Talk:Horror punk

These guys were major players, and my inclusion of them in the list of notables is deleted, even as more marginal acts remain. Evidently this is because they lack their own page. It's f'n ridiculous. Edit: Finally! Had to write the article myself, which I never did before. Long live the horror, long live horror punk.Keithramone33 (talk) 03:11, 8 August 2014 (UTC)Keithramone33

It seems to me that you have horror metal and horror rock merged with horror punk. Then you have a group of people who are horror punk bands acting like fascists in deleting horror rock and horror metal bands from lists. Either Horror Rock needs its own category again or horror punk fans need to stop deleting stuff they don't like. I am at a complete loss as to how you can possibly consider this article serious as an all-encompassing article on horror rock when it is predominantly horror punk and fails to mention bands such as Cradle of Filth or Rob/White Zombie - the article is p*ss poor and nazi punks need to f**k off. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.23.8.217 (talk) 20:07, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Could the band Alkaline Trio be considered Horror Punk? 70.232.39.24 06:55, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

No possible way --Blodnatt13 (talk) 04:57, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

The band known as the Alkaline Trio are considerably a horror punk band, but they also seem to be more associated with the "Death Pop" label, much like Love Equals Death, The Knives In The Attic. DEATH POP is basically Dark Punk-Pop... Imagine if Blink 182 decided that they were as Undead as 45 Grave, yeah, think Blink 182 playing 45 Grave!!! 198.189.164.206 21:06, 5 October 2006 (UTC)Christopher Cole

Aside from Mister Monster, no other bands seem to consider themselves to be "Boo-wop". The article currently claims that Blitzkid is a Boo-wop band, but Blitzkid rarely incorporates Doo-wop into their music, at least, not more so than every other Horror punk band. Several other bands like to coin unique terms to describe their music (ie: spook rock, ghoul punk, splatter punk...) but I don't think these should be listed as official sub-genres. So I'm removing it until someone can present a case for Boo-wop being an established sub-genre of horror punk.Skullord 08:26, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

The 13th Floor Elevators were horror punk? I reeeeeally don't think so. SchnappM 06:41, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

No, but Roky Erickson’s “Two Headed Dog” (1975), “Bermuda” (1977), and “Mine Mine Mind” (1977) were. Morganfitzp (talk) 11:04, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

If the article for Zombiecore still exists, I think it should be fused into this article as a sub-article, as it refers to the horror themed Thrashcore bands like Send More Paramedics and Zombie Apocalypse, and its a pet name for a similar genre too small to be its own thing. Basically its Horror Hardcore, and fast.

It is its own genre. By ur theory horror punk should be fused with punk. Zombiecore needs to be expanded though--Slogankid 07:59, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Where did the horror punk sub-genres (horror Glam and Horror Hardcore), and list of bands go? This is inappropriate and destructive to the documentation of this musical style. There are bands that are intensified versions of Horror punk and there are those that are in the glamor style of this that use Glam Metal with Horror punk... Help make this article be like it was, a well made article that had the appropriate stylings. it was nice.198.189.164.206 16:59, 9 May 2006 (UTC)CRC

Horror Hardcore is known as Zombiecore. These genres were probably deleted by the same vandals who deleted zombiecore--Slogankid 07:00, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Horror hardcore and zombiecore are not the same, both term comes from different backgrounds and both are represented by different bands. Their only connection is that on both genres the bands that played it for the firs time and used term had (or were) crossover thrash. --190.72.148.168 (talk) 02:41, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Only one dead link was added, the horrorcore punk link, which I've removed. As for my "opinion"...

Some bands incorporate influences from heavy metal and gothic rock, and prefer the label horror rock, such as the Murderdolls.

As you can see, my "opinion" does not go "against what the article says in the first section." The article clearly states some bands are influenced by these genres and prefer the horror rock label. 69.241.216.151 03:57, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

• There were actually two dead links; one was for a band that doesn't have its own article. I deleted the sentence about horror rock, because if those bands aren't horror punk, they don't belong in this article. I also did some other copy editing, to link words, improve wording and improve formatting. For example, there is no need to write the phrase "genre of music" when there is a perfectly good term and article title called music genre. There is also no need to duplicate a list of notable bands here, since that's what List of horror punk bands is for. I'm also not sure why you deleted links from the See also section, since all of those articles are at least somewhat related to the topic. I restored those links.Spylab 11:53, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

The band link, "Calabrese (band)", should have been "Calabrese." Calabrese has other meanings, and because of this, I assumed the group's page was "Calabrese (band)."

