Halloween Music Blogspot

I put up a list of Halloween music over at the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blogroll. It consists of various albums that I have found on other blogs, as well as some of the albums that we have posted here for the countdown, that are perfect for Halloween. I have added several categories including soundtrack, spoken word/audio books, compilations, happy halloween music, horror punk, and more. If you would like to contribute to the list, please leave a comment. I would greatly appreciate it. Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Music List: http://music-bloggers.blogspot.com/2008/10/halloween-music.html

H.P. Lovecraft E-Book Collection - Short Stories, Novels, Essays, Letters, & Poetry

This is the last installment of my H.P. Lovecraft finale for Halloween Countd0wn 2008. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am unable to post the Edgar Allan Poe collection that I mentioned in an earlier post. I hope that these Lovecraft posts will be enough satisfy your horror needs though. I leave you with a large collection of H.P. Lovecraft e-books. This collection contains a mixture of short stories, novels, essays, letters, poetry, and simple musings. Although this is not a complete collection of everything that Lovecraft ever wrote, it is pretty damn close to it.

All of these e-books are in PDF format. Again, if you don't have a PDF viewing program, I would recommend downloading Foxit PDF Reader, which can be downloaded for free here. I hope you have enjoyed these Lovecraftian goodies. Please leave a comment if you did. It took a long time for me to put all of these posts together, especially the lengthy audio book collection post, and it would be great to hear some type of feedback. Happy Halloween!

Edit: I couldn't have stumbled across a better image to grace the top of my last post for the countdown. It's a painting of Cthulhu wearing a H.P. Lovecraft mask while trick-or-treating. If that isn't fitting I don't know what is...

Book List:

A Dark Lore An American To Mother England Astrophobos At The Mountains of Madness At The Root Azathoth Beyond The Wall of Sleep Cats and Dogs Celephais Christmas Blessings Christmastide Cool Air Dagon Death Despair Essential Guide To Cthulhu Ex Oblivione Fact and Fancy Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and his Family From Beyond Fungi From Yuggoth Good Saint Nick Halloween in a Suburb He Herbert West Reanimator History of the Necronomicon Hypnos Ibid Imprisoned With The Pharaos In The Vault Laeta; A Lament Letter To August Derleth Lines On General Robert Edward Lee Little Tiger Medusa's Coil (With Z. Bishop) Memory Metrical Regularity Nathicana Necronomicon - Book Of Spells Nemesis Notes On Writing Weird Fiction (Essay) Notes On Writing Weird Fiction Nyarlathotep Old Bugs On Reading Lord Dunsany's Book Of Wonder On Receiving a Picture of Swans Out of the Aeons (With H Heald) Pacifist War Song Pickman's Model Poemata Minora Vol. II Poetry and the Gods (With A.H. Crofts) Polaris Providence Revelation Supernatural Horror In Literature (Essay) Sweet Ermengrade By Percy Simple Sweet Ermengarde Or, The Heart of a Country Girl The Alchemist The Allowable Rhyme The Beast In The Cave The Bride of the Sea (Poetry) The Bride of the Sea The Call of Cthulhu The Case of Charles Dexter Ward The Cats of Ulthar

The Cats The City The Colour Out Of Space The Conscript The Crawling Chaos The Descendant The Disinterment (With D.W.Rimel) The Despised Pastoral The Doom That Came To Sarnath The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath The Dunwich Horror The Evil Clergyman The Festival The Garden The Green Meadow (With W.V. Jackson) The Haunter of the Dark The Horror At Martin's Beat (With S.H. Greene) The Horror at Red Hook The Hound The House The Last Test (With A. De Castro) The Lurking Fear The Man Of Stone (With H.Heald) The Messenger The Moon-Bog The Music of Erich Zahnn The Nameless City The Night Ocean (With R.H. Barlow) The Other Gods The Outsider The Peace Advocate The Picture In The House The Poet's Nightmare The Quest of Iranon The Rats In The Walls The Rose of England The Shadow Out Of Time The Shadow Over Innsmouth The Shunned House The Silver Key The Statement of Randolph Carter The Strange High House In The Mist The Street The Temple The Terrible Old Man The Thing In THe Moonlight (With J.C. Miske) The Thing On The Doorstep The Tomb The Transition of Juan Romero The Trap (With H.S. Whitehead) The Tree On The Hill (With D.W. Rimel) The Tree The Unnamable The Very Old FOlk The Whisperer In The Dark The White Ship The Wood Through The Gates of The Silver Key (With E.Hoffman Price) Till A The Seas (With R.H. Barlow) To Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkelt, 18th Lord Baron Dunsany Tosh Bosh Two Black Bottles (With T.B. Talman) Waste Paper - A Poem Of Profound Insignificance What The Moon Brings Where Once Poe Walked Within The Walls Of Eryx (With K. Sterling)

Download: H.P. Lovecraft E-Book Collection
Download: 8MB

H.P. Lovecraft Comic Books & Graphic Novels

Continuing with my H.P. Lovecraft finale for Halloween Countd0wn 2008, I present a great collection of comic books and graphic novels inspired or based upon the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. For my next post I will be sharing a large collection of 160 H.P. Lovecraft e-books. You will need to download the program CDisplay Comic Book Reader to view the files in .cbr format, which can be found here. For the .pdf files you will need a pdf viewer. If you need a free pdf viewer, I would recommend Foxit PDF Viewer. Get it here. There are a total of 20 Lovecraft comics, which I have split up into two different rar archives. Here is a list of all the files included:

Alan Moore's The Courtyard (Publisher: Avatar)
H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulu - The Festival (Publisher: Borderland)
H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulu (Publisher: Millenium)
Masters Of Horror #3 & #4 - Dreams In The Witch House
The Necronomicon (4 Versions)
Skull Comics #4 - Special Lovecraft Issue
Skull Comics #5 - The Rats In The Walls
Another World - The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Portfolio)
Adventure Comics #1 - The Lurking Fear
Caliber Press - The Music of Erich Zann
Caliber Press - The Picture In The House
Heavy Metal - From Beyond
The Call of Cthulu (Excerpt From The Starry Wisdom Creation Books)
Dark Horse Presents #42 - Codex Arcana
Neil Gaiman - Only The End of the World Again (Publisher: ONI Press)
Keith Griffen - Lovecraft Graphic Novel(Publisher: Vertigo)

Download: H.P. Lovecraft Comic Books/Graphic Novels Collection - Part 1 (133MB)
Download: H.P. Lovecraft Comic Books/Graphic Novels Collection - Part 2 (126MB)

H.P. Lovecraft - Audio Books, Radio Plays, & Audio Documentaries

This post is the first part of my Halloween Countdown finale. The next part of the finale will be a collection of various Edgar Allan Poe related items. I hope that all you Lovecraft enthusiasts will enjoy this post, and hopefully this will serve as an introduction to some of you who are not familiar with his work. I've had a fun time tracking these albums down and finding out information about them along the way. This is going to be a long post, so I'm going to skip the introduction to Lovecraft, as I have covered this in previous posts. Although some of the tales appear more than once, they vary in quality based on the narrator's voice and ability to faithfully capture the atmosphere of a Lovecraft story. Some do a much better job than others, and I will point out those that sound rather dry.

I wasn't able to do much reaserch on the previous Lovecraft audio book posts that I made due to limited time. However, I have tried to find out as much information as I could about each of these recordings, although some of these were included in "collections" compiled by various people and downloaded from torrent sites. I have spent a great deal of time doing research on these recordings, which rarely contained any information with them. I was able to find out the narrator, year of release, publishing label, and various other details about a great deal of these recordings.

