It’s another exciting year in the world of spooky ambient music. Midnight Syndicate has released both an official soundtrack to the Zombies!!! board game and reissued the long out of print Realm of Shadows with some new material under the name Raven’s Hollow: Realm of Shadows Reissue. Grave Tone Productions unleashed Found Remains…Songs from the Grave and are also hard at work on a new full length album as I type this. I have yet to listen to Desolate Horror by Shadow’s Symphony, but I’m intrigued by how it seems to include aspects of winter weather into its overall mood. But that’s not all! Music For Haunts has a new album called Theatre Macabre and it turns out I missed out on publicizing last year’s release of Circus of Nightmares from Jerry Vayne! There are also plenty of other updates I’ll be spreading out over the course of my “Music to Haunt By” reviews for 2016. So while you’re waiting for said reviews, I hope you’ll read through last year’s crop of articles:
Music to Haunt By and Sounds to Scare By: The Return
Music to Haunt By: Jeannie Novak
Music to Haunt By: The Incredible Dark Carnival
Music to Haunt By: Nightmare Chronicles
Music to Haunt By: The Dark Rift
Sounds to Scare By: Sinister Sounds
I also recommend reading my review of Midnight Syndicate’s Christmas: A Ghostly Gathering for some ideas on using select tracks in haunted attractions (or haunted attraction scenes) with a Christmas or winter theme.
It turns out I forgot to share the last few tie-in episodes of the podcast devoted to spooky ambient music, so please enjoy the 2014 and 2015 installments.
This year’s free downloads come from Music for Zombies, whose Halloween and Zombies in Plymouth releases offer both music and soundscapes. Halloween will also include a soundscape guide filled with tips of using these downloads at some point in the future. UPDATE: The soundscape guide for Halloween is now available! Just click on each track name to be taken to a page where you can download the track and read a guide for using said track to scare people.
Thankfully I also have a special sound tip from the Mission Creeps that you don’t have to wait for! It turns out they have been running a home haunt every Halloween for several years instead of doing the expected Halloween performance. But this doesn’t mean their music can’t be heard there. They have a person hidden away with some audio equipment who plays their “Land of the Departed” soundscape and other cuts from their 2012 album Halloween. This person also uses a voice processor to distort their voice while they make comments at various haunt visitors through a microphone! Imagine going through a haunted house and having a mysterious voice comment about what you are doing, what you are wearing or even address you by name. It would certainly add an extra bit of fear to the event and I encourage you all to give this a try at your next haunt.
Gravedigger’s Local 16 is not to be held responsible for the content on or anything that may occur (be it good or bad) as a result of visiting or downloading from any links given here. Attempt at your own discretion.
