The bleakest horror albums ever recorded
Ranked on VHSCREAM’s tone axis, where 0 is a bleak, unforgiving tone and 100 is gleeful black comedy. These are the 8 lowest-scoring of the 16 horror records we have scored. Every number is a human judgment against a published rubric, not an average of votes.
This is the list that made us build the record index in the first place. A film has a third act and a running time; a record has neither obligation, so it can hold one unrelieved state for an hour and simply stop. Fifteen of the sixteen records we have scored sit below the tone midpoint, and the floor of this list is lower than the floor of our film list — the bleakest thing in the whole index is a record, tied with a novel, with the bleakest film a point above them. Ranked by measured tone, so what is being sorted is the absence of relief rather than volume or dissonance — two of these are quiet enough to sleep through, which is rather the problem.
The bleakest horror albums ever recorded, ranked
| # | Title | Year | By | Tone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima | 1960 | Krzysztof Penderecki | 002 |
| 2 | Everywhere at the End of Time | 2016 | The Caretaker | 004 |
| 3 | Deathconsciousness | 2008 | Have a Nice Life | 005 |
| 4 | Black One | 2005 | Sunn O))) | 006 |
| 5 | Hereditary (OST) | 2018 | Colin Stetson | 006 |
| 6 | Heresy | 1990 | Lustmord | 006 |
| 7 | Time Machines | 1998 | Coil | 008 |
| 8 | Under the Skin (OST) | 2013 | Mica Levi | 008 |
Scores run 0–100 on a single axis and say nothing about quality. A work can be the bleakest thing here and still be the best on the list.
What the numbers say about this list
The list runs from 002 at number one to 008 at number 8. The median of all 16 records we have scored on this axis is 012, so every entry here is past it — this is a tail rather than the top of a flat curve.
Seven of these 8 also place on another of our ranked lists — Everywhere at the End of Time, Deathconsciousness, Black One among them. Extremity tends to arrive on more than one axis at a time, which is the most useful thing six numbers tell you that one cannot.
The same axis, over a different shelf
Tone is scored the same way whatever the medium, so these ask the same question of the other media we score.
The bleakest horror movies ever made · The bleakest horror novels ever written
Questions about the bleakest horror albums ever recorded
What is the bleakest horror record in your index?
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), at 002 on tone. Second is Everywhere at the End of Time at 004, and number 8 on this list scores 008. The full table is above, with the year and the creator for each.
How is this list of horror records ranked?
By one measured axis and nothing else. We score all 16 horror records in the index on six continuous axes against fixed anchor works, then sort by tone and take the 8 lowest. There is no vote, no average of other people's ratings and no overall score — the numbers on this page are the whole ranking, and they run 002 to 008.
What does the tone axis measure?
Where a work sits between a bleak, unforgiving tone at 0 and gleeful black comedy at 100. It is a description rather than a verdict: a work can be at either end and be excellent or worthless. Among the records in this index the median on this axis is 012, which is the number worth holding in mind while you read the list — 002 means something only against it.
Are these the scariest horror records?
Closer than any other list we publish, and still not quite the claim. The bleak end of tone is the one place in this rubric where a more extreme score does mean harder to endure, so this is the nearest thing we have to a scariest list. What it measures is the absence of relief, which is not the same as the presence of fear: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima at 002 is unrelieved rather than startling. The scariest horror we have scored takes the question apart axis by axis.
Want this ranked against you rather than against the axis?
Build your tape →Every ranked record list → · All 16 records → · How the axes relate →