13 Songs To Celebrate Friday The 13th

As you're no doubt aware, today is Friday 13th – the unluckiest day of the year! So stop walking under ladders and staring at singular magpies like it means nothing, EVERYTHING IS GOING TO GO WRONG! Apparently. If you are the superstitious type, here's 13 songs to remind you of how f***ed you are today.

Motörhead – Ace Of Spades

The ace of spades has been feared as a harbinger of death ever since the mid-18th century, when it was used by Caribbean pirates to condemn a traitor (the card's single black spot indicating that the recipient was "on the spot," i.e. in trouble). The superstition took a further twist as a psychological operation of the Vietnam War, when US military took to scattering these 'death cards' on Viet Cong corpses.

Mercyful Fate – Curse Of The Pharaohs

Although some Egyptian tombs had curses inscribed warning against disturbing the resting place of a pharaoh, this comparatively modern superstition gained currency from the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, after which some members of the expedition died 'mysterious' deaths. As King Diamond warns, "Now if you're breakin' the seals and disturbing the peace, then you're startin' up a curse, bringin' evil disease."

Candlemass – Crystal Ball

First song on the first demo by the Swedish doom pioneers, Crystal Ball is a childishly simplistic description of the superstitious art of glimpsing the future in a translucent spheroid (still a favourite prop of bogus funfair fortune-tellers). The song also references the 'Talisman Of Seth', a reference to Satan's mummified penis in Dennis Wheatley's occult opus The Devil Rides Out.

Megadeth – Bad Omen/I Ain't Superstitious

Songs like The Conjuring and Five Magics suggest that superstitions have been a great source of inspiration to Dave Mustaine, but this craftily-sequenced one-two prove the importance of the theme. The sacrificial Satanic orgy of Bad Omen segues wryly into a rendition of bluesman Willie Dixon's I Ain't Superstitious, with Megadave sneering "Take your superstitions and find some other paranoidal, chicken-shit sissy worm and tell it to him."

Cacophony – Black Cat

"Sleek and shiny, dark and fast, never let it cross your path" insist this neoclassical quintet, sheltering within their ranks an uncommonly gifted brace of guitar prodigies: Marty Friedman and Jason Becker. "Don't mess with the black cat if you believe in superstition," the song continues, whereupon it's clear these Californian shred-heads were a lot better at guitar playing than writing lyrics.

Iron Maiden – Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

The title itself is a dead giveaway; the whole album is virtually a celebratory compendium of old-school superstitions and supernatural folklore. Among the spiritualist tropes so crucial to the album's concept are such hardy perennials as dream divination (Infinite Dreams), scrying (Can I Play With Madness), astrology (Moonchild), numerology, faith healing, extrasensory perception, precognition and clairvoyance (passim).

Read more at TeamRock.com