No Halloween Playlist Is Complete Without These Seven Terrifying Indonesian Songs

I still remember the first time a song scared the shit out of me. I was in eighth grade and a friend let me borrow his copy of Mechanical Animals, by Marilyn Manson. I don't remember if it was the sinister-sounding music, the devilish vocals, or weird lyrics, but something about it made me feel really, really uncomfortable. I never heard music before that was so… scary—although, to be fair, before Manson, my playlist was mostly Green Day and Sheila On 7 songs.

But maybe I should've been used to creepy songs. Indonesia is full of them after all. Most Indonesians love spooky shit, the kinds of stuff that makes your blood run cold and your nightmares way too vivid. I mean, we're talking about a country where "rain shaman" is a legitimate career, ghost-hunting shows once ruled the airwaves, and the government has tried to outlaw black magic more than once.

So, for Halloween, I wanted to revisit some classic songs that run the gamut of horror—from funny songs that want to be scary to songs that will actually leave you with nightmares for days.

"Kereta Malam" is the kind of song that transports you to a different world. Hit play and listen to it carefully. Just pay attention and make sure you're in a room with all the lights off. The song starts things out eerie, with the sounds of steam train setting the stage for the creepiness that's to come.

When the vocals finally kick in and Jane sings "On a night train / I'm going home all alone," it's next stop goosebumpsville. Sure, the vocals themselves might sound soothing, but that's part of what makes it so scary. This sweet-sounding song is actually about the singer meeting a woman on a night train who tells Jane that she looks just like her dead daughter.

I hope you make it to the chorus.

Sangkakala is usually associated with parody and not horror, but this hair metal band found their inner darkness with "Hotel Berhala." The song is full of references to `80s Indonesian horror movies and devil worship in what may or may not be a building disguised as a hotel.

There's an air of mystery surrounding "Lingsir Wengi"—an old Javanese tune that was supposedly written to summon a kuntilanak. Now why would you want to call for a terrifying, child-stealing ghost? Who the hell knows, but the thought of it alone makes the song one of the most-frightening on the list.

"Rintihan Kuntilanak" is also about the eponymous child-stealing ghost, but this time it's a love song. So I guess you can meet the kuntilanak of your dreams with "Lingsir Wengi" then she can spend the rest of your life lovesick like the ghost in "Rintihan Kuntilanak."

The song is meant to be absurd. The lyrics talk about a kuntilanak who is sitting in a tree lamenting the fact that her lover is still alive. Sure, she loves the man, but she also wants to chill and the fastest way to date night in the netherworld is suicide. So, yeah, it's also pretty dark.

"Innalillahi Wa'inna ilaihi Raji'un 666" is basically an Islamic saying with 666—the number of the beast—added to it. The phrase roughly translates to "everything that lives will eventually return to its maker Allah, 666" which sounds pretty heavy to me. But none of this is really meant to be taken all that seriously. Innalillahi play what they call "theatrical spirit metal"—moody metal that is full of undecipherable shrieks that sound like the devil himself is wailing at a funeral. Be sure to check out their live videos where they wear corpse paint and bring pocong out on the stage.

"Onism," is what the robot apocalypse would sound like, if it was scored by a noise band from Samarinda, East Kalimantan. The noise trio, Sarana, manages to capture a Lynchian level of weirdness with a deafening wall of sound. Listen to this one with your headphones on.

There's really nothing special about "Tinggal Kenangan." The vocal melodies and chord progressions are pretty basic. But back in 2007 this song blew up after it appeared on massively influential Indonesian gossip shows like Silet and Cek N Ricek.

The rumor was that the song was written by a sad woman who missed her dead boyfriend and later committed suicide so she could meet him again. Nobody knew whether the story is true or not, but the rumor certainly helped propel the song to the top of the radio mix. And there is definitely something strange going on in this song. Every time I listen to "Tinggal Kenangan," all I hear is the squeaky, spooky vocals, and it's enough to convince me that perhaps it really is a lost lover's restless soul singing… just for me.