Shred The Dead: Here’s Your Halloween ’16 Playlist

The days grow shorter. A chill sets in over the land. The year coughs up its last and then dies in an explosion of color. It’s the best day of the year, kids. It’s Halloween.

Every year, more and more of my calendar revolves around Halloween. Maybe it’s because I’m no longer as enamored of the fast and loose metalhead life — I’m in a long-term relationship, my hangovers are far worse than they used to be, midnight seems like a sensible cut-off time — and so the fun horror of the holiday appeals to me more. Maybe it’s that the older I get, the more I return to the childish things that I loved growing up. But I think, more than anything, it’s that I love having fun. So much of metal, and music, and life in general, is a slog of paperwork and gossip and well whiskey. Halloween is all monsters and candy.

Earlier this month, I polled MetalSucks’ readership about whether or not Halloween is metal, and was pleased to find that 75% of those that voted agreed with me that it was (which was good, because otherwise my October posting schedule might’ve been totally fucked). It’s interesting to see, because I’ve often felt in the past that metalheads reject the day as childish and playing at what they do for real. More and more, though, I find metalheads are embracing Halloween as their day, a time when they can forget the window dressing around metal and just have fun King Diamond style.

So for your listening pleasure are 31 songs from this year to soundtrack your Halloween (again, songs released this year, which is why there’s no “Black No. 1” or “Children Of The Grave” or what have you). If you feel I’ve left off any spooky classics that dropped while 2016 was still breathing that I forgot, add them in the comments section. Otherwise, enjoy this selection of sonic terrors.

From everyone at MetalSucks, happy Halloween.