There are still a few recordings presented here that remain a mystery to me. I have grouped these "mystery recordings" together at the bottom of the post under the "Miscellaneous Audio Books" heading. If any of you have additional information for any of these recordings, please leave a comment and I will edit my post and add the information. I would particularly like to know the narrator, publisher, and the year of release for these.

The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft

The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft is a five volume set of audio books released by AudioRealms, a firstrate audiobook publishing company. This is by far the best transfer of Lovecraft's literature to audio format that I have had the pleasure of listening to. Wayne June does an amazing job and is perfect for the role. His deep raspy voice helps to emerge the listener in the world of cosmic horror that Lovecraft so often focused on. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lovecraft, these would be a good starting point for those without much time on their hands for reading, though I would recommend reading these stories in their literary form also.
I will also be posting a large collection of Lovecraft e-books also for those interested in doing so, which I will upload shortly after I finish uploading all of the audio books.

Volume 1

Track List:
1. The Call of Cthulu
2. The Dunwich Horror

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 1 (76MB)

Volume 2

Track List:
1. Dagon
2. The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 2 (70MB)

Volume 3

Track List:
1. Herbert West Re-Animator
2. The Horror at Red Hook
3. The Outsider
4. The Statement of Randolph Carter

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 3 (72MB)

Volume 4

Track List:
1. The Music of Erich Zann
2. The Rats in the Walls
3. The Shunned House

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 4 (62MB)

Volume 5

Track List:
1. Haunter of the Dark
2. The Lurking Fear
3. The Thing on the Doorstep

Download: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - Vol. 5 (80MB)

Excerpts From The Sonic Cycle
"Fungi From Yuggoth"

This recording was originally released on cassette by specialty publisher Fedogan & Bremer in 1989. It features John Arthur reading H.P. Lovecrafts short story "The Fungi From Yuggoth". The ambient style background music is performed by Mike Olson.

Download: Excerpts From The Sonic Cycle, The Fungi From Yuggoth
Download Size: 20MB

David Healy Reads "The Lurking Fear"

A recording of David Healy reading "The Lurking Fear". This was originally released on cassette in December of 1989 by the label Landfall Productions.

Download: David Healy Reads "The Lurking Fear"
Download: Size: 41MB

David McCallum Reads "The Dunwich Horror"
David McCallum Reads "The Rats In The Walls"

Both of these LPs were originally released in the 1973 by the Caedmon label. The bitrate of "The Dunwich Horror" is 320kbps, while "The Rats In The Walls" is 192kbps. These were released independently of one another, as well as on a split LP, although the split LP remains extremely rare and I have yet to see a copy of it.

Download: David McCallum Reads "The Dunwich Horror" (138MB)
Download: David McCallum Reads "The Rats In The Walls" (38MB)

Erik Bauersfeld Productions

The following recordings are either from radio shows produced by Erik Bauerself, or read by Bauersfeld himself. The first recording is "The Haunter of the Dark". A reliable source informed me that this recording was originally broadcast on CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, although I have been unable to confirm this information. I do know that this was released on vinyl some time in the 1970's by Mt. Lava Records, and was recently re-released by Necronomicon Press on cassette. Next we have two episodes which aired on the Black Mass radio show, which was produced by Erik Bauersfeld, and was broadcast on KPFA (Berkeley) and KPFK (Los Angeles) from 1963 to 1967. Both "The Rats in the Walls" and "The Outsider" were released in the 1970s on a limited vinyl LP pressing of 1,000 copies

Download: Erik Bauersfeld Reads "The Haunter of the Dark" (5MB)
Download: Black Mass Radio Show - The Rats In The Walls (6MB)
Download: Black Mass Radio Show - The Outsider (5MB)

Robert M. Price Reads The Dunwich Horror

Robert M. Price has been a major figure in H.P. Lovecraft scholarship and fandom for many years. He is both the editor of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu (published by Necronomicon Press) and of a series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies. Unfortunately I was unable to find out any information about this recording. I believe that it was either included in an HPL audio book collection, or a radio broadcast. If you have any information regarding this recording please leave a comment.

Download: Robert M. Price Reads "The Dunwich Horror
Download Size: 13MB

Voices In The Dark Productions
Sean Puckett Reads H.P. Lovecraft

Voices In The Dark is a website which specializes in releasing free audio books. The following Lovecraft tales are read by Sean Michael Puckett, who is also the Co-Owner of the Voices In The Dark website. This is a complete collection of all the H.P. Lovecraft audio books that Sean Puckett has released to date. These recordings are offered at a higher bitrate on the VITD website, although I opted for the lower bitrate files in order to upload them all at once. You can find their website here and Sean Puckett's page here.

Track List:
Memory
The Alchemist
The Beat In The Cave
The Music of Erich Zann
The Outsider
The Rats in the Walls
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Street

Download: Sean Puckett Reads H.P. Lovecraft
Download Size: 65MB

Yug-Sothoth Cthulu Podcast

Yug-Sothoth.com is a website and podcast dedicated to all things Lovecraft. They have released three faithful Lovecraft audio books to date. "The Nameless City" and "The Music of Erich Zann" were released in 2006 as part of the "Readings From Yog-Sothoth" series, and "Nyarlathotep" was released in 2007. Their website contains a wealth of various Lovecraft related media, including a regular podcast, interviews, games, music, and much more.

Download: Finlay Patterson Reads "The Music of Erich Zann" (7MB)
Download: Michael Scott Reads "The Nameless City" (9MB)
Download: Tom McGrenery Reads Nyarlathotep (5MB)

Jim Campanella Reads "The Shadow out of Time"

This recording of "The Shadow out of Time" read by Jim Campanella, was recorded in 2007 and released by Uvula Audio. This recording is available for free under the creative commons license. You can find it as well as other free audio books at the Uvula Audio website. Unfortunately, this is a rather dry effort by Campanella. I wish that he had injected a bit more personality into this recordings as this is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories, and it is the only audio book recording of it that I have managed to find.

Download: Jim Campanella Reads "The Shadow out of Time
Download Size: 172MB

Maureen O'Brien (aka Maria Lectrix)
"The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"

Maureen O'Brien (aka Maria Lectrix) has a podcast dedicated to releasing her own audio books. This audio book of "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" was recorded in May 2008. There are a total of 14 tracks split up into two different parts. This recording as well as many others can be downloaded for free from her website, located here: http://marialectrix.wordpress.com

Download: Maureen O'Brien Reads The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Part 1) (110MB)
Download: Maureen O'Brien Reads The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Part 2) (131MB)

Robert Donald Reads "The Hound"
Robert Donald Reads "The Moon-Bog"

Both of these are fairly recent recordings. They are read by Robert Donald, and recorded for the Audio Books For Free website. They can be found here, along with a number of other audio books: http://audiobooksforfree.com

Download: Robert Donald Reads "The Hound" (24MB)
Download: Robert Donald Reads "The Moon-Bog" (9MB)

Suspense Radio Show - The Dunwich Horror

This is a radio dramatisation of "The Dunwich Horror", which was originally broadcast on the Suspense radio show on November 5th, 1945. Ronald Coleman stars as Dr. Henry Armitage. Suspense was a radio drama series broadcast on CBS from 1942 through 1962. Suspense was one of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era. Approximately 945 episodes were broadcast during its long run, and more than 900 are still intact as high-quality recordings

Download: Suspense Radio Show - The Dunwich Horror
Download Size: 12MB

Atlanta Radio Theater Company

The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company is non-profit organization, formed in 1984, dedicated to preserving, promoting, performing, and educating people about the art of audio theatre (radio drama). These recordings are radio play adaptions performed by the ARTC of five H.P. Lovecraft tales. This is a complete collection of every Lovecraft tale performed by the ARTC to date.

