Chilling Songs About Serial Killers, Take 5

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Chilling Songs About Serial Killers, Take 5 🎧 presents 15 more songs capturing the horror of serial killers.

How can some people be so cold-hearted and evil? That is the question that is often asked about serial killers. Serial killers both disgust the world as well as fascinate the world. The reason for the fascination is because it’s tough to believe anyone could be so disturbed and go to such measures to end innocent lives. The perversions of these killers have inspired numerous books, films, and music. Today, we’ll explore just a small sliver of songs about serial killers. Here are 15 MORE Chilling Songs About Serial Killers (Take 5).

1. Flotsam & Jetsam, “She Took an Axe”

Doomsday for the Deceiver • 1986

Killer Referenced: Lizzie Borden

Phoenix thrash metal band Flotsam & Jetsam definitely don’t have kind words to describe purported serial killer Lizzie Borden. In their 1986 song “She Took an Axe,” they characterize Borden as being twisted, deceptive, and in cahoots with the devil.

“A young maiden with a demon in her soul
A twisted mind with secrets to unfold
An innocent face, a deceiving smile
Under no suspicion, servant to Belial.”

Obviously, the axe was indeed the weapon of choice for Borden, who was acquitted of murdering her parents in 1892.

“Lizzy Borden took an axe
Gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one
Now before the jury with a solemn face
These legendary murders, she left not a trace
Lizzy found it so simple to take their lives
Today she walks free with her axe by her side.”

2. Macabre, “Acid Bath Vampire”

Murder Metal • 2003
Killer Referenced: John George Haigh

“You will die by surprise / When I take your life I will smile.” Macabre kills it when it comes to writing and performing songs about serial killers and mass murderers. Safe to say, these deviants are fuel for their creative fire. On “Acid Bath Vampire,” Macabre tackles English serial killer John George Haigh, an evil, greedy ‘son-of-a-gun’ who killed so he could collect money from the victims.

“John George Haigh was a vampire
Who drank old ladies blood
Then put them in a non-corrosive drum
And with acid he'd dissolve them.”

Oh yes, how could we forget to mention that Haigh indeed dissolved the corpses in acid!

“Now that you're dead
In a metal drum you'll stay
I pump the acid in
To melt your corpse away.”

3. Whitechapel, “The Somatic Defilement”

The Somatic Defilement • 2007

Killer Referenced: Jack the Ripper

“Captivating with sadistic intentions to exalt the carrion / Holding onto faith like it would help me anyway / Up on my feet. Vehemence takes over as I pave the way to anatomical feast / Severing the ties I once endured to understand why it is that I crave the dead…”

Jack the Ripper is known for the Whitechapel murders. Fittingly, Tennessee metal band Whitechapel fittingly tackle Jack the Ripper throughout the course of their debut album, The Somatic Defilement, which was released in 2007. Like we envision The Ripper to be himself, Whitechapel deliver a heaping dose of hellishness throughout the course of the title track.

“I find a sense in mal-practicing the common ways
Wallowing in claret. I long for such salvation
For when I’m through. I shall wear you pride upon my lips Songs of the dead will eternally be chanted...”

Like many metal bands, they get specific with the blackness. Here, that blackness is the abuse of The Ripper, and it’s gross to the nth degree.

“An injection of sodium thiopental applied
Your eyes are getting heavy now. I smell your fear
Delusions and paranoia are setting in
Control in my hands. I now shall purge
With the saw I maim. By the saw I live
Inhaling fumes of the putrid festered funk
As I drain the throbbing cysts from the gangrenous vagina 
The Mordant reek is overtaking every inhalation
The nausea is overwhelming. I stop to heave...”

Also Appears On 🔽:

🔗 🎧 12 Songs About Jack the Ripper

4. Royce Da 5’9”, “Lyrical Hitman (Richard Kuklinsky)”

Ft. Marv Won

Bar Exam 3 (The Most Interesting Man) • 2010

Killer Referenced: Richard Kuklinsky

“Lyrical Hitman (Richard Kuklinsky)” opens with an intro that sheds some light about serial killer, Richard Kuklinsky.

