It’s late-October, and that means among other things that Halloween will soon be upon us. Games, Anime, and other mediums are littered with spooky tunes that fit perfectly with this holiday. In this edition of Nerd Tunes, I will delve through various soundtracks and find the best of music that I consider spooky, creepy, scary, or just unnerving. As always this list reflects my personal taste and the selection isn’t presented in a particular order. I am also limiting myself to 7 entries because otherwise I’d probably just keep going and going. So now then, let’s get on with it.
Bleach – “On The Verge of Insanity”
Composer: Shiro Sagisu
Year: 2006
Bleach actually features several creepy tunes throughout it’s various soundtracks. This one fits best for this list though in my opinion. The repetitive use of piano is haunting. This song really instills a sense of foreboding danger. A perfect sound for the Halloween season.
Earthbound/Mother 2 – “Giygas Battle”
Composer: Keiichi Suzuki
Year: 1994
This track is featured on pretty much everyone’s creepy video game music lists. If you want to know why just give it a listen. This track is strange, odd, out of place, creepy, and downright disturbing at points. It plays during the final boss battle of the legendary Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound. A battle that is strange enough on it’s own, add in this amazing music and it is taken to another level of oddity. This track more than fits the Halloween vibe I was looking for and so had to be included in this list.
Cowboy Bebop – “Amusement Park”
https://youtu.be/SA8jq55UApw
Composer: Yoko Kanno
Year: 1998
I already find amusement parks a little creepy, so that helped land this one in the list. The episode of Cowboy Bebop that it plays during is also unnerving. The music itself sounds somewhat innocent at first, but something about its sound is just wrong. Maybe I’m crazy, but I swear there is evil lurking behind this track.
Resident Evil – “Narrow and Close”
https://youtu.be/eCwVNNHGm74
Composer: Makoto Tomozawa, Akari Kaida, Masami Ueda
Year: 1996
Everyone knows this is one of the strangest and most fear-inspiring piece of music to be heard in a game. I would barely call it music actually, more like mentally stressing sounds, all kinda strung together. I just remember when I heard it for the first time I just knew I was about to die. This unique and terrifying track had to make the list.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – “Forest Temple”
https://youtu.be/hmsZyC0UXUU?list=PL9A7FA60D25750CE1
Composer: Koji Kondo
Year: 1998
As a kid, this music scared the crap out of me. Getting to The Forest Temple really changed the feel of the game for me. It was no longer a carefree kid’s adventure, it was something a lot more serious. As I have grown older this track has become something I really enjoy, but it is still pretty creepy. Ominous and bizarre sounds ever increasing in volume has always made me feel like I am being watched when I hear this music play. It made The Forest Temple my favorite dungeon in OoT and was a shoo-in for this list.
Final Fantasy VII – “Who are You”
https://youtu.be/MK84iaAjI2c?list=PL77D98F68F6DBB35D
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu
Year: 1997
There are a few tracks in FFVII that give me the shutters, and it was a hard to pick just one. Ultimately though I had to go with this paranoia-inducing piece. The scene where I remember this tune first playing was creepy enough that I had to turn my lights on to keep from panicking. These days it doesn’t scare me so much as make me uncomfortable, but it still earns its spot on this list.
Persona 4 – “Who’s There?”
Composer: Shoji Meguro, Atsushi Kitajoh, and Ryuta Kozuka
Year: 2008
From one of my favorite games of all time, and I know I am not alone in that statement. Every game in this series is inherently creepy. Demons, murders, shadows, and worst of all… High School. This track always played during particularly unnerving cut-scenes and still sticks with me to this day. Listening to it actually caused a delay in this article, as I broke into a fit of nostalgia and had to play it.
That’s it for this list. I had a lot of fun going through various soundtracks and finding my favorite “scary” tracks. Was as nostalgia-inducing as it was creepy. As always please be sure to check out the rest of the site for other awesome stuff. Lastly, a big happy Halloween to everyone.
