Before there was even a Fright-A-Thon, we had last Halloween. On that hallowed day we had a list of the Top 10 Heavy Metal Halloween songs. It was a fairly standard list, but in the past almost year, I think we can do better. Or at least we can find ten more songs that celebrate the season of Halloween or the frightening aspect of the month. So without further ado, or any more blustering from this author, here are 10 More Top Halloween Metal Songs.

Remember! Look at the original list and this one for the full experience!

Top 10 Heavy Metal Halloween Songs

10. Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter By Bruce Dickinson

No, it’s not the Iron Maiden version. It’s the much spookier, atmospheric, and quite frankly, better version of this song. Steve Harris can usually do no wrong, but he stripped this version of all the creepy qualities. This song was made for the A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child soundtrack. It perfectly encapsulates what that era of horror was like. It’s big, it’s boisterous, and it’s on the goddamn nose. But I love it. Just like those films.

9. Dream Warriors By Dokken

This one was so good that I had to write an entire article on it. If you’d like to hear the full thoughts on this masterpiece of heavy metal and horror, check out that piece here. But this was made for the A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors soundtrack. It’s incredibly awesome to hear a heavy metal song play over the credits to a horror movie.

8. Dead Skin Mask By Slayer

You could pick a handful of Slayer songs to include on a list like this. But what separates this from the rest of the batch is the haunting vocals by Tom Araya. A song about Ed Gein, who would skin his victims and wear their skin, is truly terrifying. It helps that Slayer brings the thunder with this track and their first five albums in general. The voiceover at the end of the song is the cherry on the horrifying sundae.

7. Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t By Anthrax

Now what’s better than combining Anthrax with zombies? Nothing. This was the first new taste of Anthrax you had back in 2011. They hadn’t released an album in eight years, and they dropped this track as a free download. It’s safe to say I was thrashing in my room to this one long after that download. Combining the lyrics about zombies, with that haunting pre-taped intro, you get a fantastic horror themed song. In addition to all that, you have one of the best solos that Anthrax has ever recorded on this track.

6. Zombie Ritual By Death

Death is one of my favorite bands that I don’t think I’ve written about. The sheer technical excellence of the band combined with lyrics that were usually about death and destruction, but sometimes had a different side to them. “Zombie Ritual” was inspired by the film Zombie by Lucio Fulci. So you can’t really get any more Halloween inspired than that. Just crank this one.

5. Headless Cross By Black Sabbath

Here’s your curveball. Normally you could just include like every Ozzy Black Sabbath song and call this list a day. But no! I’m not that lazy. We went deep into the catalog of Black Sabbath and pulled out what I might consider to be one of the most underrated albums in heavy metal history. Sung by Tony Martin, “Headless Cross” oozes spooky horror. You can read a bit more about Headless Cross from my (RIP) Daily Music Recs series.

4. Night Of The Unborn By Mercyful Fate

Like I said with Black Sabbath, you can randomly pick a Mercyful Fate song and it’ll pretty well encapsulate the reasons why Halloween season is badass. “Night of the Unborn” does that and then some with some of the most shredding guitars you can imagine in the genre.

3. Sleepless Nights By King Diamond

I never said that we couldn’t have two King Diamond songs on the list. I already did my Top 10 King Diamond songs, but this one was too good to pass up. The falsetto, wailing vocals of King Diamond add a hauntingly beautiful quality to his songs. It’s no different here.

2. Dr. Stein By Helloween

“Dr. Stein” doesn’t fit into the traditional sense of a heavy metal Halloween song. It’s not particularly frightening, but it has all the hallmarks of a good Halloween song. You get the story of Dr. Stein, who makes various creatures and clones his assistant. He clones himself and that proves to be the end of him, as the clone kills him. It’s a silly song that’s good to get in the Halloween mood.

1. Fear Of The Dark By Iron Maiden

Here it is, the one that probably should have made the original list but didn’t. Well it gets the top spot this time around. Just take a look at the lyrics. Not only is “Fear of the Dark” a metal classic, it’s a musical classic. Anytime the band plays this one live, it’s an event. You can also read more about Fear of the Dark in my Iron Maiden-A-Thon review of the album!

For more on the spooky, horror, frightening, or any other frights make sure to take a look at THS’s Fright-A-Thon.