“‘He murdered sometimes months apart, years apart
He used different methods
He would go so far as to plan…the actual deceit of law enforcement
He would murder someone
Cut their body, wrap them in layer after layer of plastic bags and material
Then deposit the body many, many miles from the murder scene.”

Hmm, Mr. Kuklinsky sounds like a horrible human being. Rapper Royce da 5’9” puts his stamp on “Lyrical Hitman,” proclaiming himself to be a “lyrical hitman.”

“This the homicide, sodomy of course
Mobb Deep, like I got Havoc and Prodigy support
I’ma be dope until they find me as a corpse
You can roll your weed up in my Toxicology report
You can call me Kuklinsky, Iceman for short
And I got dead rapper’s pens in my icebox
After they act hard I lyrically kill ‘em then I bury their notebooks in my backyard...”

The song concludes with an outro about the horrific serial killer.

5. Randy Newman, “In Germany Before the War”

Little Criminals • 1977

Killer Referenced: Peter Kürten

Randy Newman is a marvelous musician through and through. While his distinct, expressive voice is fantastic in itself, his songwriting may very well be his best attribute. One of his most beautiful songs is “In Germany Before the War,” appearing on his 1977 album, Little Criminals. Unfortunately, the source of inspiration for the record isn’t beautiful. Newman based this particular song on the crimes committed by a serial killer in the 1931 film M.

“In German before the war
There was a man who owned a store
In nineteen hundred thirty-four
In Düsseldorf...”

However, part of the inspiration behind the film was a real-life German serial killer named Peter Kürten. Kürten has been nicknamed The Vampire of Düsseldorf as well as the Düsseldorf Monster.

“A little girl has lost her way
With hair of gold and eyes of gray
Reflected in his glasses
As he watches her
A little girl has lost her way
With hair of gold and eyes of gray...
We lie beneath the autumn sky
My little golden girl and I
And she lies very still.”

6. Overkill, “Hello from the Gutter”

Under the Influence • 1988

Killer Reference: David Berkowitz (Son of Sam)

David Berkowitz isn’t a good man…or at least he wasn’t in the late 1970s. Berkowitz is best known as the Son of Sam, a New York serial killer who is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment for his pointless murders. According to a 2017 CBS News documentary, Son of Sam | The Killer Speaks, Berkowitz asserts, “There was a battle going on inside of me.” That’s an understatement to say the least.

But, this isn’t about the biography of Berkowitz but rather about a musical telling of his cruelty and compromised mental state. Overkill does a fine job of capturing Son of Sam, naming “Hello from the Gutter” after the title of an editorial about the serial killer written by journalist Jimmy Breslin. Overkill speak about the victims broken dreams at the hands of the demented, nonsensical murderer.

“Gutter child, sweet sixteen
Broadway stars that have never been
All those dreams and broken glass
Swept down the sewer
With the rest of the trash
Here’s a little story that we live to tell
Hello from the gutter
Hello from our little Hell.”

7. Travis Scott, “The Ends”

Ft. André 3000

Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight • 2016

Killer Referenced: Wayne Williams

Wayne Williams makes his first appearance on one of our serial killer playlists. It’s been a long-time coming for the purported Atlanta child murderer. This particular case wasn’t completely conclusive, but there’s evidence that supports Williams is “not that innocent,” at least in regards to the two deaths that earned him life imprisonment.

While Travis Scott serves as the lead artist on “The Ends,” it is André 3000 who earns this song a spot on this playlist. He references the infamous Atlanta Child Murders on the second verse.

“I came up in the town, they were murderin’ kids
And dumped them in the creek up from where I live
Bodies, bodies, bodies sprinkled around
We runnin’ through the sprinkler lookin’ around
Killer would show up with boxes of pizza
And said he had a label recruitin’ people
Put that on my grandma and everythin’
My homie said he told ‘em his name was Wayne.”