Track List:
1. At The Mountains Of Madness
2. Pickman's Model
3. The Colour Out Of Space
4. The Rats In The Walls
5. The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Download: Atlanta Radio Theatre Company Performs H.P. Lovecraft
Download Size: 84MB

BBC Radio 4 Documentary
The Young Man of Providence

This is a one hour documentary about Lovecraft and his creations. It was broadcast in the UK years ago, although I'm unsure of the exact date. It contains a variety of short quotes and various stories back by eerie sound effects and music.

Credits:
Writer: Mike Walker
Director: Shaun McLaughlin
Narrator: Hugh Burden
Lovecraft: David March
Readers: Blayne Fairman, Garrard Green.

Download: BBC Radio 4 - The Young Man From Providence
Download Size: 39MB

"H.P. Lovecraft and the Occult"
Four Lectures By Justin Woodman

The following recordings are four linked lectures on H.P. Lovecraft and the Occult given by Dr. Justin Woodman at Treadwell's Bookshop in January and February of 2007 at Covent Garden, London. Dr. Woodman lectures in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths College (University of London), where he completed his doctoral thesis on Chaos Magick in 2003. He also lectures at Birkbeck College (University of London), and the University of Westminster. Dr. Woodman has contributed articles on Lovecraftian themes to Strange Attractor and The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, and is one of the founding moderators of the Lovecraft Scholars Yahoo Group.

Dr. Woodman generously made the audio recordings of those lectures publicly available through Yog-Sothoth.com. The four (hour-plus) lectures are entitled: HPL: Fabulist, Myth-Maker & Shaman, Legends of the Necronomicon, Chariots of the Dark Gods and Chaos, Cthulhu, and Contemporary Consciousness. The Microsoft PowerPoint files from the slideshow that Dr. Woodman used for his presentation are also included.

January 17, 2007
The First Lecture: Fabulist, Myth-Maker & Shaman
In the first of the series Justin Woodman casts a critical eye on the 'magical' context of Lovecraft's life and work. He explores some of the myths surrounding the man and his fiction. This first talk also begins to examine the powerful influence that Lovecraft's unique literary creations have exerted over the contemporary occult imagination.

January 31, 2007
The Second Lecture: Legends of the Necronomicon
In part two of this series, Justin Woodman explores the history of the legendary Necronomicon in fact and fiction, and ponders its continuing relevance to contemporary occult cultures. Penned by the Yemeni poet and mystic Abdul Alhazred circa 700 AD, the dreaded Necronomicon is perhaps one of the most powerful and alluring of HP Lovecraft's creations: a grimoire able to rend apart the very fabric of reality and bring forth the Great Old Ones themselves. Although a work of fiction, the Necronomicon has achieved a social and physical reality with more than twenty versions having been published since the 1960s.

February 14, 2007
The Third Lecture: Chariots of the Dark Gods
Many of H.P. Lovecraft's best known tales of the Cthulhu Mythos intimate that the human species is nothing but a by-product of extraterrestrial interventions in Earth's prehistory. Lovecraft's ideas do, in fact, predate the "Ancient Astronaut" theorists and "alternative archaeologists" by over thirty years. Drawing on the work of Jason Colavito, in this lecture Justin Woodman demonstrates that Lovecraft is a pervasive (but often unacknowledged) influence upon contemporary ufology, UFO religions and the broader 'culture of conspiracy'.

February 28, 2007
The Fourth Lecture: Chaos, Cthulhu, and Contemporary Consciousness
This talk concludes the series exploring the relationship between Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and contemporary occult cultures. Woodman focuses on Chaos magic and other recent movements, and considers the claim that Lovecraft was a "mythographer of modernity" whose work intimates something about the current trajectories of Western culture and consciousness.

Download: H.P. Lovecraft & the Occult - Lecture 1 (51MB
Download: H.P. Lovecraft & the Occult - Lecture 2 (58MB)
Download: H.P. Lovecraft & the Occult - Lecture 3 (46MB)
Download: H.P. Lovecraft & the Occult - Lecture 4 (56MB)

Previous Lovecraft Related Posts

H.P. Lovecraft - Various Audio Books Pt. 1
H.P. Lovecraft - Various Audio Books Pt. 2
H.P. Lovecraft - Various Audio Books Pt. 3

UNDEAD - a gothic masterpiece

Three volumes of tracks from from well known goth bands such as Bauhaus, the Mission UK, Lords of the New Church, etc. There are also cuts here by Echo & the Bunnymen (a live version of "Pictures on My Wall"), the Damned, a couple by Lydia Lunch including her cover of "Some Velvet Morning" by Lee Hazlewood, and a crummy quality live version of the Stranglers doing "Peaches."

Year of Release: 1999
Label: Dressed To Kill
Genre: Goth

Disc One
1. Bauhaus - Boys
2. Gene Loves Jezebel - Kiss of Life
3. Sex Gang Children - Last Chants for the Slow Dance
4. Creaming Jesus - Upside Down
5. The Mission - Neverland
6. Marionettes - Rise
7. Lydia Lunch - Twisted
8. Joolz - Denise
9. New Model Army - Vengeance
10. The Bolshoi - Lindy's Party
11. Flesh for Lulu - Decline and Fall
12. Morgans - Half Girl Half Jesus
13. Jay Aston - Who Wants to go to Heaven
14. Bone Orchard - Fats Terminal
15. Sex Gang Children - I've Done it all Before
16. Iggy Pop - You Really Got Me
17. Rita Lynch - Call Me Your Girlfriend

Disc Two
1. The Damned - Torture Me
2. The Resurrection Experience - Do What I Do
3. Echo and the Bunnymen - The Pictures on My Wall
4. Nico - Camera Obscura
5. Theatre of Hate - Do You Believe in the Westworld?
6. Lydia Lunch and Rowland Howard - Some Velvet Morning
7. The March Violets - Grooving in Green
8. Actifed - Crucificion
9. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Temptation
10. Iggy and the Stooges - Open Up and Bleed
11. Electric Sex Circus - Spanner Badge
12. The Dark - Masque
13. Baptism - Life is Cruel
14. Gene Loves Jezebel - Josephina (live)
15. The Bomb Party - Harry the Babysitter
16. Swan Lake - Theme from Dracula

Disc Three
1. The Mission - Daddy's Going to Heaven Now
2. Marionettes - Absolution
3. Rita Lynch - Baby I Wonder
4. The Damned - I Just Can't Be Happy Today (Live)
5. The Stranglers - Peaches (Live)
6. Play Dead - The Tenant
7. Ghost Dance - Can the Can
8. The Lords of the New Church - New Church
9. Electric Sex Circus - Head Off
10. The Swarf Sisters - Palestine
11. Morgans - Crying by the Kiss
12. Play Dead - Shine
13. Baptism - Baptised
14. Action Pact - Gothic Party Time
15. In Excelsis - Carnival of the Gullible
16. Rubicon - Watch Without Pain
17. Into a Circle - Inside Out

Download: Volume One
Download size: 65 MB zip file

Download: Volume Two
Download size: 51 MB zip file

Download: Volume Three
Download size: 66 MB zip file

VA - Friday the 13th Special Edition Soundtrack

Continuing with out modern day monster movie scores, it's time to focus on Friday the 13th. As a young child, out of all the horror movie characters, it was Jason Vorhees who frightened me the most. Most people would agree that the early Friday the 13th movies were the best of the bunch, especially the original, but I have a fondness for some of the later movies in the series, particularly parts 6 and 7, as they were among the first horror movies that I can recall watching. Jason, played by actor Kayne Hodder at this point, was an unstoppable mass of rotting flesh who crushed victims with brute strength as often as he impaled them with a machete. The scene of a rotting Jason, exposed spinal column and all, emerging from Crystal Lake in the 7th film scared the shit out of me at that age.

