RockOm

This week, considering that it's Halloween and all, we've decided to share with you articles about the darker side of music, death, and all that is frightening and spooky. After all, part of spirituality is dealing with and coming to grips with death, so we wanted to help provide you with some musical inspiration for your Halloween weekend.

Below that we've also included our normal RockOm Roundup links, all that's going on around the world in the areas of song and spirit...

Halloween Roundup

• A Halloween Playlist: The Scariest Albums Of All Time - "I've created a list of the scariest albums ever made. It wasn't easy (seriously, I could've included every black-metal album ever made or Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing), but rather than focus on visceral screams, I went for ephemeral chills. These are psychological thrillers — dense, raw, positively horrifying albums, guaranteed to turn your Halloween into a total fright-fest." (mtv.com)

• Scary songs to put a shiver in your Halloween party - "It’s Halloween and time for some scary songs – and, no, I don’t mean Bobby 'Boris' Pickett’s 'Monster Mash.' I mean really scary songs. Here are 20, arranged chronologically, that’ll give you the chills..." (leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com)

• Slayer to stream entire new album on MySpace Music for Halloween weekend - "Thrash legends Slayer will take over MySpace's Music portal this Halloween weekend to promote their upcoming album, World Painted Blood." (examiner.com)

• What are the scariest rock songs ever?- "Aside from the truly frightening new release by the Backstreet Boys or Bob Dylan's new Christmas album, what are the scariest rock songs to tingle your spine and rattle your senses?" (blog.mlive.com)

Miscellaneous Music & Spirituality Links

• The RZA: Hip-Hop's Prophet - "In his new book, Tao of the Wu, RZA tells the story of his own rise, from the streets of Staten Island to the top of the hip-hop world. He describes the lessons he learned about life, music and spirituality--many of them hard--in the simple, elegant prose of a hip-hop poet." (pbs.org)

• Bruce Almighty - "Springsteen saved me when I was a suburban Cleveland teenager, bored and unconsciously seeking fever and fire. My mom advised channeling that desire into the Catholic Church by praying more. 'Mass is what you bring to it,' she said." (philly.org)

• What makes music beautiful? Alfred Brendel knows - "Interpreters should never assume that understanding the structure of a work might automatically give them insight into the work’s character, atmosphere and spiritual state." (artsblog.freedomblogging.com)

• Sting: Obama best person to handle world's 'mess'- Sting says, "My hope is that we can start talking about real issues and not caring about whether God cares about your hemline or your color ... We are here to evolve as one family, and we can't be separate anymore." (news.yahoo.com)

Today is Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve. According to Wikipedia, "The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. Costumes and masks were worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them."

Seeing as this holiday is known for celebrating the darker side of spirituality and death, it seems like an appropriate day to celebrate the darker side of music.

YOUR TURN: What are one or two songs that you really love that deal with darkness and/or darker issues? Perhaps you can take that more literally and share a song that has to do with demons, witches or the dead. Or perhaps you'll think of a song that evokes sadness, loss, fear, chaos and/or uncertainty - that which bring us face to face with the harsher realities of life and death. Click the link below to share your songs...

Discuss this article

It's the week of that spookiest holiday of the year! Expect some posts later in the week about Halloween, the darker side of spirituality and the music that goes with it!

Today we're extremely delighted to bring you a featured track of the week from the Portland-based band NIAYH (Now Is All You Have). If you're a fan of funky, groove-based rock music, this is one band you'll absolutely fall in love with... we at RockOm certainly have. In fact, we were so pleased and intrigued with their new album "Hope", later this week we will be writing about and bringing to you a full-length review. In the meantime, check out their featured track "Rock" on the homepage and then also be sure to swing over to their MySpace page, check out more songs and pick up a copy of their incredible album.

Lastly, today we bring you a new "Backstage Access" podcast (the raw audio from RockOm's featured interviews), this time from our phone interview with Don Campbell, author of "The Mozart Effect" and a new book entitled "Sound Spirit." Download it for your drive/ride to work tomorrow!