Response to: "I deleted the sentence about horror rock, because if those bands aren't horror punk, they don't belong in this article. I also did some other copy editing, to link words, improve wording and improve formatting. For example, there is no need to write the phrase "genre of music" when there is a perfectly good term and article title called music genre. "

I see nothing wrong with your edits.

Response to: "There is also no need to duplicate a list of notable bands here, since that's what List of horror punk bands is for."

The list was of key horror punk bands, not notable bands. I don't mind it being removed, though.

Response to: "I'm also not sure why you deleted links from the See also section, since all of those articles are at least somewhat related to the topic. I restored those links."

The removed links can be found in the intro and "Horror punk fashion." 199.4.147.2 15:40, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

I've removed death rock, heavy metal, and goth rock because, as the article said, "Some bands incorporate influences from heavy metal and gothic rock, and prefer the label horror rock." The Misfits were not influenced by heavy metal or death rock, and the only album with a goth rock or post-punk influence is the Cough/Cool EP; released before they became a punk rock band. 68.47.81.164 07:36, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

goth rock, deathrock and post-punk came out later than horror punk.So they cannot be seen as its stylistic origins.Please stop adding them. Xr 1 (talk) 21:55, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

What about psychobilly? I ehar lots of psychobilly influence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.213.217.47 (talk) 03:03, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Psychobilly also cames before horror punk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.108.149.206 (talk) 06:46, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• According to their Wikipedia articles, The Misfits (band) — the first horror punk band — started in 1977, and The Meteors — the first psychobilly band — started in 1980. Therefore, horror punk came before psychobilly. Perhaps you mean rockabilly was an influence on horror punk. Spylab (talk) 14:42, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• But the meteor's were NOT the first Psychobilly band! What about the cramps? They were merely the first band to use the term psychobilly. The actual style has been around for ages.

Besides, the Misfit's first album is labeled as Psychobilly here (or at least last time I checked) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.115.31.73 (talk) 19:40, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

• Follow-up - Johnny Cash, in 1976, before punk even existed, used the term Psychobilly AND played it 9since it was clearly a faster, more intense Rockabilly) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.115.31.73 (talk) 19:43, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

The Misfits 'Earth A.D.' Album was influenced by Motörhead, and therefore the horror rock label from the gothic rock and heavy metal influences is valid.

Eventhough it's nice to see a picture on this page, shouldn't it be a picture of a band thats actually pláying horrorpunk? If it would just be about the looks we could even post pictures of icp or gwar, but it's not. Anyway, I don't know much about adding pics so could somebody do this? Cyanid 07:36, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

i think there's an obvious tie between horror punk and post punk, (argued by the fact that both "movements" approached the dark aspect and that both spanned from punk during the same period), but i'm not sure which influenced the other. i'm inclining to think that post punk is more of an umbrella term which includes horror punk. is anyone here better documented than i that can illuminate me on the subject? IleanaCosanziana 13:06, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I think post-punk is more of a genre that was influenced by deathrock instead (thus therefor share the same dark aspects). Its indeed an umbrella term, but doesnt really include most styles that were directly influenced by early punk (such as hardcore and anarcho). Cyanid 22:16, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

nope. it can't be. post-punk can't be influenced by deathrock, as the first one refers to anything that came after punk, was dark, introspective, etc, and as the later one refers only to whatever was sung in the late 70's and early 80's in the West Coast of the United States, was dark and had punk origins, etc. i stand by my statement: post punk is an umbrella term and should include horror punk as a sub category. now all i have to do is find people who were weird enough to dedicate time into writing something that can be used as wikireference. (and, yes, you are right about post punk not including everything that spanned from punk, but horror punk is not just "anything that spanned from punk". it has another common trait with post punk: the introspective, dark quality) IleanaCosanziana 20:46, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

If we were to include every post-70s band with an introspective dark quality, we'd be making one helluva list:P Anyways, the 'post' in postpunk means after-punk and the misfits were already active in the first wave of punk (while the term of post-punk originated around 1980) so i wouldn't say that horror punk is a form of post-punk. I know that post-punk and deathrock are a bit different, but they both share a common thing that horrorpunk does nót which is the often used synthesizer and drum machine, while horrorpunk concentrates more on a hardcore-style of playing and is generally louder and faster than any of the bands that would be in the post-punk style.Cyanid 19:56, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to add a section on "horror hardcore" (Dwid Hellion's term), which applies horror punk to thrash and later metalcore, and includes Septic Death and Integrity.