Henry Manfredini's score for the original Friday the 13th would serve as the blueprint for all of the sequels to follow. Manfredini credits composers Penderecki, Luoslawski, and Bartok for inspiring the sound of the score. The score was extremely low budget, recorded in a basement studio in New Jersey with only 13 (oddly enough) players. Manfredini played all of the percussion, sound effects, keyboards, winds, and also contributed the now infamous vocal effects. I always thought it sounded more like "chi chi chi ha ha ha", but it is actually "ki ki ki ma ma ma". There is an interesting backstory to this. Here is an excerpt of an interview where Manfredini describes how this sound byte came to be included in the score:


"I was listening to Penderecki, and he had an enormous choir, and they did some interesting vocal effects. Of course, we had no choir. So, necessity being the mother of invention, I had to come up with something. If you remember in the picture, at the end we saw a close-up of Betsy Palmer's mouth, saying "kill her, mommy" over and over. As she said this, the voice changed from her voice to the voice of young Jason. So, I took that as a cue. I simply pronounced the letters "ki" for kill, and "ma" for mommy, and then ran them through a piece of equipment called an echoplex. (now really an old piece of gear) and that's how it came to be. So what you hear is KI KI KI KI ---- MA MA MA MA MA.


Unfortunately Paramount never released the official score for the original film, and many of the sequels to follow. The only soundtracks that saw a release were part 3 and Jason X. Fortunately, Friday the 13th has a very devoted fan base, and a number of people have made bootlegged versions of the score available in one form or another. I'm sharing what I consider to be one of the best, which is the "Friday the 13th Special Edition Soundtrack". The Special Edition Soundtrack collects music and sound bytes from the first eight films, and even includes a bonus "Jason Hack Track", which is a collage of sound bytes from every kill made by Jason in the seven sequels featured on the soundtrack.

Track List:
1. Prophet of Doom/Introduction to Horror - Friday the 13th Main Theme
2. A Mother's Love
3. Kill Her Mommy/Excerpts of Terror
4. What About the Boy?
5. Friday the 13th End Theme
6. Campfire Tale
7. Doomed/Friday the 13th Part 2 Main Theme
8. I Have Warned Thee/Friday the 13th Part 3 Main Theme
9. Moments of Sadness
10. Friday the 13th Part 4 Main Theme
11. He's Alive
12. Friday the 13th Part 4 End Theme
13. You Talking To Me/Friday the 13th Part 5 Main Theme
14. Friday the 13th Part 6 Main Theme/Tommy's Plight
15. Teenage Frankenstein
16. Dead Meat
17. The Man Behind The Mask
18. Friday the 13th Part 7 Main Theme
19. Welcome to N.Y.
20. Friday the 13th Part 8 Theme - Darkest Side of Night
21. Bonus - Jason's Hack Track

Download: Friday the 13th Special Edition Soundtrack
Download Size: 66MB

Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare on Elm Street OST

This will be the first movie soundtrack from what I like to consider the modern day equivalents of the Universal Studios monster films. The children of the 30's and 40's had Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and The Mummy to haunt their dreams. However, if you were a child of the 80's, such as myself, it was Jason Vorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers that made you afraid to go to the bathroom late at night. The "Freddy vs. Jason" crossover, despite it's obvious flaws, is akin to the crossovers of yesteryear in many ways. 1942's "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man", marked the first time that two major Universal Studios monsters would appear together on the same film, and 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla" was the ultimate monster showdown of it's time.

Many would agree that the Nightmare on Elm Street series overstayed it's welcome with the release of eight sequels, and the franchise went downhill in more ways than one after the original. As with several other horror franchises during this period, Hollywood just didn't know when to quit while they were ahead. However, despite the generic and repetitive plots which revolved around exterminating sex-crazed teenagers in the most gruesome ways imaginable, years of public exposure helped these modern day monsters reach legendary status equal to that of their Universal Studios counterparts.

The theme music associated with each of these modern day monsters is as recognizable as their character's image, whether you are a fan of their respective films or not. First up is Charles Bernstein's amazing score to A Nightmare on Elm Street. Bernstein shunned the traditional orchestral approach for this film, opting for state of the art synthesizers and sound effects instead. There is also a touch of electric guitar used on "Laying The Traps". Bernstein's richly layered score created a sinister atmosphere, which perfectly captured the nightmare world inhabited by Freddy Krueger. The inorganic, dehumanized tones produced by the synthesizers underscore a waking detachment from reality. The sounds of heart beats, boiler room groans, blasts of steam, and low whispering help to heighten the tension of the music another degree. Although parts of this score may sound dated, and one will easily recognize it as the product of the 80's, this score still holds up extremely well and will forever be associated with the modern day monster, Freddy Krueger.

Track List:
1. Prologue
2. Main Title
3. Laying Out The Traps
4. Dream Attack
5. Rod Hanged/Night Stalking
6. Jail Cell
7. Confrontation
8. Sleep Clinic
9. Terror In The Tub
10. No Escape
11. School Horror/Stay Awake
12. Telephone Terror
13. Lurking
14. Fountain of Blood
15. Evil Freddy
16. Final Search
17. Run Nancy

Download: Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare On Elm Street OST
Download Size: 30MB

Jerry Goldsmith - The Omen OST + 3 Cover Versions of Ave Satani

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to post a few classic horror soundtracks/scores before the Halloween countdown is over. I will be keeping these posts short and sweet seeing as how these soundtracks are famous throughtout the world, and there isn't much that I can write about them that hasn't already been written. This will also give me more time to finish putting together my finale for the countdown.

The score to The Omen is a great example of a score that is able to rise above and beyond the movie that it was written for. Without this score The Omen wouldn't have glued audiences to their theatre seats in terror in 1976. It is easily one of the most frightening scores ever composed for a horror movie, and ranks as one of the best scores written during the long and distinguished career of prolific composer Jerry Goldsmith. Goldsmith won the Oscar for Best Original Score in 1976, which would also be the only Oscar that Goldsmith received in his career. Ave Satani was also nominated for best song, which makes it one of the few Non-English songs to ever be nominated for an Oscar.

As a bonus I have also included three covers of Ave Satani, all of which are unique from the original, yet excellent in their own right. The first one is performed by Fantômas from the "Director's Cut" album, the second by Gregorian from the album "The Dark Side", and the last by Death SS from the album "Come to the Sabbath".

