Nightmare Fuel / Siouxsie and the Banshees

Your city lies in dust, my friend / Oh oh your city lies in dust, my friend

• "Not Forgotten:" With the creepy moaning in the background, not to mention the lyrics: "You buried it so deep / So safe in hidden sleep / But like a telltale corpse / Rises to the surface / Over ripe and bloated." -shudder- And "Spellbound"... "When you think your toys are going berserk / It's an illusion / You cannot shirk / You hear laughter cracking through the walls / It sends you spinning / You have no choice!"
• Their radical re-invention of The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" is taken (it would seem) from the perspective of the Charles Manson inspired Tate-LaBianca murderers. The jagged guitar intro sounds like Psycho knife-slash music, the lyrics are chanted like a disturbing litany, and the whole thing works up into a speeding frenzy until it suddenly stops dead and plunges into silence...
• The wordless "Pure" from the same album (The Scream,) which would make perfect theme music for the opening titles of a horror movie.
• "An Execution:" Just a fucking creepy piece of music/narration. Which according to The Other Wiki, is inspired by Elizabeth Báthory.
  • The way it starts with creepy guitar distortion and then temporarily changes into a flurry of ominous spoken word from Sioux (including such glorious talk of a guilty person being forced into the slitted-open stomach of a random horse), until it changes into eerie piano.
  • The ominous (and awesome) B-side Umbrella.
• "Christine" is inspired by famous DID patient Chris Costner Sizemore. Its B-side "Eve White/Eve Black." seems to be about two of Sizemore's personalities. It starts out with a creepy arpeggio followed by some soft, eerie singing. Then about a third into to the song, there's a horrifying scream, and anyone listening becomes too paralyzed with fear to skip to the next song.
  • Update: Just listened to the original demo of "Eve White/Eve Black." It's instrumental, and possibly even more unsettling.
  • Also from Kaleidoscope, there's the haunting, electronic "Red Light", eerie "Tenant", "Trophy", and "Skin".
• "Playground Twist" a song from Join Hands which is lyrically and sonically intense with noisy guitars, ringing bells and Siouxsie belting out nightmarishly oblique lyrics.
  • Join Hands is generally filled with nightmare fuel, and Steven Severin even went on to say that he thinks the only actual 'goth' record the band made is this album. It's filled with ominous moods and distorted guitar, plus some talk of premature burials and possibly war.
  • For example, the fierce opening song Poppy Day.
  • Placebo Effect, which speaks of surgery (placebo?) over distinctive, eerie guitar distortion.
  • Premature Burial. "WE'RE ALL, SISTERS AND BROTHERS."
  • I personally find Mother / Oh Mein Papa a bit soothing and Heartwarming but the minimal music box can get a bit eerie.
  • The much criticized but spooky 14 minute Lords Prayer recording. It near relentlessly stomps about with some creepy lyrics like "you can run / you can hide / but you'll neverrrr get to HEAVEEEENNN". Even the dramatic yodeling from Siouxsie later in the song is quite ominous and jarring.
• Juju is infamously filled to the brim with nightmares. Siouxsie commented that it's more 'psychological horror' than 'ghosts and ghouls'.
  • Arabian Knights is rather creepy, particularly its third and final verse, where the lyrics describe a very... graphic scene:
    Veiled behind screens / Kept as your baby machine / Whilst you conquer more orifices / Of boys, goats and things / Ripped out sheep's eyes / No forks or knives
  • Monitor, which is filled with stomping guitar and drums and some lyrics seemingly about security. Oh, and live torture/snuff shows ("Sit back and enjoy/The real McCoy!").
  • Night Shift, a slower song with some amazing, haunting guitar and creepy lyrics inspired by a murderer. The desperation and drama of Siouxsie's vocal really inhances the effect.
