Hi There,
I've been searching in Google like crazy for scary sounds and classical music with a spooky or scary theme, but I keep on finding the same cheesy-halloween-like stuff.

Do you know where to find scary sounds?,
I mean really scary sounds like crashes or screams?

And if you know about classical music, could you suggest any song(don't know if song is the right word) that will play scary as well?, Unfortunately I don't know much about classical music but I'm pretty sure that there might be some scores using strings and violins that would sound really spooky

As always, Thanks in advance
Regards
Juan D

I can recommend anything by Dead Can Dance
regards
Francis

Personally my kind of scary is not really scary sounds or hallowing stuff either.

I found that most "prince of darkness music"(ozzy osbourne) music and Black Sabbath scare the living crap out of people. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Mr. Crowley,War Pigs , Heaven and Hell, Paranoid , Electric Funeral, Diary of A Madman, etc....

"Death metal" in general has a very profound and freaking out effect on people. Bands like Lamb of god(song:laid to rest),Metallica(Seek and Destroy,nothing else matters, the unforgiven,master of puppets etc..)Slayer(Raining blood, Spill the Blood, South of Heaven etc...)Rob Zombie(Living Dead girl, Dragula,The superbeast etc...).

In more classical orchestra and string ensemble orchestras I find a couple of things Interesting. Rather than spooky......

The video Game Castlevania has some really spooky songs. Look into it online.REALLY DO. IT's REALLY good.

Criss Angel also has some VERY good stuff. He sells on his website you might wanna check it out.

Peter Loughran haa a very good song on the preview to the iron Garrote on his website, However I don't know the name of it.

The theme song to the twilight zone is very twisted and interesting.

The theme song to the outer limits scarred me to death.

Beetlejuice the theme song again pretty cool. Anything by Danny elfman is usually interesting.

There is ofcourse the two scarriest most classic songs in classical!According to many experts and air play.

Funeral March-Frederick Chopin
Bach-Toccata and fugue in d minor(might know it from phantom of opera).

The songs compilled here are not only interesting and spooky but I believe will add ambience and an interesting feel to a show. Plus if people recognize something they will surely enjoy it more and remember it. For this reason the songs I chose.Might or not be what your looking for.

Check these guys out:

http://www.midnightsyndicate.com/

Steve

For scary classical music, try:

Hall of the Mountain King (Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg)
Night on Bald Mountain by Moussorgsky (you know this from Fantasia)
Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz

I have a compilation by the Cincinnati pops called "Chiller," which is a selection of scary classical works and some film scores. There is good music on there, including the works suggested above.

I personally think that these don't have as much of a scare effect on people as they must have when they were written. These days you are better off with, say, film scores by Danny Elfman as unilogo suggests (try "Nightbreed").

Dead Can Dance is very good. I think that the problem with metal is that some of your audience listens to it all the time and it doesn't unsettle them anymore. Depending on the mood that you are trying to create, and the setting, you could even go with some obscure electronica. I like My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult.

Tell us more about what you are trying to do and we can make better suggestions. Crashes and screams can be found on "sound effects" compilations.

Yours,

Paul

Yes, this website and the music is very beautiful as well as haunting. Great, and I mean almost perfect music for creating and providing atmosphere for a pre performance of a seance. There is a sample link on their site. The artwork provided is also very classical. I would love to hear their whole collection sometime.
Dr Wilson's above recommendations are excellent. (I love Bar Harbor).
Another very haunting and beautiful CD of music even more perfect for the above settings, is Sacred Chants Of Shiva by Craig Pruess. This one is mysterious, enchanting, very exotic, (and spooky when played softly). The sensuous female vocals and sanskrit lyrics are something that people will remember long afterwards. You'd swear that it was the voices of the spirits themselves. Look on amazon.com for this one.
John

Danse Macabre by Saint Saen.

Dr. Wilson, I have that CD, also, and will add that it is a good because of the classics on it. Performed well by a great pops orchestra.

Another to check out are the two Chip Davis Mannheim Steamroller CDs: Halloween and Halloween Monster Mix

http://dev.shop-amgram.com/Merchant2/mer......ode=MCD7

Motzarts "Lacrimosa" from the requiem suite is a nice melodic choral piece that works good for illusion stuff.

My personal favorite is Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" but that's just me.

Stay away from Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in Dm. Its overused and way too stereotypical, no matter how fantastic the piece may be on its own.

For more modern stuff, check out groups like Portishead, VNV Nation or My life with the Thrill Kill Kult. They have some pieces that would work nicely.

The soundtrack from "Natural Born Killers" might yield some hits as well.

I can vouche for dead can dance. Good stuff. Also, try music for a darkend theatre vol1 and 2 by Danny Elfman. Edward Scissorhands sound track is good.
And recenlty I've found that church bells just sound creepy.

good luck

Thanks to all!
All your replies have really great!
Some fantastic music themes perfect for what I was looking for.
Gracias
Juan D

You should also consider theremin music. The theremin makes a really weird sound. The theme from the old Ingrid Bergman film "Spellbound" is a possibility.

In addition to Midnight Syndicate, I would recommend Nox Arcana.

If you want something kinda dark rock check out HIM, and of couse anything by Alice Cooper.

For classical, ceck out the many classical techno mixes.

Perhaps you might want to check out a variety of old Vincent Price movies and see who did the music.

Azrael

By the way. All dance music or music created electronically is called Electronic music or Electronica. Not techno. If Lord really ment techno then that's cool, Im sorry but as a DJ With OCD I cant let people continue misnaming the genre. That would be like calling all sports Baseball. Sorry for my rant. I really don't want to sound hostile, really just trying to let more people know what to call it.

Another option in a different direction is some of the music of Jimi Hendrix which is still fresh today.

Angel
Are you Experienced
All Along the Watchtower
Fire
Hey Joe
Foxey lady
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
The Wind Cries Mary
Wild Thing

The guitar work and the words in many lean to dark presentations.

Also, some of the Elgar Marches

If you search for "classical Electronica" you will not find the cuts that I am refering to. You need to use the techno term which, while not accurate. will yeield results.

Azrael

Might be a bit mainstream, but since Danny Elfman was mentioned often, as well as rock and metal in general, give a listen to Evansescence, best known for their DareDevil soundtrack "Bring me to Life". That's not the song that'll do it for you, though, given what you're after.
Best tracks from "Fallen" for this:
Going Under (Creepy video too, you gotta see it !)
Haunted
Tourniquet (A suicidal ponders her final fate as the blood drains out of her - a bit religious, though)
Whisper (Gregorian monk chanting throughout the finale, ala "The Omen")

Absolutely the most creepy song they ever did, however, is on an EP called "Origin" released before they were signed with Wind Up Records to produce Fallen:
It's called "Even in Death". I can send you a snippet in mp3 format if you like, I don't think that'd violate copyrights if I sent you 10 seconds or so, Amazon does it all the time ;-) It's about her digging up her dead boyfriend so they can be together forever. The opening and verse melody is just disturbing.

I'm smitten with Amy Lee's stuff because she writes from a very sad place in her heart, and almost always about death. When she was 6 years old, her little sister, whom she was very close with, died at the age of 3 from unknown causes. That set her off on her artistic path and heavily influences everything she writes about.

I have always been a fan of chanting. If you do a search, you can find monk chant cds at amazon or eBay. Very gothic sounding stuff.

I use a lot of chant as the sonic setting for my pieces. It isn't exactly scary, however.

me too phil how about the gregorian chant cds...