Funereal Moon - Beneath the Cursed Light of a Spectral Moon (1996)

Black metal as ritual dark ambient as scary sounds tape. The album starts as a fog of synth figures, haunted house sound effects, and rasping vocals. Midway through, the fog begins to intermittently morph into the more identifiable shapes of queasy, droning black metal filth. The rest of the album's runtime is spent back, forth, and on the line between these two realms. Supplicate yourself to true underground goblin supremacy.

Track listing:

1. Revelation (Intro)

2. Where Shadows of Decadence Dwell

3. Beneath the Cursed Light of a Spectral Moon (An Ancient Incantation)

4. Funeral Litanies from the Graves

5. The Howl of the Black Witch

6. Death, War and Hate (Extermination of All Forms of Life)

7. Vrykolkas

8. Lucifer's Throne of Temptation

9. I Came from Darkness to Conquer

10. Werewolf Nightmare

11. The Sign of the End of Time (Outro)

Those who resist will be tamed by terrible blows and sufferings.

Similar vibes:

Satanicum Tenebrae - Til Helvete (1994)

Udumbal - Sarcis (1998)

François-Eudes Chanfrault - À l'intérieur (Inside) (2008)

I've been known to refer to Inside as the scariest movie I've ever seen, with the caveat that my viewing experience was very much enhanced by context. After finally giving it a rewatch a couple weeks back, the jury may be out, but I'm not retracting my statement. I can say for sure that it is insanely brutal. 

Also, the soundtrack's great. Very subtle and minimal. Dark synths, serrated drones, pulsing rhythms, elegiac chamber pieces. There's an extended dialogue-free sequence near the end of the movie where a bunch of terrible things happen without any dialogue, and it's soundtracked entirely by a two-chord synth figure. It's sick as fuck. Go watch it if you can find it -- I torrented it.

Track listing:

1. Arctic Love

2. Memories, Part I, II, & III

3. Dark Beats

4. Discovery

4. Low/High

5. Memories (Redux)

6. Memories (Final)

7. Square Pads for an Eternal Dawn

Open the door, Sarah.

More scary shit:

Jay Chattaway - Maniac (1982)

Mark Korven - The Witch (2016)

Instincts & Bustum - The Mystery Visions (2002)

Ritual dark ambient with traces of neofolk and ethereal darkwave. The physical release of The Mystery Visions was a collaborative effort with visual artist Bustum, and it was probably really cool, but you obviously won't be getting any of the visual components from me. Thankfully, the music is more than able to stand on its own as an effective portal to the realms of pitch-black hallucinatory madness. Ten untitled tracks.

Abyssal gaze

You should also hear:

Black Seas of Infinity - Within Daathian Chasms (2005)

Aymrev Erkroz Prevre - Noir Voyage Obstrué de Rencontres Difformes (2006)

Tears ov Blood - Infinite Winter (1994)

Lo-fi ethereal darkwave/dungeon synth from Matthew Davis, who I believe is best known/remembered for his work as Secret Stairways. I am still new to Davis' music, but to my ears, these are some of the most haunting, compelling recordings of their kind.

Track listing:

1. Into Glamis Castle

2. Serenade

3. Our Winter Infinite

4. So Far Away

5. Falling

6. Something Scary

7. Reprise

Distant screams in fading dreams

Also listen to:

Trance to the Sun - Ghost Forest (1984)

Psychosis - Death in Utero (1992)

Dante Augustus Scarlatti - Demises of the Dynamic Microphone (in Monodelity) (2009)

A few months back, I found a crate in my garage full of old CDs of friends' projects and random shit that I accumulated while on tour back in the day. There's a lot of mid-tier punk and metal, but there are a few gems in there, like this one, which I got in Bloomington, IN, where, in 2009, there was a surprisingly rich scene for experimental, often black metal-adjacent sounds. Demises of the Dynamic Microphone (in Monodelity) presents a series of grainy, analogue synth and/or guitar abstractions against a backdrop of tape hiss and muffled field recordings. While there, I also picked up this tape, as well as this LP by the band OS, who we played with and whose house we stayed at -- neither of which I have the capability to rip, unfortunately.

