The slowest-burning horror albums ever recorded
Ranked on VHSCREAM’s pace of fear axis, where 0 is slow-burn dread and 100 is relentless shock. 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.
Pace is the one axis where records are not the junior medium. The lowest pace score anywhere in this index is shared by a record and a film, which is itself the finding: a record reaches the far end of this axis as a matter of course, where a film has to be built against its own form to get there. Nothing on a record has to happen. A drone can sit on one chord for twenty minutes without anybody asking what the plot is doing, and dread is largely a function of how long you are left in it. Ranked by measured pace, so the top of this list is where almost nothing occurs — which is not the same as nothing being wrong.
The slowest-burning horror albums ever recorded, ranked
| # | Title | Year | By | Pace of Fear |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Time Machines | 1998 | Coil | 002 |
| 2 | Black One | 2005 | Sunn O))) | 004 |
| 3 | Heresy | 1990 | Lustmord | 004 |
| 4 | Everywhere at the End of Time | 2016 | The Caretaker | 006 |
| 5 | Selected Ambient Works Volume II | 1994 | Aphex Twin | 006 |
| 6 | Deathconsciousness | 2008 | Have a Nice Life | 018 |
| 7 | Abyss | 2015 | Chelsea Wolfe | 022 |
| 8 | Under the Skin (OST) | 2013 | Mica Levi | 024 |
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 024 at number 8. The median of all 16 records we have scored on this axis is 030, 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 — Time Machines, Black One, Heresy 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
Pace of fear is scored the same way whatever the medium, so these ask the same question of the other media we score.
The slowest-burning horror movies ever made · The slowest-burning horror novels ever written
Questions about the slowest-burning horror albums ever recorded
What is the most patient horror record in your index?
Time Machines (1998), at 002 on pace of fear. Second is Black One at 004, and number 8 on this list scores 024. 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 pace of fear 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 024.
What does the pace of fear axis measure?
Where a work sits between slow-burn dread at 0 and relentless shock 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 030, 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?
Not as a claim we would make. Pace of fear measures one thing, and only the bleak end of tone is simply harder to endure — the other five axes describe a kind of fear rather than an amount. Time Machines tops this list at 002 and scores 008 on tone, which are two separate facts about it. The scariest horror we have scored takes the question apart properly.
Want this ranked against you rather than against the axis?
Build your tape →Every ranked record list → · All 16 records → · How the axes relate →