Death by Drowning - The Birthday Party. Anyone unfamiliar with Nick Cave's pre-Bad Seeds band? punk/goth/batcave with just a touch of cabaret. It's a safe bet that 70% of all songs penned by Nick Cave are about death. (He did name a whole album "Murder Ballads" and another one "Your Funeral, My Trial.") The man is nothing if not deliciously morbid. This one's a cacophonous little ditty with screechy saxophone accompaniment. BUY ---- I uploaded this for the Halloween theme last year: Ostia by Coil. Each of their songs is like a self-contained horror film -- guaranteed to put a chill down your spine. This one is about the murder of film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was run over several times with his own car by a young hustler. There are several conspiracy theories behind the murder of the controversial filmmaker, who was gay and a communist. The album is out of print, unfortunately. ---- Terror Couple Kill Colonel - Bauhaus. The ultimate Goth band. I'd always assumed the title was taken from a random newspaper headline and Allmusic.com confirms that, saying it was "based on an actual case of domestic German terrorism involving a British NATO officer." Terror couple kill colonel in his West German home -- such a perfect little juxtaposition of random violence and someone's "soft easy chair" life in civilized Cold War-era West Germany. BUY ---- Killing an Arab - The Cure. I'm also assuming everyone knows the inspiration for this minimalist early Cure classic comes from Albert Camus' "The Stranger," the quintessential existentialist tale of a man who commits a murder mostly because the sun was in his eyes and the gun was in his hand. BUY ---- "Suite from Hush" -- A wonderfully spooky bit of music that never fails to give me chills. It's from the "Hush" episode of Buffy, with the "Gentlemen" -- silent, eerie, floating, grinning death's heads who are in town to harvest hearts. A genuinely scary episode, made even scarier by this haunting theme. This is an extra track on the "Once More With Feeling" episode soundtrack. BUY