Scary Voices: The 13 Creepiest, Most Blood-Curdling Singers in Rock

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    Remember those nightmares that woke you up as a kid? So vivid and stomach-turning that you had to scurry down the hall and crawl into bed with your parents? These are the scary voices you were hearing -- many of which were suggested by you, the traumatized and terrified Spinner reader, via Facebook and Twitter. We pray this resulting list of an unholy 13 singers performing their hair-raising songs helps exorcise your demons.
    13
    Lux Interior of the Cramps
    Right around the time that Elvis had left the building for good, the world was introduced to Lux Interior, a native of Akron, Ohio, who fouled the King's music with bondage gear and Z-grade horror tropes, thereby creating the lurid style called "psychobilly." Coincidence? We think not. The Cramps singer was the undead Elvis, all dyspeptic hiccups and festering wounds. --Suggested by Jenne Willis-Marquez and Anna Gonzalez

    Gravest Hit: 'I Was a Teenage Werewolf'
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    Lux Interior of the Cramps
    Mick Hutson, Redferns
    12
    Björk
    "If you ever get close to a human," the Icelandic pixie sang on her second solo album, "you'd better be ready to get confused." And she can sing like she's trying to avoid such unnecessary confrontation: Her dazzling shrieks and growls are like the vocal equivalent of a skunk's spray. --Suggested by Tillie Elvrum

    Gravest Hit: 'Play Dead'
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    Bjork
    Shirlaine Forrest, WireImage
    11
    Screamin' Jay Hawkins
    The "black Vincent Price" made a lifelong career of voodoo shtick after legendary promoter Alan Freed paid him to climb out of a coffin onstage. cut his signature song, 'I Put a Spell on You' -- all grunts and woofs and howls -- while so drunk he couldn't recall the session.

    Gravest Hit: 'I Hear Voices'
    Screamin' Jay Hawkins
    Jean Marc Giboux, Getty Images
    10
    Ian Curtis of Joy Division
    The impossibly dour Curtis sounded like he was singing from beyond the grave even before he took his own life in 1980, after recording just two albums with his band Joy Division. An epileptic, Curtis took inspiration from some notably bleak writers, including Franz Kafka and William S. Burroughs. --Suggested by @hpzz

    Gravest Hit: 'She's Lost Control'
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    Ian Curtis of Joy Division
    Lex van Rossen, Redferns
    09
    Julee Cruise
    Of course it helps raise the scare quotient that this flash in the pan is known primarily for her haunted, barely there singing for David Lynch's nightmarish TV series 'Twin Peaks.' Having first come to Lynch's attention during the making of 'Blue Velvet,' Cruise embodied the sound of every teen-tragedy "splatter platter" ever made.

    Gravest Hit: 'Falling'
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    Julee Cruise
    CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images
    08
    Peter Murphy of Bauhaus
    The late Bela Lugosi was a piker next to this goth godfather, who sounds more like the unsilent version of Max Schreck's chilling Nosferatu than the star of 'Plan 9 From Outer Space.' Coffins, hearses, eyeliner: Few bands besides Bauhaus have done Halloween year-round so convincingly. --Suggested by Daniel Montano

    Gravest Hit: 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'
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    Peter Murphy of Bauhaus
    Chris Gordon, WireImage
    07
    Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys
    Surely he's worked at it over the years, but the former frontman for punk provocateurs the Dead Kennedys just sounds plumb crazy when he opens his mouth to sing. Biafra's quavering, high-pitched and undeniably scary voice is the sound of a man who knows where the bodies are buried. --Suggested by Noel O Flaherty

    Gravest hit: 'Saturday Night Holocaust.'
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    Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys
    Marc Broussely, Redferns
    06
    Tom Araya of Slayer
    A trained respiratory therapist, Slayer's vocalist helped define thrash-metal's lung-busting rasp on the band's landmark 1986 album, 'Reign in Blood.' He's got a twisted thing for serial killers, writing about the exploits of Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein, among others.

    Gravest Hit: 'Dead Skin Mask'
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    Tom Araya of Slayer
    Peter Wafzig, Getty Images
    05
    Black Francis of the Pixies
    "Slicing up eyeballs" might be the single most gruesome lyric image ever committed to tape by a musician who claimed to be influenced by Peter, Paul and Mary. When Black Francis asked, "Where is my mind?," it seemed like a perfectly legitimate question.

    Gravest Hit: 'Debaser'
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    Black Franic of Pixies
    Ben Meadows, WireImage
    04
    Nick Cave
    He's done murder ballads and vampiric attacks, and questioned God in hurricanes, but no song by the Australian undertaker is more bone-chilling than 'The Mercy Seat,' Cave's first-person account of a condemned man frying in the electric chair. For 30 years, he's positively sizzled. --Suggested by Cyrus Esphahanian, @amywaz and @cratic

    Gravest Hit: 'The Mercy Seat'
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    Nick Cave
    Jim Dyson, Getty Images
    03
    Diamanda Galás
    She recorded with Led Zep's John Paul Jones, paid tribute to Edgar Allan Poe and contributed scary voice work to such films as 'Natural Born Killers' and Francis Ford Coppola's 'Dracula.' The sound that created this unique career is the sound of 'The Exorcist' remade as an opera. --Suggested by Daniel Durchholz and Janet DiCastro

    Gravest Hit: 'Sono L'Antichristo'
    Diamanda Galas
    Frans Schellekens, Redferns
    02
    Tom Waits
    The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame candidate made a sharp left turn at the cemetery midway through his career, transforming from a dive-bar singer-songwriter to a man utterly possessed by the darker side of life. With a scary voice like an acid attack, it's no wonder Waits moonlights as an actor playing psychopaths and devils. --Suggested by Neil Rubbens, Maggie Maher, Victoria Carnahan, @hongrime and @Saul_Williams

    Gravest Hit: 'Earth Died Screaming'
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    Tom Waits
    Taylor Hill, FilmMagic
    01
    Howlin' Wolf
    Of the harsh, haunting blues voice of the 6-foot-6, 300-pound Wolf, born Chester Arthur Burnett, Sun records founder Sam Phillips once said, "This is where the soul of man never dies." Right: It's like the 'Night of the Living Dead.'

    Gravest Hit: 'Moanin' at Midnight'
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    Howlin' Wolf
    Jan Persson, Redferns

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