Horror Synth

Horror synth is an electronic style built from the vocabulary of horror film scoring, above all the Italian giallo and progressive-rock soundtracks of *Goblin* and the synthesizer scores of *John Carpenter*. It favours analog and early-digital synthesizer timbres — detuned arpeggios, droning bass, dissonant stabs — arranged into slow, processional instrumentals or, in its synthwave wing, driving sequenced beats. Largely instrumental and circulated through soundtrack culture, reissue labels and the darksynth scene, horror synth treats dread as its primary material, evoking slashers, haunted houses and cosmic horror without recourse to lyrics.