Five Perfect Metal Albums for Autumn
Five Perfect Metal Albums For Autumn
Yes, I’m one of those people. Autumn is my favourite season. I mean, of course it is. I live for horror movies and “Halloweeny” would be an ideal adjective to describe me (were it an actual word), but the late October spookiness is far from Autumn’s only appeal. I don’t do well in the heat of summer and those days when finally the temperature starts to drop again are like a literal breath of fresh air. I mean, just think of all the cool things you can start doing. Wearing jumpers; seeing the local park turn to vivid reds and golds; holding mugs of steaming hot coffee in gloved hands, just watching the steam rise; putting pumpkin spice in your latte; putting pumpkin spice in your baking; rubbing pumpkin spice into your pores until you start bleeding pumpkin spice from your eyes; ahhh, yes… autumn. I could list a million clichés about it, all of which — to me — ring hopelessly true.
I think perhaps the school calendar has something to do with it too. We’re raised to think that the new year begins in September when the holidays are finished; when suddenly everything’s the same only different. You’re a grade higher than you were before. And while the new school year rarely offered anything actually good it was, at least, one step closer to leaving school. So, in its own way, super-positive, right?
It’s been years since I left school but that feeling of the colder weather bringing with it a hopeful sense of natural progression is still there. The actual New Year, with its gaudy bonhomie and forced resolutions, feels shallow by comparison to when the nights start drawing in and those sweet introspective vibes take hold.
There are certain metal albums that slip as deliciously into autumn moods as pumpkin spice (and may also leave you bleeding from the eyes), and these are five that I always seem to revisit around this time of year. Some are more obviously autumnal than others but all of them, to me, provide a perfect accompaniment to the season. So cut yourself a slice of pumpkin pie, put extra marshmallows in your cinnamon hot chocolate and descend into the sweet, sweet darkness:
Type O Negative — October Rust
My mistress of the frigid night I worship, pray to on my knees…”
October Rust is the definitive autumn metal album. I mean, the clue’s in the name, right? I can’t be the only person who listens to this as an outright tradition when October arrives. As Josh Silver pounds out those grandiose opening notes of Love You To Death, only then is it really here. The album’s mood is one of sensual, pulsing spookiness and it feels like it goes from the hazy brightness of early fall (Be My Druidess, Green Man) through Halloween funtimes (Wolf Moon — perhaps the only song ever written about giving oral sex to a menstruating werewolf?) all the way to morbid reflections on the coming winter (Christmas Mourning). Yet still, even the chilliest moments (Haunted) are drenched in lush, warming arrangements. It’s like a slug of brandy to soothe the nerves on a walk home through the woods at night. Just watch out for sexy ghouls.
Opeth — My Arms, Your Hearse
Everything is lost Torn by the arrival of Autumn
The blink of an eye, you know it’s me
You keep the dagger close at hand”
Much like autumn itself, My Arms, Your Hearse is an album that emerges between the wintery black metal of early Opeth and the warmer, more uplifting spring of their later prog work. It’s a transitional record but, for me, easily their best. It’s a morbid, ghostly concept album that mixes folk and extreme metal to gloomy, atmospheric effect. The lyrics deal with seasonally appropriate themes of death, rebirth and acceptance of the natural cycle. It lets moments of pristine beauty sparkle beneath a murky production like slivers of sunlight through the trees on a cold October day. Rarely has an album sounded so much like its artwork suggests it will.
In The Woods… — Heart of the Ages
Or, wherever we may care to tread,
We are Gods. “
Black metal’s usually associated with winter but this early album by In The Woods… is autumn personified. It has the blustery high-pitched guitars and shrieking vocals typical of the genre but there’s something about it, an earthiness, a timelessness, a hint of warmth that conjures images of swirling dead leaves, of ages passing, an eternal chain of nature. Lyrically, it takes an existential approach to the ‘old religions’. Its esoteric philosophy, along with the blurry campfire ‘band photo’ on the inner sleeve gave In The Woods… (who, at the time, were anonymous) a sense of mystery. When I first heard this record, it felt like it was beaming in from a very strange place indeed. But a place where they sure as Hell have autumn. Possibly eternal autumn.
scarling. — So Long, Scarecrow
Another starless sky
The nervousness inside.
It’s the final kiss from a lover’s fist,
It’s the reason why you can’t cry.”
Some might argue this isn’t a metal album at all but it’s dark and distorted and awesome, and has been a staple of my autumn playlists for the best part of a decade so I’m including it. Fronted by Jessicka (ex-Jack Off Jill), So Long, Scarecrow stays just the right side of dreamy gothic shoegaze while serving subtle Halloween realness. There’s maybe no explicit reference to the season here but the lyrics deal a lot with change, with growth and self-reflection, all of which feel dressed for the right occasion. The music mixes a warm, syrupy sweetness with frosty guitars that cut like the wind. And you can bet the party referred to in Teenage Party Letdown/Bummer is a Halloween party.
Ghost — Opus Eponymous
Rise From Precipice Through Birth”
I guess Satan is for all seasons but Ghost’s astonishing debut decks him out in the golden hues of autumn for sure. The lyrics for Opus Eponymous talk of a coming darkness and the impending birth of an Anti-Christ, all welcomed with ghoulish delight. Which, let’s face it, is how us autumn lovers embrace our favourite season. The music here has that dusky vibe, of the hours before the night truly arrives and things are exciting, dimly lit and just a little bit creepy. It’s sinister and death-obsessed but also absolutely gorgeous. Like… you guessed it… autumn.
So what did I miss? Let me know your favourite autumn metal albums!
Bonus Visual Accompaniments:
The Iron Rose (1973)
Lords of Salem (2013)
Adventure Time : Stakes Mini-Series (2015)