Track List:
1. Ave Satani
2. The New Ambassador
3. Killer's Storm
4. A Sad Message
5. The Demise of Mrs. Baylock
6. Don't Let Him
7. The Piper Dreams
8. The Fall
9. Safari Park
10. The Dog's Attack
11. The Homecoming
12. The Altar

Download: Jerry Goldsmith - The Omen OST
Download Size: 31MB

Bonus Tracks:
Fantômas - The Omen (Ave Satani) (3MB)
Gregorian - Ave Satani (5MB)
Death SS - Ave Satani (5MB)

Need your help over at the Manson Music blog

I'm having a sort of contest over at my Manson Music blog. Here's the post I put up there today:

After finding some videos on YouTube that people had put together using Manson songs (some of which even included the url for this blog at the end of them) I got an idea. I'm sure there are some visitors here who have video editing skills. I would love to see what you can do given a challenge, or at least an idea for motivation. So, I thought I'd ask if there is anyone who would like to put together a sort of video advert for the blog. The only rules are:

1.) use a song by Charlie
2.) include the url and name of the blog, and
3.) please don't reference murder or put any gruesome pictures in the video.

Think of it as something that can be posted on blogs and forums to let people know this place exists so people who have an interest in Manson can come and find his music. I can't offer any sort of prize or anything but I'll post all your videos here so everyone can see them and then I'll pick the one(s) I like the best and use them to promote the site. Of course, you can find all your audio source material on Manson Music Sound good? Ok then, let's see what ya got! You can submit them to me by sending me by uploading them to Youtube or any other such site (Daily Motion, Guba, Veoh, etc.) and send me the link at nitegaunt@gmail.com or you can send them to me at my profile on YouTube

Anton LaVey - The Satanic Mass

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 01/11/2014. 



Following the theme we currently have going here, I present to you more satanic goodness. This will be among the last spoken word/audio book albums that I plan on uploading before Halloween, although I do plan to fit in a Poe/Lovecraft mega-post of sorts, which will contain more audio books of course. I'll be following this album up with some classic horror movie scores/soundtracks. From here on out I'm going to keep my words at a minimum so that I will have time to post all the albums that I would like to share before Halloween.

The Satanic Mass was recorded on Friday the 13th in September of 1968 at the Church of Satan in San Francisco, California. This was originally released by the Murgenstrumm label in 1968, and it would mark the first time that an authentic satanic mass was presented to the masses. These recordings were made before the first Satanic Bible was published in December of 1969. The first track is the satanic mass itself. Tracks 3-7 are recitations of verses that would later be included in the Satanic Bible. Track 8, "Hymn of the Satanic Empire", alternatively known as "The Battle Hymn of the Apocalypse" is a bonus track not included with the original vinyl release.

Due to the recording equipment used, the quality of these recordings are poor, although not nearly as bad as those from the Aleister Crowley post which preceded this one. The Satanic Mass is the obvious standout track on this LP, and would be a fantastic track to play for your guests on Halloween. If you don't have a strong interest in LaVey or satanism in general then this album will begin to drag towards the middle. LaVey's delivery of the verses is very monotone, and can make for a tedious listening experience.

Track List:
1. The Satanic Mass
2. Prologue
3. Book of Satan, Verse I
4. Book of Satan, Verse II
5. Book of Satan, Verse III
6. Book of Satan, Verse IV
7. Book of Satan, Verse V
8. Battle Hymn of the Apocalypse (Hymn of the Satanic Empire)


Download: Anton LeVey - The Satanic Mass
Download Size: 113MB
decryption code in comments

Aleister Crowley - The Great Beast Speaks

At the request of Han Cholo, I have re-uploaded this post. It is now in lossless audio, so the file is a bit larger. It is stored on MEGA so the decryption code is in the comments. NØ

I thought it would be fitting to follow up Psyche Zenobia's post on Anton LaVey with one featuring Aleister Crowley. Like LaVey, whom Crowley indirectly influenced a great deal, Crowley thoroughly explored many aspects of spirituality, the occult, and the physical world during his lifetime. He gained a notorious reputation for his occult writings, drug use, and hedonism. However, unbeknownst to many people, he was also an accomplished mountaineer, poet, yogi, chess player, painter, and astrologer. Due to his notoriety the title of "The Wickedest Man in the World" was bestowed upon him by British tabloids, and even his own mother proclaimed him to be "The Beast", a nickname that he would eventually readily adopt.

"The Great Beast Speaks" collects early 20th century recordings of Aleister Crowley. The claim that this collection features every Crowley recording in existence is false. Though they are very few in number, there are Crowley recordings which aren't featured on this album. Opinions vary on the year that this was recorded, but most experts agree that it was recorded circa 1920, which would have made Crowley close to 45 years old at the time. These were originally recorded on wax cylinders, and later digitally transferred. The quality is still very poor despite the digital transfer, but if you want to hear Crowley this is the only option that you have.

Tracks two through thirteen are a mixture of Crowley reading incantations and poetry, while The last track is Crowley singing unintelligibly in French. You will notice that there are both English and "Enochian" versions of tracks two through five. The back cover states that the tracks marked 'Enochian Version' Are recited in the magical language discovered and used by 'John Dee', magician to The Court of queen Elizabeth. Enochian is not mere Gibberish; it is a real language with a grammar and syntax of its own. Perhaps it is, as more than one occultist has claimed, a degenerate form of drowned Atlantis. Someone was nice enough to create a page which gives a small explanation of each track, which can be found here here.

Track List:
1. Intro
2. The Call of the First Aethy (Enochian Version)
3. The Call of the First Aethy (English Version)
4. The Call of the Second Aethy (Enochian Version)
5. The Call of the Second Aethy (English Version)
6. La Gitana
7. The Pentagram
8. One Sovereign for the Woman
9. The Poet
10. At Sea
11. The Fingernails
12. The Titanic
13. Hymn to the American People
14. Excerts from the Gnostic Mass
15. Vive La French Republic

Download: Aleister Crowley - The Great Beast Speaks
Download Size: 97.5MB

Anton LaVey - Strange Music EP

I posted this one a while back on my Nitegaunt Media blog but I thought it would be relevant to the Halloween Countd0wn so here it is again! From the original post:

Found this 10" e.p. back in 1994 in a record store in San Francisco. I believe it had just come out and I can't a resist the novelty of a 10 inch record (not to mention one featuring someone like this) so I grabbed it. Years later I found myself in need of a record needle and unable to play my vinyl. I had a friend of mine rip some singles and this e.p. to a disc for me so I could listen to them. That was probably seven years ago and yesterday I found the disc so I decided to upload this. Looking around on the net, I could hardly even find a reference to this record so I figure it's still very obscure even in the days when you can find just about anything on blogs and forums. So here you go! As the title of the e.p. suggests, this is indeed some "Strange Music". Anton LaVey, founder of the "Church of Satan" recored these versions of early 20th century standards and rarities using vintage organs and keyboard instruments. As I understand it from the liner notes he plays all the instruments in the recordings and all were done without overdubs. It's kind of amazing really. Most of the tracks are instrumentals with only two of them featuring vocals by his then wife, Blanche Barton. There is definitely an eerie quality to the music, especially the version of "Gloomy Sunday" (the famous song that caused a suicide craze/scare when it was originally released in the1930's. The Wikipedia article on it is an interesting read. Anyway, since I've not been able to revamp this blog as of yet I thought I would post a couple of things in the meantime that kind of fit with the theme and this one certainly does. Maybe some of the earliest examples of "death rock" by one of the most infamous people of the last century.