Does anyone have any objections or feelings on this? 67.191.153.112 (talk) 01:54, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Zipoleighter (talk) 21:26, 27 November 2009 (UTC) Why in the world are the Crtamps not even mentioned in this article, at least as progenitors? Their article clearly states they are a punk band (I know this can be disputed) and they use horror films as one of their main subjects? And what could be more horrific than the spectre of Brian Gregory? Someone who really knows, please comment?

I agree that the Cramps can be seen as related to Horror Punk, but as far as I know bands like the Cramps and the Damned have mostly been an influence to the genre, but they never belonged to it. Cyanid (talk) 10:31, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Lux from the Cramps did say in interviews that he hates "the horror punk shit" it's the worst stuff with the worst lyrics he did ever heard.. and so on.. . The Cramps (Lux and Ivy also did not like what became psychobilly.. check interviews! they see themselves as a Rock'n'Roll band influenced by the Blues!

He didn't say 'horror punk' shit, he said 'psychobilly shit'.

I have changed Misfits to The Misfits, put AFI albums in italics, delinked Ripper and created references section. I also corrected majuscules, punctuation and typos. See diff here. Nite-Sirk (talk) 17:49, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

The section comparing goth and horror punk is really confusing. The section needs to be more fleshed out to explain random terms dropped in like “proto-goth” in reference to the misfits. It says the two genres are different but fails to necessarily explain why. 2603:6010:11F0:3C0:20F0:C0F6:B5FD:F02B (talk) 00:00, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Seems not good sources out there regarding the origins of this genre, but I found someone saying Screaming Dead was the band who coined the term horror punk, it seems that horror punk might have been outgrowth of deathrock in the early 1980s, with the term being coined sometime in that scene, then retroactively applied to bands like the Cramps and Misfits later on. But I'll have to find more sources to prove this claim. At the moment, the closest thing I've got is Roky Erickson coining the term "horror rock" on public access TV in 1980: I can't send YouTube links apparently but at 3:56 of a video entitled "Roky Erickson 1980" you hear it. The sources I added to the article also mention it. Aradicus77 (talk) 17:24, 25 July 2025 (UTC)

If there isn't references discussing the coining of "horror punk" then should there really be an etymology section? The coining of "horror rock" doesn't have much if any relevance to horror punk other than including "horror" in the name of a rock genre. Googling that term comes up with very few reliable sources and even less relating the term to horror punk: VH1's horror rock a-z only lists rock bands with horror themes (as disparate as Kiss and Obituary). There's a section of Hardcore California: A History of Punk and New Wave from 1983 discussing what they call the "horror rock scene", but that is definitely what is now called deathrock. There's also Ozzy using the term in this Spin article from 1986, in reference to when Black Sabbath wrote their eponymous song. Either way, all these sources are discussing topics WP:OOS for this article. The AP article saying Erickson is a precursor has some relevance, but even then, horror punk still existed when that debut solo album was released. Issan Sumisu (talk) 17:49, 25 July 2025 (UTC)

I know RateYourMusic isn't the most reputable source but they list "horror rock" as an AKA of horror punk, they list some sources in their genre pages so I'll look through that also to see where they got that from. Aradicus77 (talk) 17:01, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

Yeah since you named Hardcore California discussing a "horror rock" scene which later became deathrock, that does seem like proof of the term originating from there. The thing is "Horror punk" seems to be a retroactive label. When the Cramps and Misfits started in the late 70s, no one was calling their music "horror punk". But just punk rock, or a bit later "psychobilly". It doesn't seem there's a lot of sources naming them "horror-punk" until the early 1990s with that Guardian source I cited. It seems at the time the closest thing was some of these bands being labelled "horror rock" which is why I added the Erickson source. And it seems it might have been an early aka of the genre, similar to what "new musick" is to "post-punk". But I'll have to find more sources to confirm that. Aradicus77 (talk) 17:04, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

I also don't see how the Ozzy article is out of scope, Black Sabbath are already mentioned in the article as early progenitors in the sense that they were rock bands influenced by horror-based media. Aradicus77 (talk) 17:06, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

I read the passage and it stated the Cramps as horror rock, which are considered pioneers of horror punk in this article Aradicus77 (talk) 21:01, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

It's out of scope because this isn't an article on horror-influenced rock, that article is shock rock. Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information, the term "horror rock" can be relevant if there is actual sources discussing the two terms as being connected, but being rock with horror themes is not directly relevant to the article, so should be kept to a minimum. Claiming it's relevant because one source says a certain band influenced the genre or is a part of it, while a second source uses the term violates WP:SYNTH. As of now the etymology section includes only one sentence that is actually in scope, and even that is bordering on WP:OR because it's implying that article was the first use of the term.