Track listing:

1. Prologue

2. Re:verses of Decay in 1939's Kodascope Mass for Arachnid

3. Transcriptions of Subterranean Meteorological Phenomena in the Galaxie Deluxe

4. Vinyl Etchings Containing Hymns of the Sacred Greek Orthodox Funeral

5. Electro-Syncing Static Keys in the City of Dead Sound

6. Recitations of the Reel Rhythm in a Stern Seasonal Stereophonic Headphone Set

7.  Epilogue

The weaver's fulfillment does not come from disparity and shame, but from courage and consistency.

You should also hear:

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

Badgerlore - Of Things Too Sorrowful to Be Reminded Of, and Things Too Beautiful to Possess (2003)

Necrophorus - Drifting in Motion (2000)

Related:

raison d'être - Residuality (1993)

Glacial dark ambient for the dead of winter, courtesy of Peter Andersson, best known for his work as raison d'être. Droning synths and icy SFX.

Track listing:

1. Lost Land - Part 1

2. Ice Shifting

3. Frost

4. Partial Melt

5. Lost Land - Part 2

6. Drifting

They've all gone

More arctic ambience:

Vidna Obmana - Gathering in Frozen Beauty (1989)

Amir Baghiri & Mathias Grassow - True North (1998)

Kallabris - Njonto (1988)

10 untitled tracks of weird-ass experimental sounds from the German industrial underground. Droning accordion, rumbling noise, warped keys, and disjointed whispers. At times, almost sounds like a lost LLN project.

Did you dream last night?

More club bangers to get this fucking party fucking started:

Ruth White - Flowers of Evil (1969)

Mother Tongue - Open in Obscurity (1988)

Wilt - Wither (2001)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

The Rita & Wilt - Werewolf in the Black Space (2008)

Wilt - M Y T H O S (2016) + Funeral Song (2016)

Utterly unmusical dark ambient/noise from Wisconsin (now Illinois) musician James P. Keeler. Crackling flames of harsh noise, droning black winds, and shimmering echoes of the void.

Track listing:

1. Passage of Seasons

2. A Bridge Between Two Drums

3. Soiled

4. Shivering Spine

5. Mud

6. Bloodletting

7. Still... Violent Waters

8. Black Amphora

9. The Burden of Flies

10. Taunting the Raven

11. Fallen Harvest

12. From Dying Branches

13. Untitled

14. Autumn Calls

15. Winterkill

Terror management

Also listen to:

Hollow Earth - Dog Days of Holocaust (2006)

Aymrev Erkroz Prevre - Noir Voyage Obstrué de Rencontres Difformes (2006)

Emit - Spectre Music of an Antiquary (2012)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Emit - A Sword of Death for the Prince (2005)

Real haunty-boi hours. Dissonant, reverb-drenched, blackened ethereal darkwave -- spectral synths, skeletal drum machines, and moaning, rasping, wailing vocals.

Track listing:

1. Haunter of Benighted English Summers

2. Mors Wher Devels Are Abrod

3. The Dusk Gardens of Translucent Mansions

4. Shades Over the Mere

5. Trees Once Adorn'd with Severed Heads

6. Sylvan Old Enchanter

7. The Meadow Reapers (A Field Recording)

8. Emanations from Beneath Far Hills, Beyond Far Moons

A lunatic hermit dies in his woodland home

You should also hear:

Shadowseeds - Dream of Lilith (1995)

Belzebuth - Belzebuth (2007)

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

Uneasy experimental sounds from Japan. Frail keyboard figures floating amidst abstract, analogue drones and muffled industrial noise. Music for ghosts to listen to when they're alone.

Track listing:

1. Plasmodium

2. Giaour

3. Lame Meter

4. Somnus

5. Concussion

6. Hard Words

7. End All

Set: The leathery skin of a female straddling a furnace. Illuminates in blue. Hands melt against the burning surface. Feel no pain. Kiss the burner. Lips fall away. Blood runs down the inside of her thighs. She tightens her grip in one last exaggerated movement and falls to the ground. A pile of ashes. The furnace stands triumphant over the mound.

