The most supernatural horror albums ever recorded
Ranked on VHSCREAM’s threat axis, where 0 is a supernatural threat and 100 is human monsters. 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.
Asking what is doing the harm on a record is a fair question to put to this axis, and the answer is audible rather than narrative: a record tells you whether the thing in it obeys physics by whether the sound does. Rooms larger than any room, voices with no body attached, decay that runs the wrong way. The bottom of this list is the purely inhuman end. The top of the same axis in our record index is a piece about Hiroshima, and the works just below it are about suicide and about dementia — human harm, documented — which is the clearest demonstration we have that this axis measures the source of the threat and not how frightening it is.
The most supernatural horror albums ever recorded, ranked
| # | Title | Year | By | The Threat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suspiria (OST) | 1977 | Goblin | 015 |
| 2 | Heresy | 1990 | Lustmord | 020 |
| 3 | The Fog (OST) | 1980 | John Carpenter | 020 |
| 4 | Time Machines | 1998 | Coil | 025 |
| 5 | Hereditary (OST) | 2018 | Colin Stetson | 028 |
| 6 | Black One | 2005 | Sunn O))) | 030 |
| 7 | Profondo Rosso | 1975 | Goblin | 030 |
| 8 | Selected Ambient Works Volume II | 1994 | Aphex Twin | 035 |
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 015 at number one to 035 at number 8. The median of all 16 records we have scored on this axis is 040, 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 — Suspiria (OST), Heresy, Time Machines 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
Threat is scored the same way whatever the medium, so these ask the same question of the other media we score.
The most supernatural horror movies ever made · The most supernatural horror novels ever written
Questions about the most supernatural horror albums ever recorded
What is the most purely supernatural horror record in your index?
Suspiria (OST) (1977), at 015 on threat. Second is Heresy at 020, and number 8 on this list scores 035. 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 threat 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 015 to 035.
What does the threat axis measure?
Where a work sits between a supernatural threat at 0 and human monsters 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 040, which is the number worth holding in mind while you read the list — 015 means something only against it.
Are these the scariest horror records?
Not as a claim we would make. Threat 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. Suspiria (OST) tops this list at 015 and scores 040 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 →