Track List:
1. Thanks For The Memory
2. Strange Music
3. Temptation
4. Start The Day Right (vocal by Blanche Barton)
5. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
6. The Year Of Jubilo
7. Gloomy Sunday (vocal by Blanche Barton)

Download: Anton LaVey - Strange Music EP
Download Size: 33MB

Devil Doll - Dies Irae

Pounding strings contrast with grand synth and organ washes and the occasional burning lead guitar...By this release, Devil Doll's music has begun to follow a pretty simple formula: orchestral and/or world-music influenced passages contrast sharply with piano-led passages that feature the sinister, bizarrely twisted voice of "Mr. Doctor", the band's mastermind. Fortunately, Dies Irae improves upon this formula enough to avoid being boring and unoriginal. The sound on this disc is massive, as the band is at times backed by a full orchestra which adds enormously to the atmosphere. Pounding strings contrast with grand synth and organ washes and the occasional burning lead guitar; needless to say, I think the instrumental portions of this release top any of Devil Doll's previous instrumental compositions. The vocal sections are also better, as Mr. Doctor's insane vocal style has been perfected by this time, and the instrumental background supporting him is more varied and interesting than the simple piano work that used to be all that accompanied him. For those of you that haven't heard Devil Doll, Mr. Doctor does not sing in the traditional sense; rather, he screeches, moans, mumbles, screams, warbles, and vocalizes in every possible way that isn't "normal". The end result is something that only personal taste can judge - some love it, some think it's just a cheesy gimmick. I think it's fantastic, and though this music is definitely over-the-top in terms of "darkness", it's still great stuff. Though the middle section of this piece is somewhat fragmented, I think it's intentional, and that's about my only complaint about the whole thing. For newcomers, this is the Devil Doll album I'd recommend as a starting point. The generic "uniquely dark symphonic music" description doesn't do this album justice. I've excluded the usual track listing for this album because the tracks are not uniquely named, rather they are listed as "Part 1", "Part 2" etc., with a total of 18 tracks in all.

Year of Release: 1996
Label: Hurdy Gurdy
Genre: Classical, Symphonic
Bitrate: 128kbps

Download: Devil Doll - Dies Irae
Download Size: 43MB

Æthenor - Betimes Black Cloudmasses

Æthenor is the drone/dark ambient collaboration of Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley, Guapo's Daniel O'Sullivan, and Vincent de Roguin of Shora. Admittedly, this may not be the easiest form of music to swallow but fans of eerie soundscapes and other-worldly ambiance should gather around the campfire with this one.

2008's Betimes Black Cloudmasses is three improvisational tracks clocking in at thirty-four minutes. When you are pondering whether to greet trick-or-treaters with Dr. Demento or pump out a disc of random Halloween sound effects for your Halloween party; consider Æthenor.

Track List:

1. I
2. II
3. III

Download: Æthenor - Betimes Black Cloudmasses

Download Size: 43.36 MB

Christopher Lee Reads Edgar Allan Poe - Tales of Mystery and Horror

The Lovecraft and Poe audio books that I posted earlier this month were well received, so I thought I would follow them up with this little gem. There isn't much information floating around about this release, yet I was able to discover that it was originally released in 1985 by the DH Audio label, which specializes in audio book releases. It was only released on cassette, and still has yet to see a CD release.

Once again, Christopher Lee does an outstanding job of bringing Poe's stories to life. If you enjoyed his rendition of "The Black Cat" from the Fireside Tales album I posted earlier this week, then you will love this. His version of The Raven is superior to every other version that I've managed to hear so far. Here's hoping that someone will eventually release a "Christopher Lee Reads Lovecraft" album eventually.

Track List:
1. Hop Frog
2. The Raven
3. The Masque of the Red Death
4. The Tell Tale heart
5. The Rue Morgue - Pt. 1
6. The Rue Morgue - Pt. 2

Download: Christopher Lee Reads Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery and Horror
Download Size: 75MB

TWILIGHTZONE! music blog down...

I've just received terrible news. The legendary blog, TWILIGHTZONE! has been removed. This is a huge blow to the music blog community. For those unfamiliar with the blog, it was the best resource for rockabilly/psychobilly and garage rock on the internet. To the best of my knowledge, all of the music shared there was out of print or otherwise unavailable. It makes me wonder how much of a chance other blogs have of staying up if the TWILIGHTZONE! has been deleted by blogger. RYP, if you happen to read this, please let us know something. If there is anything I can do to help you out I would be more than willing to do so, and I'm sure many others would also. I know of other places that you can host your blog where you wouldn't have to worry about it being taken down. If any of you hear any news as to why TWILIGHTZONE! was removed, or hear from RYP, please let me know. I will keep you all updated on news concerning this matter as soon as it is made available to me.

Update:

I'm happy to report that RYP is up and running with a new TWILIGHTZONE! Unfortunately, it looks as if the old blog is gone for good though. I'm happy to see that RYP isn't giving up as so many other bloggers have done when their blogs were removed. When I posted the pages that google had cached, I had forgotten about the download links being in the comments, so I would like to apologize for that. Thanks to those of you who pointed that out to me. I'm going to attempt other ways to access the comments page, and I will let you all know if I have any luck. Here is the new url for the TWILIGHTZONE!:

TWILIGHTZONE!: http://twilightzone-rideyourpony.blogspot.com/

Post Concerning the Removal: http://twilightzone-rideyourpony.blogspot.com/2008/10/im-just-rather-speechless-but-for-your.html

Christopher Lee - Fireside Tales

Christopher Lee is best known for his portrayal of Dracula in numerous Hammer Horror films, and more recently as the villian Saruman in Lord of the Rings. Fireside Tales was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on December 30th, 2004. It features Lee reading five classic tales of horror from the late 19th/early 20th century. Lee does a great job bringing these stories to life, and his voice is perfect for the role. Hopefully one day he'll get around to doing a Lovecraft story or two.

Track List:
1. The Black Cat (1843 - by Edgar Allen Poe)
2. The Man of Science (1892 - by Jerome K. Jerome)
3. John Charrington's Wedding (1893 - by Edith Nesbit)
4. The Man & the Snake (1891 - by Ambrose Bierce)
5. The Monkey's Paw (1902 - by W.W. Jacobs)

Download: Christopher Lee - Fireside Tales
Download Size: 78MB

Charles Bernstein - April Fool's Day OST

April Fool's Day is one of my favorite slasher movies from the 80's, and recently I was delighted to finally obtain a copy of this wonderful score, composed by the great Charles Bernstein. Although April Fool's Day may not register very high on the rewatchability meter (not because it's a bad movie, but because of it's twist ending), the soundtrack is capable of creating a frightful atmosphere upon each listen.

Bernstein is best remembered for composing the score to the original Nightmare on Elm Street. With Nightmare Bernstein experimented heavily with synths, creating thick layers of noise over eerie melodies, which could almost be described as industrial on certain tracks. You won't find synths here, and it certainly doesn't sound industrial at any point, but Bernstein doesn't shy away from experimenting with both traditional orchestral and exotic instruments, and the result works much better as a horror score than that of Nightmare. It is very minimalistic in it's approach at times, yet when the slashing begins on film, Bernstein mirrors it with the slashing of strings to create a truly terrifying sound.

This masterful horror score ends on a very silly note with a truly zany bonus track, "Too Bad You're Crazy", by Jerry Whitman. The addition of this track is puzzling to me, but I suppose there must be some reasonable answer as to why it was included. Personally, I prefer to listen to the score without the addition of this song, however I'm sure that some of you will appreciate it's inclusion.