If you like this, you should hear:

Attrition - Death House (1982)

raison d'être - Residuality (1993)

AFFECTVS & Lamia Culta - Blessing from the Darkness (Opus II) (2017)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Lamia Culta - Patre Satanas (2009)

Excellent ritual dark ambient from a Russian-Ukrainian collaboration. A positively spellbinding vocal performance from Fosco Culto (aka Lamia Culta), who whispers, sings, chants, hisses, moans, and screams like a woman possessed into AFFECTVS' utterly lightless, immersive sound-void.

Note: Bizarrely, Blessing from the Darkness (Opus II) is the second of three different titles under which this record has been released, but it includes 4 crucial additional tracks that weren't on the first one, so it's the version you're getting.

Track listing:

1. Retson Retap

2. Verbum Portae Aperio

3. In Nomine Mali

4. Nahema Sinistra

5. Luna Sacra, Luna Atra

6. Reiran Modor Lilith

7. Spirits Ov Damned

8. Sama Atar

9. Maniestatio Ahriman

10. Notammargartet

11. Requiem

"Here the possession of the Darkness come into contact with the human world."

More dark magicks:

Diamanda Galás - The Litanies of Satan (1982)

Halgrath - Liquid Mind (2010)

Mz. 412 - In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi (1995)

Related:

Pouppée Fabrikk - Rage (1990)

Black industrial from hell. Ugly drone, harsh noise, industrial excrement, throbbing martial rhythms, distorted synths, movie samples, and Satanic incantations.

Track listing:

1. In Nomine Dei

2. Salvo Honoris Morte

3. Necrotic Birth

4. Black Earth

5. Daemon Raging

6. God of Fifty Names

7. Regis Satans

8. Paedophilia Cum Sadismus

9. Hail the Lord of Goats

Everlasting hedonistic rhapsody

More gnarly industrial:

In Slaughter Natives - Enter Now the World (1992)

Brighter Death Now - The Slaughterhouse (1993)

Eric Holm - Andøya (2014)

Massive, reverberating sounds from UK producer Eric Holm. Thunderous rhythms and static-ridden drones echoing through a vast, lightless expanse. From Holm's bandcamp: "Andoya [...] was made from contact mic recordings of pylons carrying communications cables that connected listening stations on an Arctic Norwegian island."

Track listing:

1. Måtinden

2. Stave

3. Åse

4. Kvastinden

5. Høyvika

6. Andøya

I know it's taking pictures from another plane

You should also hear:

All Sides - Dedalus (2007)

M.E.S.H. - Piteous Gate (2015)

Nmesh - Absolut Hell (2004)

Dark electronic abstractions from American musician Alex Koenig. A 1-hour-19-minute, acid-addled bad trip through ghostly clouds of synth, anxious rhythms, sputtering glitch, blasts of harsh noise, dark voids of drone, disembodied voices, car alarms, and other aural panic-inducers. Apparently Koenig used to play in metal bands, and although there's nothing specifically metal about this, it shows.

Track listing:

1. Remember the Old Farm, the Treehouse

2. Monk Blotter

3. Car Bomb (Up-Down)

4. Winston Eats Zab Zoober

5. Trilogy of Acid (Part I)

6. Trilogy of Acid (Part II)

7. Trilogy of Acid (Part III)

8. The Red Barn

9. Moonsick (Version 3)

10. La Romana Dectara Ingergio

11. What Lurks in the Catacombs

12. Ancient Blotter

13. The Feast

14. Float Nighttime Garage

15. A Rainbow Descending into Hell

16. Dysorea

17. Mad Cow Disease

18. Black Ocean

19. Fallen

20. Morphine Can't Ease the Pain You're Feeling

21. The Void

22. The Great Depression

I want you to come with me, I have something I want to show you.

If you're for some reason trying to continue feeling like this, try:

Adam Bohman - Last Orders (1997)

John Weise - Collected Tracks (2000)

Melek-Tha - Astrum Argentinum (1996)

French occult industrial/dark ambient. The first of approximately 1,000,0000 albums by this project. Dense clouds of droning synths, hellish choirs, distant drums, cursed incantations, Lovecraftian horrors, and Satanic black magick. Doesn't really sound like a horror soundtrack so much as it sounds like you're actually listening to a horror movie.

