Nightmare Fuel related to Queen.
Sheer Heart Attack:
- The entirety of "In the Lap of the Gods" is quite creepy. It begins with Roger Taylor screeching in an extremely shrill voice. Throughout the entire song, Freddie Mercury's vocals are phased in an extremely unsettling way.
- The song "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettos)" is already somewhat eerie, but the ending with the police sirens and the heavy breathing is really creepy.
A Night at the Opera:
- The intro to "Death On Two Legs" is really unsettling. Starting with a fade-in on a rapid piano pattern, then adding a repeated four-note guitar riff isn't too bad. No, it's doubling the guitar with a growling double bass, layering in overlapping high-pitched glissandi, and finally somebody screaming, growing louder and louder...and it abruptly goes silent, replaced by the melody and chords in the piano. Did we mention this is beginning of the entire album?
- "The Prophet's Song" starts off as being very calm and tranquil, but then suddenly becomes very dark and stays that way for the rest of the song. There is then a point in the middle of the song where the instrumentals stop, leaving a delayed and multitracked Freddie Mercury singing lyrics in the form of a round, which gives off the impression that the listeners are in a very large and empty location. The lyrics themselves are also very disturbing, and sound like something out of the Old Testament.He told of death as a bone-white haze,
Taking the lost and the unloved babe,
Late, too late, all the wretches run,
These kings of beasts now counting their days.- Justified in that Brian May had a dream similar to the Great Flood.
- After an already bizarre ending, it breaks to a series of repeated guitar riffs which goes on for quite a few seconds before breaking into a very loud chord which comes right out of the blue.
- Have you heard Freddie's vocal canon performed LIVE
? As one blog post puts it, Freddie goes "full noise artist" with those sounds.
A Day at the Races:
- The Last Note Nightmare of "You Take My Breath Away" that starts at 4:42.
- The same album brings us "White Man" which ends with a nice, acoustic outro, followed by a LOUD drum beat after a pause.
News of the World:
- The cover art, drawn by Frank Kelly Freas, shows the band's lifeless bodies tumbling from the hand of a wide-eyed giant robot (itself named Frank) that does not seem to understand why its new playthings have stopped moving. Even worse, considering that it is Freddie who has a bloodied hole in the chest...
- Played with on the Family Guy episode "Killer Queen", where Stewie is TERRIFIED of the cover.(Brian shows Stewie the album cover, causing Stewie to scream and practically jump back a few feet.)Stewie: What the hell is that?! A killer robot monster?!Brian: No, it's "News Of The World", it's an album by the band Queen! See?(Brian shows the cover again, prompting the same reaction from Stewie.)Brian: Stewie, relax!Stewie: No, Brian! You keep that thing away from me! Is it- Is it looking at me?! Can it see me?!Brian: (laughing) Man, you're really scared of this thing!Stewie: Does it eat little boys?!(Later on in the episode, Brian uses the album cover as a way to prank Stewie. The first prank is him placing the album into Stewie's bed, letting it be one of the first things he sees in the morning, giving him this reaction)Stewie: (noticing Brian laughing at him) You son-of-a-bitch!Brian: Good morning! Thought I'd help you wake up!Stewie: God, why does he look sad?! He's already destroyed mankind, what else could he want?!
- It gets worse with the inner gatefold (pictured above), as it shows the robot peering into the hole seen at the bottom of the full cover art, which is filled with people who are running for their lives, all while the robot is about to grab any of them.
- Played with on the Family Guy episode "Killer Queen", where Stewie is TERRIFIED of the cover.
- The effects during the middle of "Get Down, Make Love".
Jazz (1978):
- The song "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" is pleasant, albeit melancholy, up until the song's bridge, where an unsettling effect is used on Brian May's voice.
The Miracle:
- The album cover, featuring a picture of the band... with their heads fused together. A miracle indeed.
Innuendo:
- "I'm Going Slightly Mad" straddles the line between Surreal Humor and Surreal Horror. The video features the band doing increasingly bizarre and disturbing things, the eeriness amplified by the mostly black and white photography. It doesn't help the song's reputation that Freddie Mercury's friend Peter Straker says the song is semi-autobiographical, with the lyrics describing Mercury's moments of dementia in his later-stage illness (AIDS).
- And Freddie cared enough to go out and do the video, even as he was reaching an advanced stage in his disease. As a result, he looks visibly wracked on the video, in spite of all the effects attempting to hide it.
