Now that Halloween season is over, it feels a little empty playing eerie soundtracks and revisiting favorite nightmares. The atmosphere just isn't quite there. But that's easily fixed, and few things build atmosphere more deftly than music. I've spent improper amounts of time trying to find artists who evoke the spirit of horror and Gothic fiction, but since music isn't a narrative genre by definition, it can be a nebulous process. Some musicians just go perfectly with certain storytellers, though. Here are five performers who complement a few of my favorite authors scarily well:

Clive Barker and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Both hailing from England and rising to fame in the same decade, Barker and Cave seem like a duo destined for emotional evisceration. Barker’s stories evoke an urban landscape that's gritty and hard, but also full of transcendent wonder. His language is high, poetic, and epic...