To my knowledge this score is out of print now, and as the years go by it is becoming increasingly rare. For those of you who love horror, or simply enjoy great movie scores, this would make a great addition to your collection.

Track List:
1. Intro
2. Main Title
3. Choke And Dagger
4. Pier Pressure
5. All´s Well That Ends
6. Snakes Alive
7. Stab In The Dark
8. Hanging Around
9. The House
10. Trick Or Threat
11. Nan In Danger
12. Nightwatch
13. Sitting Duck
14. Night
15. Getting The Point
16. Little Miss Muffy
17. Muffy Attack
18. First Victim
19. Hack-In-The-Box
20. Too Bad You're Crazy (Bonus Track)

Download: Charles Bernstein - April Fool's Day OST
Download Size: 45MB

Lights Out Radio Show - 1936-1947

I hope that you all enjoy this special post as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. Up till this point, I have yet to share any old time radio broadcasts, which I only recently discovered myself. These radio broadcasts were originally downloaded from http://archive.org, but the audio files were not tagged, and the two Oboler albums were found on other blogs, although I'm unable to remember where they were obtained now. I have spent several hours collecting, tagging, and renaming all of the audio files included. I have also taken the time to manually type out the text from the back cover of the "Arch Oboler - Lights Out LP" (which was almost illegible due to the poor quality of the album cover image), convert the official wikipedia page to a .pdf file, and track down a few images of the hosts and actors involved.

NBC writer Wyllis Cooper, who would later write the script for Boris Karloff's Son of Frankenstein, conceived the idea for Lights Out in 1933. Cooper was a respected radio writer of the time, and he worked on a number of other shows in addition to Lights Out. The first episode of Lights Out would air in January of 1934 on a local NBC satation, WENR on Wednesdays at midnight. The first episodes clocked in at 15 minutes in length, but as the series grew in popularity, it was eventually lengthened to 30 minute episodes. In January of 1935 the show was discontinued in order to ease the workload of Cooper, who was working on other shows at the time in addition to Lights Out. However the show was brought back only a few weeks later due to overwhelming popular demand. In April of 1934 NBC made the move to broadcast Lights Out to a national audience. Cooper would continue to host the show until June of '36 when Arch Oboler took over, who's name would eventually become synonymous with Lights Out. Oboler would act as host until 1938, when he left to work on other projects. A variety of people took over the show's writing/producing duties until the show was eventually cancelled in 1939. Oboler would return once again to host the show from 1942 to 1943. There would be three other short lived revivals of the show during 1945,1946, and 1947. These later revival episodes primarily featured reworked scripts written by Cooper during his 1934-1936 stint.

This is not a complete collection of every episode of Lights Out to ever air, but rather a collection of every episode that is available at this time. None of the recordings from the Wyllis Cooper era from 1936-1939 exist, although some of his stories were later rewritten and broadcast by Oboler, and others during the later revival years. I have also included two Arch Oboler LPs. The first, "Drop Dead!", was originally released in 1962. I have been unable to attain much information about the second, which is simply titled "Lights Out". Both of them featured tales that were originally Lights Out broadcasts, but the quality of these recordings is much better than the original broadcasts.

As I mentioned before, it was only recently that I discovered old time radio broadcasts, but there are a few horror/supernatural radio shows from the era that I would like to share before Halloween. I have decided to feature Lights Out first, as it was the premiere horror radio show of the era. There are dozens of other horror radio shows that I would like to share before Halloween, but at the moment it doesn't look like I'm going to have time to, unless I cut out some of the other albums that I had planned on uploading. I'll make my best effort to post at least two or three of the better broadcasts over the next couple of weeks, and perhaps I'll even share some "leftovers" after Halloween is over. Please keep in mind that these shows were broadcast in the 1930's and 40's, and although some of the broadcasts certainly have a creepy quality to them, the majority of them bear more of a similarity to episodes of The Twilight Zone rather than horror by today's standards. Don't let this stop you from downloading and listening to these though. You would certainly be missing out on many good tales of horror and the supernatural, as well as an important piece of history from a bygone era.

There is an wealth of information about the Lights Out series, but rather than make this already lengthy post any longer than it has to be, I'm simply going to link to the wikipedia page, which can provide much more information about the show than I can. As I mentioned before, I have converted the official wiki page into a pdf file and included it with each of the shares below. Here is the Lights Out wikipedia page for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_Out_(radio_show)

Now, without further ado,

lights out everybody....

Lights Out Radio Show

Download: Lights Out - 1936-1939 (81MB)
Download: Lights Out - 1942-1943 (134MB)
Download: Lights Out - 1945 (12MB)
Download: Lights Out - 1946-1947 (23MB)

Arch Oboler - Drop Dead!

Track List:
1. An Introduction to Horror
2. I'm Huntry
3. Taking Papa Home
4. The Dark
5. A Day at the Dentists's
6. The Posse
7. Chicken Heart
8. The Laughing Man

Download: Arch Oboler - Drop Dead! An Exercise In Horror
Download Size: 56MB

Arch Oboler - Lights Out LP

Track List:
1. Oxychloride X
2. Rocket From Manhattan

Download: Arch Oboler - Lights Out LP
Download Size: 45MB

Elvira's Vinyl Macabre

Found this great release of Halloween faves from Elvira over at Vinnie Rattolle's Records. Vinnie also has two more collections from the "temptress of the turntable" over there, too. "Vinyl Macabre" includes some true Halloween classics like the "Munsters theme" and "Purple People Eater" but this isn't a generic compilation by any means. There are some really obscure little ditties on this vinyl rip (or should I say R.I.P., haha!). The Shaggs' "It's Halloween" and Jim Parkers' "The Vegas Vampire" are definitely worth a listen. Of course, the whole thing is narrated by the Mistress of the Dark, herself, and no one can quite set the mood like Elvira.

1. Intro - Elvira
2. Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett
3. Haunted House - Jumpin' Gene Simmons
4. The Munsters - The Comateens
5. Horror Movies - The Bollock Brothers
6. Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
7. It's Halloween - The Shaggs
8. End of Side One - Elvira
9. Beginning of Side Two - Elvira
10. Twilight Zone - Neil Norman & His Cosmic Organ
11. The Vegas Vampire - Jim Parker
12. Out of Limits - The Challengers
13. Horror Movies - Dickie Goodman
14. Drac's Back - Red Lipstique
15. Outro - Elvira

Download "Vinyl Macabre" @ 192

Coil - Unreleased Hellraiser Themes - Vinyl & CD Versions

I thought it would be appropriate to follow up the official Hellraiser score with this unoffical version by Coil. The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser (subtitled The Consequences Of Raising Hell) was the fourth album that Coil released in the year 1987. The album was released on the CD, cassette and 10" vinyl. It was the proposed soundtrack to the film Hellraiser. A common misconception is that this version was deamed "too scary" to use, however in all actuality it was turned down because it was not considered commercial enough by the studio. The following quote by Cliver Barker, which was included on the album cover to the vinyl version, may have helped to perpetuate this myth: "The only group I've heard on disc whose records I've taken off because they made my bowels churn"

A-side tracks from the 10"/cassette version and all tracks from the CD version later appeared on the Unnatural History II compilation. B-side tracks from the 10"/cassette version later appeared as a single track on Unnatural History III.
This is the only release on the record label Solar Lodge, with catalog number COIL 1. The cassette version was licensed to Soleilmoon and released in 1990, with catalog number SOL 4. The cassette features a different cover than the CD and vinyl release.

