10 Songs Perfect for Spooky Season

Spooky season is upon us, and you know what that means: time to get into the Halloween mood! And what better way than to play some of your favorite spooky songs?

From different genres to different themes (but all creepy), here are 10 songs you should add to your playlist this Halloween season.

1. Freak Like Me – Halestorm

As a hard rock band, Halestorm has the perfect Halloween songs. Their aptly-named The Strange Case Of Mz. Hyde album is just good for spooky vibes in general, but my favorite is “Freak Like Me.”

The song tells the tale of a monster (“I’m on the train that’s for the sick and twisted”) who knows what they are (“Just like an animal, we’re thrown out of our cages”) and embracing their darkness (“They can’t tame us”). The chorus chants that “If you’re a freak like me,” you should join her and others. Instead of running away from your inner freak, embrace it—and meet others who, quite literally, match your freak.

2. Monster – Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons falls more into the alternative rock genre, and it shares rock’s love for emo songs that get you in the mood for scary stuff. In “Monster,” the song talks about how the person feels something lurking underneath them, something dangerous (“If I seemed dangerous, would you be scared?”). They even admit that “Everything I touch isn’t dark enough.”

The raw honesty of admitting how dark your thoughts and you are as a person are, but you can’t change it, makes for a haunting, yet entrancing song. At the end of the day, the singer confesses, “I’ve turned into a monster.”

3. Crawling – Linkin Park

Linkin Park has multiple songs that fit the Halloween vibe, but “Crawling” is an easy pick. Like “Monster,” the song confesses that the narrator has something underneath them “that craws beneath the surface” and how it’s taking over (“This lack of self-control, I fear, is never-ending.”)

The music even plays up the visceral image of a spider or another creature crawling on you, just adding to the general creepiness of this song. It’s a classic tale of someone falling into darkness, but done spectacularly well, as is Linkin Park fashion.

4. Animal I Have Become – Three Days Grace

Three Days Grace’s “Animal I Have Become” continues the trend of songs dealing with emotional darkness — and the narrator struggling to overcome it. The singing borders on screaming, which really makes you feel for this tortured soul (“Somebody help me tame this animal!”)

This song is full of great, haunting lines like  “I can’t escape myself” and the kicker in the end, “No one will ever change this animal that I have become.” The narrator has accepted their fate, which makes things all the more tragic.

5. Bring Me to Life – Evanescence

Evanescence’s lead singer, Amy Lee, has always had a beautiful, yet haunting, voice, and “Bring Me To Life” shows us the best of her vocals combined with the band’s stellar songwriting.

Unlike the other songs mentioned so far, the narrator in this one isn’t dealing with a lurking monster inside, but with feeling nothing at all—feeling that they’ve “become so numb.” The feeling of numbness invokes zombie imagery, or even ghosts—all things very Halloweeny.

Many of us can identify with feeling nothingness, especially if we’ve been there before. But, unlike other songs, this one has the narrator calling out for help (“Call my name and save me from the dark”) and overall offers us a glimmer of hope that the other songs don’t (“Save me from the nothing I’ve become”). There’s a reason this song is a classic.

6. Disturbia – Rihanna

Rihanna’s “Disturbia” is the only song on this list that doesn’t fall into the rock category, but I had to include it because of the title and lyrics. We see someone, once again, struggling with their inner darkness, something they can’t control (“I feel like a monster”). They know something is wrong with them (“It’s like the darkness is the light”), but they’re helpless against it.

The electro-pop aspect of this song adds to the general uneasiness in this song. That, plus the lyrics really falling into the theme that this is an uncontrollable, unwanted change (“Your train of thought will be altered, so if you must falter, be wise”), makes “Disturbia” a must-have on any Halloween playlist.

7. I’m So Sick – Flyleaf

The lyrics on Flyleaf’s “I’m So Sick” are a little vague, but that makes it perfect for being unsettling, given the lyrics. The narrator is tormented about feeling poisoned with something deep inside (“I’m so sick, infected with where I live, let me live without this”). The way they scream “I will break!” at the beginning of the song just heightens this feeling.

This song plays with someone both struggling with a monstrous side of themselves and also dealing with numbness. But the latter is decried a “empty bliss,” which shows you another side of numbness and how it can insidiously lure you, promise you a painless life. The tug and war between those two feelings makes “I’m So Sick” a great addition for spooky season.

8. Getting Away With Murder – Papa Roach

In “Getting Away With Murder,” the narrator tells us they’re losing their mind and knows it (“I need to calculate what creates my own madness.”) However, like “Freak Like Me,” this one seems to embrace that darkness with lines like “I’m addicted to your punishment” and “I am waiting for disaster,” showing us how some people like that they are monsters and will openly admit that.

While they talk about feeling “irrational, so confrontational,” they still do it, bragging about how they’re “getting away with murder.” This could be literal or metaphorical, but either way, it works to make a disturbing song in the best way possible.

9. Bodies – Drowning Pool

Drowning Pool’s “Bodies” is a quintessential spooky season song. The iconic lines at the start of the song (“Let the bodies hit the floor”) are whispered in such a straightforward, yet chilling, way. That, plus the reframe of “Nothing wrong with me” sung in an increasingly unhinged way, sets you up exactly for what kind of song this will be.

There’s even steaming here, too, adding to the horror aesthetic of the entire song. And, to tie it all together, the chorus repeating “Let the bodies hit the floor!” through growls makes this song the epitome of Halloween.

10. Down with the Sickness – Disturbed

No list would be complete without Disturbed’s “Down With The Sickness.” This classic metal rock song tells another story of someone turning into something dark like a monster (“It seems what’s left of my human side is slowly changing in me.”)

Similar to “Freak Like Me,” this song acknowledges that the person is turning into a monster (“Looking at my own reflection, when suddenly it changes, violently it changes” but they are letting it take over.

But one of the things that makes this stand out — aside from the screaming and strong vocals in general — are the accusations. They are snapping because someone pushed them too far (“There’s no turning back now that you’ve woken up the demon in me”), showing you what happens when you push someone too far. It’s a cautionary tale and one banger of a song.

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What spooky songs do you love to listen to this time of year? Will you be adding any of these to your playlist? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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