  • Head Cut is less straight up dark and ominous, but the lyrics are full of disturbing body horror. Especially Siouxsie's shouting of "With eyes and lips CUT OUT!"
  • Voodoo Dolly is without doubt the scariest the song (although Night Shift is close). The music begins slow and prickly with deep ominous bass, then later gets faster while Siouxsie brings in some disturbing lyrics like: "And when you're DEAD, she'll find another" and "OH SHE'S A SORRY LITTLE DOLLY".
    • LISTEN!!!!!! LISTEN!!!!!! LISTEN!!!!!! LISTEN!!!!!! LISTEN!!!!!! LISTEN!!!!!!
• A Kiss In The Dreamhouse has "Cascade" and "Melt!", while the B-side from the era "Tattoo" is very subtle and spooky.
• Hyaena has "Bring Me The Head Of The Preacher Man" and the frankly scary buildup in "Blow The House Down".
• Tinderbox is more playful than the other 'darker' SaTB albums, but still has it's moments.
  • "92 Degrees" which begins with an eerie sci fi sample.
    • "92 Degrees" appears to be about people being driven insane by a constant temperature of 92 degrees Fahrenheit. It ends with apocalyptic descriptions of people drinking water from broken glasses and eating cactuses out of desperate thirst.
  • "This Unrest"
  • "Cities in Dust," which is about the destruction of Pompeii.
• Peepshow can get very spooky, and I personally find a lot of it to evoke some sort of dark fairground.
  • "Scarecrow"
  • The stunning six minute finale "Rhapsody", complete with spooky operatic singing from Siouxsie toward the end. The quiet intro to this is particularly creepy.
  • "Carousel", which evokes a darkened, abandoned carousel march and ends with a Last Note Nightmare.
  • The brief and bizarre "Rawhead And Bloodybones" is more weird than creepy, but still rather disturbing.
  • While "The Killing Jar" is a happier sounding tune it's lyrics speak of butterflies being trapped and killed.
  • "Peek-a-Boo" already resides in the uncanny valley thanks to its reversed instrumentation; the video depicts a flapper (played by Siouxsie) dancing first in the darkness, then with a quartet of masked men (played by Budgie, Severin, McCarrick, and Klein). At around the halfway point, the masked men appear to turn on the flapper and casually stalk her, as if they know she has no means of escape and are stretching things out as long as possible. The ending implies that they catch her.
• Superstition is pointedly a lighter album, but "Drifter" deserves a mention for its slow build and eerie vocals.
  • "Little Sister" is quite haunting.
  • Even the lead single "Kiss Them for Me" sneaks some fuel in during its third verse due to it being a tribute to Jayne Mansfield
    On the road to New Orleans
    A spray of stars hit the screen
    As the tenth impact shimmered
    The forbidden candles beamed
• "The Double Life" from The Rapture has a similar story to Jekyll and Hyde complete with some creepy distortions in the guitar and some spoken word bits from Siouxsie.
  • From the same album, the despairing "Love Out Me".
• "Pulled to Bits," the B-side to "Playground Twist," may easily be the wrongest song ever recorded, it starts with the sound of playing children, present in the single's A-side. Then, the bass kicks in, followed by a jittery chord from an acoustic guitar. This continues through the entire song. Then, Siouxsie joins in with her horrifyingly graphic lyrics.
  Pulled to bits — in silence
  left rotting on the ground
  Slowly pulled to bits — in silence
  without a sound, without a sound.
  • Also, about halfway through the song, there's this deep droning noise (which frankly sounds like some sort of Eldritch Abomination) that comes OUT OF NOWHERE. This sound is never played again in the song, but eventually, Siouxsie delights the listeners with the following:
    Young lungs snapping coming up for air
    the mindless ones yapping, slashing through the thoroughfare
    one by one, one by one
    oh one by one without a fucking care.
• The Blue Sunshine collaboration album between Severin and Robert Smith has "Relax" a long ominous instrumental along with "Orgy" which has some disturbing lyrics.

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