Old-fashioned pipe organs playing minor-key melodies have their place, but let’s just admit that spending All Hallow’s Eve listening to “The Monster Mash” is no way to party.

Not when the freakiest of all holidays has inspired tunes more twisted than “Thriller” — all due respect to the late Mr. Jackson.

Scarier still are goth rock, death metal and acid rap. So here’s a playlist for aurally adventurous Halloween revelers.

* “Mother,” Danzig: After the Misfits disbanded, Glenn Danzig embarked on a weight-lifting, black metal career. “Mother” is familiar to so many because it’s flat-out Danzig’s best moment; slamming power chords, restrained drumming and the man’s possessed vocal wail. Available on: “Danzig (1988).

* “Paint it Black,” The Rolling Stones: Others might name “Sympathy for the Devil,” but this anthem gave an identity to goth before there was a goth. Plus, the boinging sitar and demanding beat makes it insistent and charging. A bleak party-starter. Available on: “Aftermath” (1966).

* “Burn,” The Cure: The original pale-faced, teased-hair, ambiguous freaks who defined goth, there must be a place for them somewhere on Halloween. Distant seagulls, feedback and that strange feel of openness and claustrophobia at the same time. Give Robert Smith (now rather fat and gross) his due. Available on: “The Crow” (1993).

* “Nightmare on My Street,” DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: The tale of a young Will Smith’s run-in with Freddy Krueger, this breezy and cheesy number will keep things fresh. 1988 fresh. When I first discovered rap, I devoted myself to recording this off the local top-40 radio station on a cassette boombox. When my efforts failed, my parents bought me “Parents Just Don’t Understand” on 10-inch vinyl. Wrong song, but I was happy. Available on: “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper.” (1988)

* “Black Angel Death Song,” The Velvet Underground: The penultimate song on the Velvets’ impossibly perfect 1967 debut marries the avant-garde viola of John Cage to detuned guitar for eerie dissonance. Lou Reed is in hellfire preacher mode. Available on: “The Velvet Underground & Nico” (1967).

* “The Boogie Monster,” Gnarls Barkley: Cee-Lo, the mad scientist of neo-soul, and Danger Mouse, the outlaw mashup producer made an inspired pairing. It bubbles to the top on “Boogie Monster,” on which Cee-Lo tells of the beast of the “living dead” that “waits ‘til the midnight hour to come to torture me.” Spooky. Available on: “St. Elsewhere” (2006)

* “Atrocity Exhibition,” Joy Division: The boys from Manchester were known for gloomy atmospherics. Lead singer Ian Curtis delivered morose lyrics in spooky monotone. Their second/final album opens with gnarly post-punk guitars and an account of a horrifying freak show with Curtis beckoning, “This is the way, step inside.” Available on: “Closer” (1980).

* “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles: The final track from “Revolver,” this is the Fab Four at their most psychedelic. With tape loops and Ringo Starr’s hallucinogenic drumming, “Tomorrow Never Knows” is almost clubby. Much of John Lennon’s singing comes straight from the Tibetan Book of the Dead: “Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream/It is not dying.” Available on: “Revolver” (1966).

* “There’s Always Room on the Broom,” Liars: Every track on Liars’ second album could fit on this list; it is a concept album about the Salem Witch Trials, after all. “There’s Always Room on the Broom” laces the doom with dance-punk rhythms and squelchy electronics. It may scare you, but it won’t stop the party. Available on: “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” (2004)

* “I Bleed,” the Pixies: “I Bleed” from 1989’s “Doolittle” combined an addictive, bobbing baseline with Joey Santiago’s signature searing guitars into a sublime sense of distress. Frank Black and Kim Deal share lead vocal duties: “All the while as vampires feed, I bleed.” Indeed. Available on “Doolittle” (1989).

* “Ghost Story,” Atlas Sound: A young boy reads a story about a ghost. Not particularly scary (in fact, it’s kinda cute), but when coupled with Bradford Cox’s echoing, feedbacky jams, the results are spooky. Like Ian Curtis, Cox knows about suffering. Marfan syndrome landed him long hospital stays, during which he honed his songcraft. Available on: “Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel” (2008).

* “Burn,” Nine Inch Nails: This track has all the menace of processed guitars and industrial bombast that NIN is known for. Trent Reznor conjures a truly frightening scream for the climax when he bellows: “I’m gonna burn this whole world dowwnnn!” Available on: “Natural Born Killers” (1994).

* “Searching for the Ghost,” Heartless Bastards: Erika Wennerstrom has a voice that can move mountains and her earnest songwriting on 2006’s “All This Time” improves by leaps and bounds over the Bastards’ debut. This song is not explicitly about ghosts, but about fleeting experiences that can never be recaptured. Available on: “All This Time” (2006).

* “Medley: X-Files Theme/The Extremely Stupid Files,” the Phantom Surfers: These surf-punks combined their knowledge of Fox TV’s supernatural drama, pop culture and irreverent humor to create this hilariously groovy spoof. Rev. Norb from fellow underground punksters Boris the Sprinkler does the vocals. Available on: “Great Surf Crash of ‘97” (1996).

* “Strange Apparition,” Beck: One of the better songs off of Beck’s overlooked 2006 album “The Information,” on which Mr. Hanson mined the folk-rap collages he created on “Mellow Gold” and “Odelay.” Good song and the title’s right for our purposes. Available on: “The Information” (2006).

* “Reverence,” The Jesus and Mary Chain: British Brothers Jim and William Reid were best drenched in feedback and looking bleak. “I wanna die just like Jesus Christ/I wanna die on a bed of spikes,” Jim sings. Morbidity and self-destruction have never sounded cooler. Available on: “Honey’s Dead” (1992).

* “Where Your Eyes Don’t Go,” They Might Be Giants: The narrator of “Where Your Eyes Don’t Go” is mocked by his own mortality, which appears in the form of a scarecrow. The verses capture TMBG at their most serious, but the witty wordplay remains intact: “Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn’t thinking isn’t thinking of.” Available on: “Lincoln” (1988).

* “On Our Own,” Bobby Brown: Is it fair to say Whitney and Bobby have become a horror show on the level of Sid & Nancy? Many a Halloween playlist will feature Ray Parker Jr.’s original “Ghostbusters” theme, but my party has the guts to play the pop crossover from the cash-grab sequel. Yeah, I just did that. Available on: “Ghostbusters II” (1989).