Top 10: Heavy Metal Halloween Songs

Happy Hallows’ Eve Eve! Yes, it’s that time of year again. The air is crisp, ghoulish images grace the lawns of otherwise conventional households, and if you listen closely, you might hear the cackle of a witch in the distance. Being the most metal holiday of the year, Halloween has spawned its fair share of songs in its honor. So if you’re tired of hearing “Monster Mash” and “The Purple People Eater” for the two zillionth time, be sure to cue these ten songs up on your Halloween playlist tomorrow for all the trick or treaters who dare grace your doorstep.

10. Acid – “Halloween Queen”

If there were ever any woman in the history of metal worthy of the title “Halloween Queen”, it’s Kate de Lombaert of Acid. Admittedly, this song isn’t so much about the holiday proper as much as it’s about a fictitious wife of Satan who seduces and murders men for fun. Think of it as an unofficial sequel of sorts to “Lucifera” off 1983’s Max Overload, although that was about “the devil’s daughter”. Wait…if Kate is both the devil’s wife and daughter, does that make good ol’ Lucifer his own grandpa? I better stop myself in my tracks and move onto the next song!

9. 220 Volt – “Halloween”

220 Volt are one of a few bands on this list who have a song about Christmas AND Halloween! I’m sure if I dig deep enough through their catalog, they have a cut along the lines of “Heavy Metal Easter Bunny” as well, but I digress. You know, a few years ago, I dismissed these Swedes as “the power man’s Europe”, which in hindsight might’ve been too harsh. Sure, their career trajectories might’ve been similar (from fiery Swedish steel to streamlined euro AOR), but at the end of the day, 220 Volt carved their own place in the hard and heavy pantheon, as well as this here Top 10. Take that Joey Tempest!

8. Type O Negative – “All Hallows’ Eve”

No band in the history of metal is more synonymous with “spooky season” than Type O Negative. Their fusion of lumbering doom riffs with seductive goth atmosphere, coupled with a gloriously misanthropic aesthetic, make them the be all, end all “Halloween metal” band. Just as Motörhead is forever the middle ground that united metalheads and punks, Type O Negative is the middle ground that unites metalheads and goths, so for that alone they HAVE to crack this list. Indeed, they do at #8 with the hypnotic “All Hallows’ Eve” off 1999’s World Coming Down. It’s less a song and more an 8 and a half minute soundscape, immediately transporting us to the grim holiday anytime of the year.

7. Blue Öyster Cult – “Feel the Thunder”

I’ve made the case for Blue Öyster Cult’s The Revölution by Night (1983) for years, and will use this opportunity to continue to do so. Following 1981’s masterpiece Fire of Unknown Origin was no easy task, and at no point does this album match its predecessor’s creative peaks. However, that doesn’t mean it’s without its gems. Take for example the Aldo Nova penned “Take Me Away”, the ethereal “Shooting Shark”, and this song right here, which comes the closest to BÖC’s glory daze. Motorcycles, drugs, death: “Feel the Thunder” boasts all the tropes a headbanger could as for in a BÖC song, all of it taking place on, you guessed it, Halloween. Can you “Feel the Thunder”?

6. Hallows Eve – “Hallow’s Eve”

Hallows Eve are forever one of those bands synonymous with thrash’s first wave. Although they’d do their best to adapt to the meat and potatoes, mosh-riff centric sound that took charge come the late ’80s, the band was at their peak on their debut, Tales of Terror (1985), on which they fuse Exciter-esque speed, NWOBHM heroics, and a truly horrifying atmosphere. All of these qualities are captured and then some on their cult classic namesake anthem. Raw and unrelenting, “Hallows’ Eve” is a thrashing made suite spawned by hell itself, dominating with its unpredictable twists and turns.

5. Halloween – “Trick or Treat”

For Halloween, Detroit’s self proclaimed “Heavy Metal Horror Show”, every day has been, well, Halloween for over 40 years running. The band doesn’t make it out of their native Motor City often, but when they do, it’s well worth your while to check them out, as they still deliver the goods with an over the top, shock n’ roll production. There’s a few songs I could’ve chosen from their catalog for this here list, but I’m opting for their debut single, “Trick or Treat”. With its lyrics of “beggars and liars” and “witches and warlocks”, “Trick or Treat” is less a song and more a threat: “Killers on the loose tonight, trick or treat and die!”? No thanks! We gotta finish this list!

4. Alice Cooper – “Unfinished Sweet”

Having already touched on the occult, insanity, child neglect, and, uh, school on past albums, leave it to Alice Cooper to give us an inventive take on Halloween. Instead of penning an epic bestowing the glories of the dark one or the Great Pumpkin (or both), they crafted an epic even eerier, chronicling the aftermath of a Halloween gone awry. “Unfinished Sweet” tells a tale far more realistic than any specter or phantasm that might cross your path on October 31st: A tale of *gasp* oral decay! Yes, that’s right. Eat too many of those Halloween treats, and you might end up gum-less, just like Cooper himself does at the end of this “Unfinished Sweet”. File this alongside The Beatles’ “Savoy Truffle”, Kyuss’ “Demon Cleaner”, and Twisted Sister’s “Under the Blade” in the “Rock Songs About Oral Health” category, contrary to what Tipper Gore would have you believe.

3. Mercyful Fate – “At the Sound of the Demon Bell”

Expanding upon the musical and lyrical foundations established in the ’70s and earliest part of the ’80s, Mercyful Fate took the horror and occult themes of metal to unseen heights come their initial 1982-1984 reign. Amidst the tales of Egyptian curses, black masses, and black funerals that dominated 1983’s Melissa is “At the Sound of the Demon Bell”, which for whatever reason or another, seems to get lost in the shuffle. I can’t really explain why, but you’ll never hear a hesher speak of it in the same breath as “Evil” or “Satan’s Fall”. Well, I am dammit! Indeed, “At the sound of the demon bell, everything will turn to hell”, and on what day? “Halloweeeeeeennnn!”

2. Helloween – “Halloween”

“Masquerade! Masquerade! Grab your mask and don’t be late!” From costumes and trick or treating, to evil spirits and Charlie Brown, Helloween manage to sandwich every imaginable aspect of metal’s most beloved holiday into one 13 and a half minute suite…and they nail it. Even at its cheesiest moments, it’s undeniably epic, taking us on a euro power metal rollercoaster ride from start to finish. Ideally, it should top this list, as it’s indisputably the most excellent song on here from a purely musical perspective. However, there is one more song so iconic and synonymous with both metal and Halloween, that not having it at #1 would be grounds for execution…

1. King Diamond – “Halloween”

You knew, as well as I, that King Diamond’s “Halloween” was topping this list. How could it not? Had he faded into obscurity after Mercyful Fate’s initial 1984 split, he’d still be the horror metal master, and yet he didn’t. He persisted, forming his own namesake band, striking in 1986 with the unofficial follow up to Don’t Break the Oath, Fatal Portrait. The King was BACK and has been holding court ever since. Who are we kidding? “Halloween” is King Diamond’s day, and we’re just celebrating it. On that note, heavy Halloween maniacs! May your day be filled with all treats and no tricks.