8. The Rolling Stones, “Too Much Blood”

Undercover • 1983

Killer Referenced: Issei Sagawa

“I can feel it everywhere / Feel it up above / Feel the tension in the air / There is too much blood!” Ah, we welcome another newbie on this playlist. No, it’s not The Rolling Stones, who previously serenaded us with “Midnight Rambler” about The Boston Strangler. It’s Issei Sagawa, a murderer and a cannibal. While Sagawa lacks the body count of many of the killers that grace this list, he’s incredibly disturbing nonetheless. He infamously killed and cannibalized a Dutch woman. Gross. Leave it to The Rolling Stones to impart the tale through “Too Much Blood.”

“A friend of mine was this Japanese
He had a girlfriend in Paris
He asked to date her in six months
And eventually, she said yes
You know?
Took her to his apartment, cut off her head
Put the rest of her body in the refrigerator, ate her piece by piece
Put her in the refrigerator, put her in the freezer
And when he ate her
Took her bones to the Bois de Boulogne
By chance, a taxi driver noticed him
Burying the bones
You don't believe me?
Truth is stranger than fiction
We drive through there every night!”

9. Benediction, “Down on Whores”

The Dreams You Dread • 1995

Killer Referenced: Jack the Ripper

“Take the eyes, take the head, leave them all for dead!” What a statement British death metal band Benediction makes about women, in the context of serial killer Jack the Ripper and their song, “Down on Whores.” To reiterate for the millionth time, the women that Jack killed in 1888 were indeed prostitutes, often referred to as whores. Throughout “Down on Whores,” that exactly how Dave Ingram references them too.

“May comes and goes in the dark of the night
He kisses the whores and gives them a fright
And the Doctors will get all the blame
But it's only May playing his dirty game.”

Ingram and Benediction accurately reference Jack writing about his crimes, even if his identity was never revealed.

“When I cut her
Kissed for a while
Shall I write and tell them
Peace of mind.”

Unfortunately, there was no “peace of mind” during the span of the murders.

“Left her for dead
There was thrill
All whores feel the shining knife.”

Also Appears On 🔽:

🔗 🎧 12 Songs About Jack the Ripper

10. The Black Dahlia Murder, “The Window”

Ritual • 2011

Killer Referenced: Gilles de Rais

“Bless all Earth’s most precious children with my blackened love insane.” Throughout the course of our true crime playlists, we’ve covered Elizabeth Báthory, one of the earliest serial killers. Now, we take it back pre-countess with Gilles de Rais. De Rais is notable in history for fighting alongside Joan of Arc. Unfortunately, he is also notable because he was a convicted pedophilic serial killer. He not only killed innocent children, but the pervert sodomized them. The Black Dahlia Murder captures his perverseness exceptionally on “The Window.”

“I sodomize the young and dying
Sick hunger is my vice— my lust
To drip my rotten seed upon their cooling flesh, so fare Of their gurgled screams, I could never hear enough
Bless their puny hearts and their sweet naiveties
Praise those little lemmings, but rats unto the piper
Bless those putrid beasts— their innocence, my blade's eager to meet
May my song of hatred lead them forever downward.”

11. Church of Misery, “Where Evil Dwells (Richard Ramirez)”

Early Works Compilation • 2011

Killer Referenced: Richard Ramirez

“Angry white male’s revel / Hungry for your pain / Make you bleed I just want to / At my feet, you’ll die.” Serial killer enthusiasts and Japanese metal collective Church of Misery is a perfect match to tackle the satanic monster, Richard Ramirez. The do just that on “Where Evil Dwells.”

“Hail Satan
See my left palm
Pentagram.”

Despite being a handsome dude, the stud wasn’t called “the night stalker” for nothing. There was NOTHING beautiful about Ramirez on the inside. He died in 2013, of natural causes, while on death row.

