By Jesse Cataldo

It is a well-proven fact that Halloween is the second greatest of all holidays. In fact, statistics show it placing just behind Christmas, with a lead of a few percentage points over National Sandwich Day (Nov. 3, mark your calendars). But what about the music? Halloween has possibly the weakest musical accompaniment of any holiday. So exactly what music do you play to commemorate All Hallow’s Eve? The Misfits? Too cartoonish. Danzig? Too muscular, too homoerotic. The Great Pumpkin Waltz? Not scary enough. But wait! Before you resign yourself to playing a copy of Spooky Sounds And Creepy Noises over a repeating loop of Thriller, realize that there is hope.

With their latest album They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, Liars have answered the call, providing the perfect soundtrack for the Halloween festivities, complete with screeching feedback, chanted refrains, and lyrics rife with macabre imagery.

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is a loosely constructed concept album based around the witch burnings of the 16th and 17th century, and their relation to political injustices and social discrimination of today. Their sound has grew from their previous release, as the band has dropped the funky bass and faux British accents for a darker sound, more reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle and the late 70s industrial movement than anything by Gang of Four.

One of the most notable tracks is the ambient piece “Read The Book That Wrote Itself.” The song is a brilliant example of sound-play reminiscent of Coil’s “Musick To Play In The Dark.” Like a gothic novel, it opens over the sound of the ocean and the furious scribbling of a pencil, starts to build up with up with a tribal sounding drum beat, and then fades back into quiet.

Overall, the biggest strength of the album is its ability to sound dark without being dreary, to be scary without sounding silly. They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is the equivalent of your eighth grade Halloween dance, if it was Djed by Peter Murphy, Vincent Price and that sailor guy from the Village People. All that’s missing is the cover of “The Monster Mash.”