10" Vinyl & Cassette Track List
Side A: "The Unreleased Themes For Hellraiser"
1. Hellraiser
2. Box Theme
3. Main Title

Side B: "Music For Commercials"
1. Airline 1
2. Liqueur
3. Perfume
4. Video Recorder
5. Airline 2
6. Natural Gas
7. Cosmetic 1
8. Cosmetic 2
9. Analgesic
10.Road Surface
11.Accident Insurance

CD Track List:
1. Hellraiser Themes
2. The Hellbound Heart
3. Box Theme
4. No New World
5. Attack of the Sennapods
6. Main Title

Download: Coil - Unreleased Hellraiser Themes (Vinyl Version) (20MB)
Download: Coil - Unreleased Hellraiser Themes (CD Version) (27MB)

Christopher Young - Hellraiser OST

In 1987, during a decade riddled with slasher movies, Clive Barker released one of the most original horror movies of the 80's. It also happened to be accompanied by one of the best horror scores of that time as well. While most horror movies were primarily using electronic synthesizers at that time, Christopher Young opted to use a full orchestra instead. Young had previously composed the score for A Nightmare on Elm Street 2", in which synths did play a major role, but he showcased his versatility to great effect with the score to Hellraiser. The use of powerful brass, sweeping strings, and menacing piano cues helped to set this score apart from others during the same era. Young's score combines magical amounts of mystery, horror and intrigue that reflects the black magic nature of the film. The evil atmosphere is laid on so thick in the music that some tracks are actually bone-chilling.

The score consists of many pieces which sound dramatically different when separated, but they all fit together like a puzzle to bring the listener hell on earth, much like the Lament Configuration itself. The first and most obvious was "Resurrection," a creepy but attractive waltz. "Seduction and Pursuit," was easily my favorite track. Clocking in at just under three minutes, it still manages to transition multiple times. It begins with what sounds like hellish carnival music, or a satanic jack-in-the-box, which gradually transitions into menacing strings before finally exploding into a climax filled with powerful percussions and horns. Young seemed to conceive his score as a whole, rather than as a series of cues to accompany scenes, and it worked that way, having a cumulative effect.

Track List:
1. Hellraiser
2. Resurrection
3. Hellbound Heart
4. The Lament Configuration
5. Reunion
6. A Quick Death
7. Seduction and Pursuit
8. In Love's Name
9. The Cenobites
10. The Rate Slice Quartet
11. Re-Resurrection
12. Uncle Frank
13. Brought On By Night
14. Another Puzzle

Download: Christopher Young - Hellraiser OST
Download Size: 59MB

Zombies ate my Network

As some of you may have already noticed, the Digital Meltd0wn social network is down at the moment. I'm sure that it isn't a problem with the host site (Ning) because all of the other networks hosted by them are still up and running. I fear that it may have been taken down due to some of the content on the network, but it is impossible for me to be sure at the moment. I have sent several e-mails to the Ning team, but I have yet to receive any type of response other than an automated e-mail informing me that "the Ning developers have received my inquiry and will address my concerns promptly". I will inform you of any news concerning the network as soon as I receive it, and should the network come back online, I will send out an e-mail to all of the members. If for some reason the network does not come back online, I will pursue other options for creating another community. I still have plans to get a domain for Digital Meltd0wn eventually, which would eliminate such problems in the future, but for the moment we can only wait.

Bernard Herrmann - Psycho: Original Film Score

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 11/20/2013.

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was a film that was well ahead of it's time. Although it may be tame in comparison to modern horror films, the score by Bernard Herrmann is anything but so. It is inarguably one of most powerful scores in cinematic history. Herrmann masterfully captures the frenzied state of a psychopath commiting violent acts of murder. Both "The Bathroom" and "The Murder" are perfect examples of this, in which a "stabbing" technique with the violin is used in order to create a high-pitched shriek, which casts the listener into a frantic state of mind. Utilizing both violins and cellos to perfection, Herrmann slowly constructs an atmosphere of almost unbearable dread with ominous overtones during the buildup to such moments.

There have been several versions of this score released over the years. In 1975 Herrmann conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra in a recreation of the score in it's entirety. However, this release would mark the first time that the music was made available from the actual soundtrack of the film. A transfer from the original master tapes, which were recorded on high quality analog equipment, was finally made available to the public after 36 long years of waiting.

Track List:
1. Prelude; The City; Marion and Sam; Temptation
2. Flight; The Patrol Car; The Car Lot; The Package; The Rainstorm
3. Hotel Room; The Window; The Parlour; The Madhouse; The Peephole
4. The Bathroom; The Murder; The Body; The Office; The Curtain; The Water; The Car; The Swamp
5. The Search; The Shadow; Phone Booth; The Porch; The Stairs; The Knife
6. The Search; The First Floor; Cabin 10; Cabin 1
7. The Hill; The Bedroom; The Toys; The Cellar; Discovery; Finale

Download: Bernard Herrmann - Psycho: Original Film Score (decryption code in comments)
Download Size: 126.6MB

The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection - Five Discs

It is time for me to pay homage to another celebrated horror writer. It would be impossible to imagine how literature, let alone fictional horror, would have evolved in the 20th century without the influence of Edgar Allan Poe. Much like H.P. Lovecraft, those who lived during Poe's time were unable to grasp the true nature of the genius he possessed, and the enormous influence that he would have on countless aspiring authors for decades to come. Ironically, during his lifetime Poe was widely regarded for his literary criticism, rather than for his contributions to literature and poetry. For those of us alive today, Poe is best remembered for his short stories and poetry. However, he is also credited for inventing the genre of detective-fiction, acknowledged as a major contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction, one of the first American short story authors, and the first well known American writer who attempted to make his living solely as a professional writer. Needless to say, Poe was a major catalyst for American literature in the 20th century, and undoubtedly for centuries to come.

Basil Rathbone

Vincent Price

It would be hard to imagine more fitting narrators for Poe's classic horror tales than Price and Rathbone, two superb, classically trained actors who became household names starring in movies of suspense and mystery. Poe's work is especially well-suited to audio, and these remastered, archival Caedmon recordings, originally released on phonograph records, showcase the two actors at their finest. Both Price and Rathbone perfectly convey the prototypical Poe narrator trying to come to grips with the horror he has experienced. In "Berenice," Price's voice sounds refined yet deeply troubled as he struggles to explain the insidious, neurotic obsession taking over his life. "The Cask of Amontillado" finds Rathbone chuckling with evil pleasure at the well-planned murder of one who has slighted him. Among the remaining featured tales are "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," "The Black Cat" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." I can't recommend this audio collection enough, especially for Poe enthusiasts.

Disc One - Basil Rathbone
1. To-
2. Alone
3. The City In The Sea
4. The Fall of the House of Usher
5. The Haunted Palace
6. The Pit and the Pendelum

Disc Two - Basil Rathbone
1. The Mask of the Red Death
2. The Tell-Tale Heart
3. The Black Cat

Disc Three - Basil Rathbone
1. The Raven
2. The Facts of the Case of M. Valdemar
3. The Cask of Amontillado
4. The Bells
5. Annabel Lee
6. Eldorado

Disc Four - Vincent Price
1. Ligeia
2. The Imp of the Perverse
3. Morella

Disc Five - Vincent Price
1. Berenice
2. The Gold Bug

Download: The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection - Disc One
Download: The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection - Disc Two
Download: The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection - Disc Three
Download: The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection - Disc Four
Download: The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection - Disc Five