# Rock that scares the crap out of you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430 "2006-05-04T19:23:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/21 "2006-05-05T02:53:11Z")
> [@Kilvert's Pagan](#): > > KC co-founder Robert Fripp also did a piece with the Robert Fripp String Quartet called “Threnody for Souls in Torment”. Not easy listening. Threnody is a play off the Polish composer Penderecki’s [Threnody: for the victims of Hiroshima](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002S5H/qid=1146797507/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-6198851-9892933?s=classical&v=glance&n=5174) which will take your head off. Easily the music that would lead the “scares the crap out of you” sub-genre, but since it is not rock, I didn’t mention it… ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/22 "2006-05-05T03:30:05Z")
> [@Kilvert's Pagan](#): > > Maynard was pretty up front about having been ripping off **King Crimson** for years. Even though they practically invented prog (that’s another debate - don’t flame me here), they had pretty much ditched it by the mid-70’s. The songs of theirs which could be called terrifying achieve that effect without words. I’d nominate the title tune from **Thrak** , but a lot of the other examples are improvs from their self-bootlegged live sessions. Listen to “Entrance of the Crims” from “Absent Lovers” for an example. Word. I shat myself the first time I heard _Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part I_ (and _Part II_, for that matter. [hijack] Saw a cracking Adrian Belew solo show last week - AB and a rhythm section. Awesome. [/hijack] Otherwise, I second Nick Cave - especially _Mercy Seat_. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/23 "2006-05-05T03:30:57Z")
Oh, man, I could go on and on. **Friends** by Led Zeppelin. I’d vote this as the most ominous song ever, actually. The minor chords, manic guitar picking and deep evil-sounding string section. The first time I heard this song I was driving on the highway with the largest and darkest storm I had ever seen overhead. Wow… ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/24 "2006-05-05T03:33:57Z")
Nobody has feared Rock n’ Roll since the 60’s. You should be fearing Hip-Hop nowadays. Get with the times man, sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/25 "2006-05-05T03:36:35Z")
Nirvana’s version of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/26 "2006-05-05T03:39:15Z")
“Climbing Up the Walls” by Radiohead is very creepy. The lyrics are almost impossible to understand, and the imagery is surreal once you understand them. “Possum Kingdom” by the Toadies is about a guy who’s planning to murder some girl, and the scary part is how incredibly sexy the song is. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/27 "2006-05-05T04:23:12Z")
_“Possum Kingdom” by the Toadies is about a guy who’s planning to murder some girl, and the scary part is how incredibly sexy the song is._ OP by Mirror Image egamI rorriM I second this one…to me, the scary part is that this is one of my absolute favorite songs. _I can promise you You’ll stay as beautiful With dark hair And soft skin…forever Forever_ \ ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/28 "2006-05-05T05:24:36Z")
Did you guys read **31 songs**? The chapter about **Suicide** ’s epic “Frankie Teardrop” was a good read. And yes, it’s as frightening as the book will have it. The song goes on for ten minutes, it’s maddening and narrative: Frankie Teardrop gets closer to killing his family the more you listen and by the end of the song the singer starts banshee shrieking. Powerful mighty, as Kunta Kinte would have said. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/29 "2006-05-05T05:29:06Z")
**Meat Is Murder** by The Smiths. The piano stabs with the sound of the bone saw… the mooing of the cows… it never creeped me out until I was listening in the office… at night… with only the lamp on. On the other hand, Metallica’s **One** is laying it on a bit thick, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/30 "2006-05-05T05:32:08Z")
**Reality Chuck** Wow someone actually remembers “DOA” by Bloodrock? I believe that was Terry Knight’s third incarnation as rock and roll performer / promoter. (The first 2 being Terry Knight & the Pack and Grand Funk Railroad) ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/31 "2006-05-05T12:49:33Z")
[Killers](http://www.maidenfans.com/imc/?url=album02_killers/commentary02_killers&lang=eng&link=albums), the second Iron Maiden album. It’s basically about a man who finds two girls murdered, and then is wrongfully accused of the crime (Murders In The Rue Morgue), then a few songs about life as a fugitive (Another Life, Innocent Exile), then the title track is a graphic description of more murders, and the narrator realizes that he _did_ commit the crimes he was accused of, and then the rest of the album he tries to make sense of it all. If you read the lyrics, it’s obvious that the narrator is schizophrenic. Best…Maiden album…EVER! ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/32 "2006-05-05T13:02:30Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Nobody has feared Rock n’ Roll since the 60’s. Well that needs to change then! Great nominees by all, BTW. It’s been a looooooong time since I listened to any **K.C.** , even though I’m a great admirer of Fripp’s chops. Should go dig some up… ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/33 "2006-05-05T13:49:00Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I always thought Bloodrock’s **D.O.A.** was pretty creepy – it’s about a man dying after a plane crash. What’s the one about the guy in the car accident and he looks over at some girl who was killed??? [Now that I check the D.O.A. lyrics it seems very similar] All I remember is: “Car accident, accident victim, \…” ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/34 "2006-05-05T14:04:27Z")
As a kid “A Day in the Life” (especially the “aaahhhh” part) and “Knights in White Satin” would make me turn the radio off at night. I recently heard maybe 30 seconds of some unknown Norwegian death metal song and was ready to kill someone, _nothing_ is more creepy than one of those songs ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/35 "2006-05-05T14:15:06Z")
As a kid, “Blue Jay Way” from the Beatles’s _Magical Mystery Tour_ album creeped me out. Ominous lyrics, dirge-like cadence, mysterious noises that seemed just at the edge of my hearing: “There’s a fog upon L.A. And my friends have lost their way We’ll be over soon they said Now they’ve lost themselves instead Please don’t be long please don’t you be very long Please don’t be long for I may be asleep…” It doesn’t scare me anymore, but I still don’t like it much. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/36 "2006-05-05T14:21:18Z")
My sister and I used to freak each other out by playing the intro to Meatloaf’s “You took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)” , but that was years ago. More recently I was driving home late at night with the radio playing on some rock station when the song “Lunatic Fringe” started by Red Rider. That is one creepy intro… ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/37 "2006-05-05T14:39:59Z")
About that Scandanavian Death Metal stuff… In grad school one guy I knew was a total metal animal. He rather consciously looked like a long-haired Satan, and wore Megadeath T-Shirts and spikey accessories well into his 20s, last I knew. _He_ said he didn’t like Death Metal because it was too freaky. When I expressed surprise at the idea that he’d find anything too freaky, he put it this way: “That shit is like the difference between a good horror flick and the next installment of _Faces of Death_. Even I have standards, man.” So, is Death Metal shit-scary in a bad way, or a good way? ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/38 "2006-05-05T14:53:11Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > About that Scandanavian Death Metal stuff… > > So, is Death Metal shit-scary in a bad way, or a good way? I find Death Metal to be annoying more than anything else. I like the music, heavy guitar, heavy drums… very crunchy, very hard. And then a guy comes on and starts grunting and growing into a mic. Occasionally you can make out a word (usually like “death” “suicide” 'blood" “satan”) but since it’s out of context, it’s annoying. So I find myself to be going “Meh” whenever my brother starts going on about the hot new band he’s found “necrophage” or whatever the hell he’s going on about. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/39 "2006-05-05T15:17:54Z")
Scandanavian death metal is scary in a bad bad way. And a lot of those bands are bad dudes “for real”, not in a pretend way like most bands of that ilk. Some of those guys have been institutionalized, murdered, burned chuches, etc. they are definitely **not** posers. Check out the Wikipedia articles on such bands as Mayhem, Emperor, Immortal, etc. and prepare to be freaked out. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430/40 "2006-05-05T15:34:02Z")
I like a lot of the metal coming out of northern Europe, but my younger brother is into way heavier stuff for me. He once handed me a CD called From Wisdom to Hate by a band called Gorguts and told me to listen to the title track. Scared the ever loving shit out of me. [Here are some choice lyrics](http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/gorguts/fromwisdomtohate.html#3): > [@](#): > > Intrude my peace…war, I’ll proclaim > Your empty skull will be my gain > I will, with greed > Watch yourself bleed > > With envious eyes, on me you’ve sined > Each place I pass are left to ruins > On your decline > My reign will shine > > From wisdom to hate > From wisdom to hate [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/355430.md?page=3)