We have reached the end of another week, so that means it's time for another Freebie Friday! Time to share another forgotten gem from the murky depths of my Halloween "spooky sounds" collection.
After last week's dud of an offering, I'm really excited to rebound with this.
There are a ton of releases called Scary Sounds, but this particular version of Scary Sounds is in fact SIXTY full minutes of the creeps! I don't have much background info on this release other than it was composed in 1998 by Steven L. Hartman, produced by the Stanley-Lawrence Company, and released in cassette and CD formats.
The quality of this release is excellent, with two full sides of clean, rich audio. Both sides rely predominantly on heavy reverb and left-to-right channel "warbling" over a base of somewhat standard thunder, synthesizer organ, swamp critters, and a few echoing evil laughs and groans. And a few clips played backwards? But it all works! A real pulsating creepiness is achieved on both sides without any cheap, silly, or annoying sounds prevalent in many of the releases from decades before. I would sum it up by saying this is a more mature, atmospheric and developed "spooky sounds" release.
Each side is broken up into three segments. Side A being Ghoulish/Eerie/Creepy, and Side B being Morbid/Haunting/Spooky. Exceptionally great track names, but each side plays well as a single track. There are a few breaks in the sounds, but I couldn't absolutely identify where the track breaks are supposed to be. So for me, each side plays as one single track.
I bought this one on a whim, based solely on the cool pen-and-ink skull drawing on the cover, and it paid off nicely. It was an unexpectedly cool release for the price and offers a full hour's worth of the creeps! This one is highly recommended to add to your collection!
