by Chris McCormick

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Now I'm at home.

Gyorgiy Ligeti - Lux Æterna (Used in 2001: A Space Odyssey)
Krzysztof Penderecki - Polymorphia (Used in The Shining)
Fracture 4 - Cold Fire
Chris McCormack - What Is That Sound

Evanescence and Danny Elfman.