10 Amazing Rock Albums That Will Scare You To Death

Before metal even had a name, most of the scariest albums of all time tended to be on the darker side of the tracks. In the era when the peace and love generation started to fizzle out, bands like the Doors were already opening our eyes to the more macabre side of what could be done with rock and roll. The San Francisco scene may have still been alive and well, but the initial shot that killed the hippy movement came with the very first Black Sabbath album.

Originally wanting to play a mix of bluesy rock in the vein of Cream, Black Sabbath's debut is still the stuff of nightmares for anyone who isn't familiar with darker music, opening with the ominous toll of a bell before Tony Iommi's guitar comes screaming in with a dreaded tritone lick. Even though the music was still trailing back into blues, there was a certain dark coating that went through every one of these songs, like the title track talking about Geezer Butler's encounter with a dark spirit and songs like NIB detailing a romantic encounter between Lucifer and an unsuspecting woman.

For all of the basic structures of hard rock that come with this album, there's something in between Iommi's fingers that seem to command the gates of Hell, opening up the door to a bunch of kids who listened to this record and became heavy metal bands a few years later. Even with decades in between its release, we can still listen to songs like Black Sabbath and be frightened all over again.