Halloween can bring out the best in party playlists, and while certain musicians have blessed us with Halloween classics, this list is for the bands and musicians that committed a little more. Some bands merely adopted the spooky, these bands were born into it. I should note that I probably don’t listen to most of these bands all that regularly, some of them I basically know one song, others, no songs at all. But this isn’t only about the music, it’s about the all encompassing spooky vibe that goes beyond notes on the page. I present the hierarchy of spooky musicians in ascending order.

NOT REALLY SPOOKY

The Zombies – Not spooky at all, don’t fall for their lies.

Duran Duran – Why are they here? Sure they’re not traditionally “spooky” but we have to fill out the bottom of this list, and these blokes put out a full-on spooky album in 2023 called DANSE MACABRE, and get this: it’s pretty fun! Way to go, Duran Duran!

SPOOKY BUT SUCKS

Mayhem – If you’re a shitty band that wants to be well known you need to do a marketing stunt proportionately inverse to your quality. When your band sounds like Mayhem, that means you need to eat your singer’s head and murder your guitar player.

Marilyn Manson – This dude sucks. Oh did I shock you? Not really, I’ve seen a weird guy before. Making music for haunted house teens is fine, but let’s not act like it’s rattling the foundation of society.

UP FOR DEBATE?

Powerman 5000 – Not sure what to think of these guys, but being a costumed sci-fi industrial pop metal band in the late 90s was way more interesting than being, I dunno, Fuel?

Smashing Pumpkins – I asked enough people about Smashing Pumpkins to discover that the room is split on if they are spooky or not. But let’s list the credentials: 1) The world is a vampire. 2) As pointed out to me by editor of this publication, they invented The Backrooms with “The Everlasting Gaze” video. 3) The world is a vampire. Case closed.

HONORABLE MENTION

Mortiis – I am only aware of Mortiis because my friend Nick sent me a picture of the album cover for “The Stargate.” It features Mortiis, who is some kind of leather fetish gargoyle, doing what I can only describe as a “spooky ta-da” (ta-doom?) pose while hovering over a landscape at dusk. Also, he has a human skull over his bathing suit area. It’s just nice that someone out there is doing whatever this is.

Rudimentary Peni – If the average reader does not know Rudimentary Peni, I’d understand. They’re certainly a punk’s punk band. But give Cacophony a spin, it’s a killer album inspired by HP Lovecraft, the spookiest guy who’s name also sounds like a puppet version of The Love Boat.

PRETTY SPOOKY

Rob/White Zombie – The campy yin to Marilyn Manson’s 90s edgelord yang. Rob just wants to boogie and Manson wants to freak you out by being transgressive which, to him, means having nippleless rubber tits. I’m not a huge Rob or White Zombie guy, but I could certainly see a version of my life where I operate a tilt-a-whirl and blast Superbeast to hype up the kids.

Danzig – For being such a fun cultural character I surprisingly don’t think about Danzig a lot. But when I do I privately blast “Twist of Cain” on my headphones and think about how he was working on a different level. Like how people say, “you’re playing checkers, I’m playing chess” It’s like that but if you’re playing checkers, Danzig is playing a confusing made up version of checkers most people don’t understand. Keep on rockin’ in the freak world, Glenn.

Gwar – Ya gotta love this stuff. Do I know any of their songs? No. Have I gone to one of their shows? No. Do I respect their whole thing? Absolutely, 100%.

ICP – What’s spookier than rapping clowns? I guess the other musicians above them on this list.

The Mummies – Hell yeah, The Mummies!

ULTIMATE SPOOKY

Roky Erickson – The Austin legend wrote an album called “The Evil One” where every track is good, good for Halloween playlists, and have titles about monsters. Roky is the inner circle of the spooky Hall of Fame as far as I’m concerned. Of course he had an upsetting history with mental illness, and perhaps the monsters were metaphors for his demons. Or not, I honestly don’t know! But there’s no denying he jammed, and wrote about two headed dogs and zombies.

Misfits – No doubt a top tier spooky band that had hits. What more do you need? Why are they above Glenn Danzig? I guess because there’s more guys?

The Cramps – More than just an album or two they lived the spooky ideal with a huge slab of horny sleaze in there to boot. For my taste, it’s the best balance of spooky without being corny, and the music can stand on its own without the aesthetic. Put it all together and The Cramps have yet to be topped years after their demise.

Feature drawing by Daniel Knox

This piece is in Recommend If You Like The Spooky Issue Fall 2026. You can find physical copies in bars, cafes and stores in Chicago and Washington, D.C. The newspaper is available for purchase here.

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