PRIMER: From Lustmord to Wolves In the Throne Room, 10 Creepy LPs That’re Actually Worth Hearing Once Halloween’s Over

Ben Frost

[Photo by Bjarni Grims]

Let the haunting hooks begin…

1. Lustmord, The Place Where the Black Stars Hang (Side Effects, 1994)
The dark lord of dark ambient music delivers a minimal descent into the unknown.

2. Ben Frost, By the Throat (Bedroom Community, 2009)
Haunted harpsichords, howling wolves, brutalized beats, and heavy sheets of noise collide, neo-classical style.

3. Tombs, Winter Hours (Relapse, 2009)
Blackened metal at its very best; as if My Bloody Valentine actually delivered one.

4. Wolves in the Throne Room, Black Cascade (Southern Lord, 2009)
Bubbling brooks and windswept synths meet buzz saw guitars and blitzkrieg vocals in the middle of a faraway forest.

5. Demdike Stare, Forest of Evil 12” (Modern Love, 2010)
Truth in advertising, with traces of subterranean techno and deviant drone tones.

6. Zombi, Cosmos (Relapse, 2004)
The original masters of 21st century John Carpenter scores.

7. The Caretaker, Persistent Repetition of Phrases (Install, 2008)
What happens when ghosts get into your record collection and toss scratchy 78s on your turntable.

8. Thomas Köner, Permafrost (Barooni, 1993)
If you dug a mic into a glacier, this is what it’d tell you. (Something along the lines of, “Cut the global warming crap, will ya?”)

9. Sunn O))), Monoliths & Dimensions (Southern Lord, 2009)
As accessible as two monk-like metal heads and one horrifying Hungarian (special guest “singer” Attila Csihar, also of Mayhem) get.

10. Xela, The Dead Sea (Type, 2006)
The sounds that pass through David Lynch’s brain when he’s meditating.