Track listing:

1. Evil Conjuration

2. Hymn for the Dead

3. Black Wizard

4. Midian Graveyard

5. Slava Tchortu

6. Kabbalistic Flames

7. Tabernacle of the Hatred

8. Supreme Evil

9. Templis Infernalium

He has his father's eyes

If you like this, listen to:

Black Funeral - Moon of Characith (1998)

Apoptose - Nordland (2000)

Nate Young - Blinding Confusion (2013)

Creepy-ass sounds from Michigan artist Nate Young. Somewhere adjacent to synthwave or dungeon synth, but too dissonant/experimental/singular to fall in with either one. If synthwave is the Winkie’s, Nate Young is the evil hobo behind the dumpster.

Track listing:

1. Forever Day

2. Beneath the Mist

3. When Nothing Works

4. Worlds Behind

5. Escape with Nothing

6. Only Fallen Heads

7. Between

8. The Bastard Gums

To get rid of this god-awful feeling.

Also listen to:

Jay Chattaway - Maniac (1980)

Runes Order - No Future (1993)

Udumbal - Sarcis (1998)

Belarusian experimental raw black metal/ritual dark ambient. The first song starts abruptly with a lo-fi flurry of drum machine blastbeats, tremolo-picked bass, and throaty rasps before dissolving into a chasm of minimal synth, then it's back to the blasting, a bit more synth drone, and it's over. It's a strange, disorienting introduction that sets the stage perfectly for the otherworldly sounds that follow.

Track listing:

1. Pathan

2. Anadinidhana

3. Rudra

4. Apakar

5. Chatal Hujuk

6. Abhitapa

7. Sarcis Lokagarbhagrham

8. Nirdeva

The cold of eternal knowledge

You might also like:

Shadowseeds - Dream of Lilith (1995)

Black Funeral - Moon of Characith (1998)

Stratosphere - Lost in Unity (1992)

Minimal ambient/dark ambient pieces from Belgian composer Ronald Mariën, a.k.a. Stratosphere. From the preset keyboard voices to their dark, dramatic tone, some of the songs on Lost in Unity end up feeling an awful lot like predecessors to the so-called "dungeon synth" sound. Elsewhere, it's pure, underground ambient bliss.

Track listing:

1. Lost in Unity 1

2. Lost in Unity 2

3. Lost in Unity 3

4. Far Beyond Imagination

5. Lost in Unity 4

6. Lost in Unity 5

7. Lost in Unity 6

8. East of Heaven

9. As Night Falls

Unveiling the unknown

More like this:

Terrace of Memories - Terrace of Memories (1992)

Vinterriket - Eiszwielicht / Firntann (2010)

Locust - Weathered Well (1994)

Woozy, nocturnal ambient-electronic sounds from London producer Mark Van Hoeg. The kind of album that makes you feel as though you have stepped into someone else's inner world, and you can't really read their thoughts or memories but you can kind of watch them bounce off of each other unconsciously in the darkness. You know what I'm talking about, right? Right? Anybody?

Track listing:

1. Prospero

2. Moist Moss

3. Xenophobe

4. Weathered Gate

5. Tamed

6. Still

7. Music About Love

8. Lust

9. Fawn

Nightvision

Similar vibes:

Ambient Temple of Imagination - Mystery School (1994)

Not Breathing - Time Music of Quazars (1995)

Nebula - Genesis (2002)

Related:

Klaus Weise - Baraka (1982)

Mathias Grassow - At the Gates of Dawn (1986)

Amir Baghiri & Mathias Grassow - True North (1998)

Oöphoi - Night Currents (1998)

A phenomenal collaborative project from a group of ambient greats put together by Oöphoi. A massive, ever-expanding void of subtly layered ambient drone in which to float around until the end of infinity.

Track listing:

1. OM Creation: Breaking the Cosmic Egg

2. Let There Be Light

3. Floating Galaxies

4. Time Vessel at the Gates of Forever

5. Pulves et Umbra (Dust and Shadows)

6. The Sacred Pool of Tepeu and Gucumatz

7. The Dawn of Man

I need another world

You'd also like:

Robert Rich - Sunyata (1982)

Vidna Obmana - Echoing Delight (1993)