This Horror Folk Spotify Playlist Is A Step Into The Shadows
This Horror Folk spotify playlist is full of dark inspiration. The wild woods beckon. The rich scents of rot, mould and honey follow you wherever you go.
Horror Folk Spotify Playlist – 30+tracks
You can listen to the playlist on Spotify, and visit via this link.
I never knew my music taste had a name.
Let me back up a bit – I’m from a proud family tradition in folk music. Three generations, with a grandfather active in the first folk revival. So it’s fair to say I was raised with everything from traditional to experimental folk music.
I was also attracted to the gothy and morbid as a child. I was drawn to murder ballads, the songs of dead lovers and accidentally sleeping with the devil. Over the years, my taste for morbid folk music has purified to a very specific sub genre; I’ve recently discovered this is known as Horror Folk or Folk Horror.
Horror Folk is a curious and specifically English folk tradition (like Southern Gothic is a specifically American one). It’s folk music that echoes and references the classics of English horror and dark folklore – directly or indirectly. It ranges from classic folk styles to extremely experimental music. It’s been around in various forms for a while, and mostly got its start in the seventies – think Mike Oldfield, and music inspired by The Wicker Man during the second folk revival. However, most of the tracks on my playlist are from the nineties or later.
If I had to pick personal favourites on this list, I’d choose the Splinterskin tracks, or the track by Jordan Reyne. It seems more real and visceral than a lot of lost love folk songs – anger and grief and resentment and despair all wrapped up in one. I want to sing it in a folk club and make every man uncomfortable.
This playlist features two hours+ of my favourite songs in the horror folk genre, and I plan to be adding more to it over time.
You can talk to me on Tumblr if you have other Horror Folk tracks you’d like to share. You’ll find me on there as bisexualpiratequeen.
Enjoy.
More folk horror on Mookychick:
- Beltane playlist to fuel summer’s fire
- The Witch: A New England Folktale
- Creepy British horror films that have stood the test of time
- Female werewolves – their history and pop culture
