A scream has a great many potential meanings. It could be an exclamation of triumph, of joy, of ecstasy, of pain, of fear, of shock. It is, however, usually loud and is frequently used or described in music.

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So, as it is the week of Hallowe’en, let’s look at screams. Both screams in song, and songs about or mentioning screams. There were no suggestion threads for this one, as I only thought about using it over the weekend. So I did the research for songs myself for this one.

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A quick explanation for new readers (hi there!): my Tuesday Ten series has been running since March 2007, and each month features at least ten new songs you should hear – and in between those monthly posts, I feature songs on a variety of subjects, with some of the songs featured coming from suggestion threads on Facebook.

Feel free to get involved with these – the more the merrier, and the breadth of suggestions that I get continues to astound me. Otherwise, as usual, if you’ve got something you want me to hear, something I should be writing about, or even a gig I should be attending, e-mail me or drop me a line on Facebook (details below).

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/Judas Priest
/Painkiller
/Painkiller

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We couldn’t really start anywhere else than with Judas Priest. With Rob Halford fronting the Metal Gods, they arguably had the finest voice in metal – and also the finest goddamned scream. The piledriving six minutes of Painkiller is one of the best. All galloping pace, guitars that sound like screams, and of course Halford letting loose with his extraordinary vocal power (there’s multiple ripping screams in this song, all of which could and probably do strip paint from the walls), a great many other metal vocalists have tried to get near Halford’s range, but frankly few of them come even close. There was also a case for including Dissendent Aggressor – which has an absolutely insane, falsetto scream that nearly tears open the earth in the opening thirty seconds of the song.

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/Ozzy Osbourne
/Let Me Hear You Scream
/Scream

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Ozzy hasn’t always been at his best in his solo work: it is perhaps best described as “patchy”, certainly compared to his legendary, pioneering work as part of Black Sabbath in their earlier days. But he has released some absolute belters as singles over the years as a “solo” artist, and perhaps the last of those is Let Me Hear You Scream from 2010. Zak Wylde, his long-time guitarist foil, had left, and Gus G puts in a hell of a shift on this track, with some awesome guitar work that helps drive the track forward with a charging, roaring momentum. Ozzy leaves nothing in the tank, either, with his bellowing performance that sounds better than he had in some time. And yes, it finishes with Ozzy finally screaming…

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/Minor Threat
/Screaming at a Wall
/Minor Threat

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The all-too-human frustrations that Minor Threat articulated were very much songs many listeners could relate to. Here, Ian MacKaye rages through ninety seconds of annoyance with a friend that simply will not open up. He’s clearly tried everything to help, and to offer assistance, but the subject of his rage has put up a metaphorical wall to keep them out and nothing is going to change. MacKaye doesn’t appear ready to give up, though, and this blast of hardcore punk is his way of slamming home that message (but the screams remain implied).

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/Rotersand
/Bastards Screaming
/Random Is Resistance

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One of Rotersand’s greatest songs was also the point where Rotersand gained a political and angry edge that hadn’t been evident before. Over an urgent, dancefloor-friendly thump, vocalist Gun is absolutely seething. He’s sick of lying leaders, politicians more bothered about the size of their wallets than any good they are doing, and a general sense that he wants to boot these fuckers from office. Strangely enough, this song has even more relevance fifteen years on. Anyway, he’d like to squeeze them until they fucking scream, presumably in terror of a population rising up to fight back. Sadly we’re still waiting for that latter part.

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/St. Vincent
/All Born Screaming
/All Born Screaming

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Annie Clark was quoted at the time of release of her excellent new album, explaining “We’re all born in some ways against our will. But at the same time, if you’re born screaming, it’s a great sign – it’s a sign you’re alive. We’re all born in protest, so screaming is what it means to be alive.”

There’s a fair bit of metaphorical screaming on said new album – certain songs bubble with rage, particularly the wonderfully taut Broken Man, where Clark literally catches fire in the video – but other than the subject, there isn’t any on the closing title track, which is one of a couple of dips into smooth, eighties rock that nods to funk and is the kind of beat that your feet move to involuntarily.

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/Seeming
/My Body Is Always Screaming
/Worldburners

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Alex Reed’s songs are often more restrained, at least when dealing with anger and negative emotions, but the Worldburners EP was an exception to this rule. My Body Is Always Screaming boils with rage, like a churning sea beneath a crackling storm. There is a fire raging here in Reed, as he fights to keep this rage under control, the music doing similarly as the beats clank like machinery, and what sounds like treated saxophone squeals and squalls in the background, fighting to be heard. Clearly a necessary release at the time, it is perhaps interesting that he hasn’t gone down this route again. Perhaps it was cathartic enough to be one-and-done.

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/Rabbit Junk
/In Your Head, No One Can You Scream
/ReFRAME

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One of JP Anderson’s greatest songs was the leadoff single to his second Rabbit Junk album, and was the point where poppier influences began to make themselves heard – and the result was a marvellous industrial-pop-punk track that sounded like absolutely nothing else. It’s a song dealing with the aftermath of a toxic relationship, as far as I can tell, at the point where you realise it’s very much the right thing to walk away, but inside you are absolutely screaming with fury at what things have become. We’ve all been there, right? The video, too, is great: a cute animation in shades of black, white and vivid pink (you have been warned).

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/Hypnoskull
/Ready to Scream, Ready to Die!
/Operation Tough Guy!

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It is, it has to be said, quite some time since I listened to the blown-out speaker noise and beats of Hypnoskull (live they were particularly loud, too, as I recall) – think Atari Teenage Riot without the guitars and less of the pomposity. The title of this particular track was the refrain/sample used a fair bit across the album (the title track also used it if I’m remembering correctly), and the nihilistic attitude it represents is rather the feel of the album: Raving to deafening industrial noise while the world burns. It should be added that it was released in 2002, a period when the world was a particularly dark place to be, post-9/11 – not that the closing months of 2024 feel much brighter right now. Maybe I should just scream along a bit more.

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/The Black Queen
/Secret Scream
/Fever Daydream

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Probably the best track on The Black Queen’s excellent debut, it was quite the shock to hear Greg Puciato crooning over a dirty electro beat. Perhaps it’s what Puciato needed to do: to avoid being typecast as a metal screamer (which he is, of course, fantastic at). The end result was an unexpected interest in electronic music, soul, and after-dark electro filth. This track is very much the latter (with nods to the others), with the scream here very much one of carnal release, and the track itself is an intoxicating, sultry brew.

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/Sum 41
/Pain for Pleasure
/All Killer No Filler

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Usually paired with their breakthrough hit Fat Lip (there is a video with them back to back that was usually aired), and the genesis of this track is explained in it (“Maiden and Priest were the Gods that we praised“). But the one thing this throwaway track proves is that the band know their metal, as this is basically a note-perfect, image-perfect love letter to eighties heavy metal, complete with Maiden-esque riffs and galloping rhythms, and metal vocals and lyrics that are gloriously cheesy. That said, it’s all about the vocal delivery, and the mighty metal scream that Steve Jocz – usually the band’s drummer, but for this track takes on vocals – delivers to close the track. I’m sure the bands they worshipped would appreciate this homage and doff of the cap.