10 Scariest Tracks In Hard Rock

Hard rock has been a genre always known for its intensity. No matter how many times you listen to a track, there's always something about the roaring guitars and solid backbeat that elicits excitement in the listener. Then again, some rock stars have found ways to channel that intensity through much darker means.

Over its storied history, many songs have come from the hard rock genre that remain some of the scariest recordings in mainstream music. Whether it be through enhanced sound effects or just through the instrumentation, these songs all seem to have a certain aura about them that can make any hard rock fan's stomach churn with fear. Some of these bands even had put themselves through an emotional spiral in order to get the disturbing feeling onto the tape.

Instead of encouraging excitement, these songs are the pitch-black hymns that have sparked terror in the hearts of countless rock fans for years. Having one foot rooted in rock grandeur and one in the grave, these artists have laid out their artistry bare to create sinful masterworks that could satisfy a listener as much as any horror movie could. Let's dive down the slippery slope into the shadows...

When people tend to think of scary music, the name My Chemical Romance doesn't seem to get brought up all that often. Any casual mention of these pop-punk professionals will leave many 2000's kids writing them off as nothing more than a passing act in the emo movement. After The Black Parade, fans were delirious and stunned by the amount of macabre present in this conceptual masterpiece.

While the entire record has a dark ambience centered around a cancer patient's demise, the madness doesn't seem all that grave until we reach "Mama." Coming at the album's midpoint, this track shows the patient at his most dire, as he's accepted the fact that he is going to Hell. He frames the song's narrative around a conversation with his mother, as he apologizes for not being a better son, to which his mother quickly renounces him.

After much anticipation, the song gives way to a twisted swing rhythm, giving the listener allusions to a demon rock band coming to drag our protagonist to his fate. With a guest appearance from Liza Minnelli, the song suddenly picks up even further before leaving the protagonist's mother in tears and the demon band playing us out. With musical horrors on display, "Mama" is a song that shuts up every naysayer who claimed MCR's music was "just a phase."