RYM wikis are WP:USERGENERATED, and if you check the meta comments on that wiki, it cites Wikipedia as a source for the aka, making it WP:CIRCULAR. Also, The Cramps are not called a pioneer in the article, they are called a precursor, it would be very WP:FRINGE to call them horror punk. Issan Sumisu (talk) 16:09, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

Since you mentioned Screaming Dead, this article states Screaming Dead are often credited with coining the term “horror punk” in early ads for their label, and then includes an ad for their "Valley of the Dead" single from 1982 which includes "horror punk" in its largest font size. As far as I can find, this is the best source, but it should definitely still mention that even the source isn't sure if that actually is the first use. Also, issue two of MMR (also from 1982) uses the term "shock horror punk" in reference to the band Seditionaries, with the caveat that this is an amendment of their previous issue where Seditionaries were reviewed because they mistakenly used the term "shock humour punk". Issan Sumisu (talk) 17:46, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

That seems to be a good source. I'll incorporate that and place more emphasis on Screaming Dead, but still feel there has to be some sort of mention of horror rock in there. At least not as a massive thing but just as a mention as these are practically referring to the same developments. Given Screaming Dead coined it in 1982. There's no way that "horror punk" was used prior, but artists like Roky Erickson were seemingly going in that direction as "precursors". Just like how bands like the Stooges weren't calling their music punk at the time but were later referred to as punk. I see no issue with this kind of inclusion because I cited: https://www.altpress.com/best-horror-punk-bands-misfits-alkaline-trio/

Which is a reputable source that cites Erickson as a precursor, so what is the issue? Aradicus77 (talk) 18:13, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

I also don't understand these rules like WP:SYNTH when its enforced here, but then I read a page like Deathrock and there's a section that makes an argumentative essay type statement not lifting from any journalists who pointed towards these conclusions:

"The term later re-emerged to describe the sound of various West Coast punk bands. It most likely came from one of three sources: Rozz Williams, the founding member of Christian Death, to describe the sound of his band; the music press, reusing the 1950s term to describe an emerging subgenre of punk; and/or Nick Zedd's 1979 film They Eat Scum, which featured a fictitious cannibalistic "deathrock" punk band called "Suzy Putrid and the Mental Deficients." Aradicus77 (talk) 18:19, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

And the wiki page you linked said you should specifically state that its the source making these claims not you, which is pretty much what I've done here. Original research is making statements with no sources, or like you said synthesis just connecting dots to make one conclusive statement. I took sources and relayed what they said that's how most of Wikipedia works. It's just relays of secondary sources. I'm not sure how that's original research. But I hope I'm not coming across as hostile. I've trimmed the section as best as I can to not make it seem like original research. Aradicus77 (talk) 18:25, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

The section on deathrock you pointed to doesn't reach a conclusion based on more than one source. The part about the possible origins for how the California punky goth scene became known as "deathrock" is attributed to Defining Cult Movies, which states those all as possibilities. The part about it "re-emerging" is attributed to The Goth Bible, which references how the term was used earlier (without expanding upon that point), then explains its current usage, the prior paragraph being examples of how it was used earlier. There's no new conclusions being reached because each of these pieces of information is stated directly in the sources and are discussing the same topic. Whereas, the statement about Erickson merges one source (from AP) that states Erickson's music was a precursor to horror punk; then a separate source saying he coined the term "horror rock". The AP source makes no reference to horror rock, the Quietus sources makes no reference to horror punk. Deciding that both those sources together means "horror rock" is related to horror punk in any etymological sense is WP:OR, because these sources make no reference that are discussing the same topic outside of being about Erickson. If this Erickson statement were to be written to avoid WP:SYNTH using both sources it could read as Erickson's music was a precursor to horror punk due to it merging elements of horror and rock[AP cite], Erickson referred to his music as "horror rock"[Quietus cite]. This acknowledges what information originates from which source, while the current wording presents it as if all three sources cited include both pieces of information. However, even then the second statement has questionable relevance, and would be better suited on Erickson's own article. Issan Sumisu (talk) 20:00, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

Also, the fact that the etymology section now acknowledges that horror rock was used to refer to deathrock, but never horror punk, seems to disprove its relevance to this article entirely. Issan Sumisu (talk) 20:10, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

I see, I'll incorporate what you've mentioned now. Aradicus77 (talk) 11:45, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

You're actually right. This source that talks about horror rock history points to it being more related to shock rock as you noted before https://sccompassnews.com/3003/showcase/the-pioneers-of-horror-rock/ Aradicus77 (talk) 11:50, 28 July 2025 (UTC)