“Angry white male killer
Beware, lock up your window
Unlocked door I’m looking for
I’ll take your life away.”

12. Prince, “Annie Christian”

Controversy • 1980

Killer Referenced: Wayne Williams

Wayne Williams doesn’t do too badly for himself for his first appearance on one of our serial killer playlists, earning two entries. This time, the late, great Prince tackles the infamous Atlanta child murderer on his 1980 song, “Annie Christian.” No worries though.

Prince doesn’t give Williams too much fame – just a couple of key lines:

“So, she moved to Atlanta and she bought a blue car
She killed black children, and what’s fair is fair
If you try and say you’re crazy, everybody say electric chair
Electric chair.”

13. Kamelot, “The Zodiac”

Poetry for the Poisoned • 2010

Killer Referenced: The Zodiac Killer

“Shattered memories / Of quiet cold rejection / A careful devil’s irony / In pure perfection / In pure deceit.” How poetic and of course, deadly. Anyways, Kamelot is back…on our serial killer playlists that is! The metal collective did an impeccable job portraying the twistedness of one Elizabeth Báthory on “Elizabeth.” This time, they focus on the infamous Zodiac Killer.

The Zodiac Killer has a certain mystique – we don’t know who he is/was. But, young couples were among the victims.

“You ask me
Was it all I had to tell?
Was it all I could recall?
No...then I broke her neck
A twisted china white façade
I may seem unaffected
But don’t we all want to be God?”

14. Morrissey, “Jack the Ripper”

World of Morrissey • 1995

Killer Referenced: Jack the Ripper

Interestingly, “Jack the Ripper” isn’t the first musical encounter Morrissey has experienced with serial killers. Back in 1984, as the frontman of The Smiths, he sang “Suffer Little Children,” a song about Ian Brady & Myra Hindley. Lyrically, Morrissey eerily captures the perversion of Jack.

To his victim, The Ripper says:

“Crash into my arms
I want you
You don't agree
But you don't refuse
I know you.”

He continues on in darkness, asserting his intentions for his victim. He seems to play up the fact that she’s a prostitute, hence, she’s “low on the totem pole.” He notes her tiredness, but the sleep he has in mind is deadly.

“And I know a place
Where no-one is likely to pass
Oh, you don't care if it's late
And you don't care if you're lost
And oh, you look so tired
But tonight you've presumed too much
Too much, too much
And if it's the last thing I ever do
I'm gonna get you.”

Morrissey nails the stealth and invincibility of Jack the Ripper.

“And no one knows a thing about my life
I can come and go as I please
If I want to I can stay
Or if I want to I can leave
Nobody knows me, nobody knows me.”

Also Appears On 🔽:

🔗 🎧 12 Songs About Jack the Ripper

15. White Lung, “Sister”

Paradise • 2016

Killer Referenced: Karla Homolka (Paul Bernardo)

“We were from the same womb.” Karla Homolka isn’t the first serial killer that comes to mind. Furthermore, she isn’t the first female serial killer that comes to mind. Likely, Aileen Wuornos, Elizabeth Báthory, and Nannie Doss get the nod first. Nonetheless Karla, and her husband, Paul Bernardo, managed to infuse more unnecessary evil, specifically death in the world. The Canadian serial killer was convicted of manslaughter for her three murders (cue up the eye rolls), of which her hubby also raped the victims. Disturbingly, now free, in 2017, she was volunteering at a Montreal elementary school.

White Lung captures the murderous incidents from the perspective of Homolka on “Sister.” Why is the song titled sister? Well, Karla’s sister, Tammy, was one of the victims…

“You’ll burn a bit, my little sister
He’ll drop and taste the best of you
He will cement you into garbage
I swear I miss all of you.”

“Collapse your brain into rivers
My heart is pure, vain surprise
He swore he loved only the back of you
I choked and bathed in the lie.”

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Chilling Songs About Serial Killers, Take 5 | Playlist 🎧

Published by the musical hype on November 3, 2017November 3, 2017