It’s Halloween weekend and there’s no shortage of new music, including a surprise covers EP from 90s industrial band Stabbing Westward.

While Rob Zombie made the headlines with the first single off his next album, Stabbing Westward is celebrating Halloweentime with Hallowed Hymns, an EP featuring four cover songs including original takes on The Cure’s “Burn”, Ministry’s “(Every Day Is) Halloween” and Echo & The Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon”.

“2020 has been a shit year. We were supposed to release our new album and tour the U.S. to support it. But clearly, that’s not happening,” said frontman Christopher Hall. “We know Halloween is different this year with no parties and no trick-or-treating so we wanted to give fans something special…something that will help tide you over until we can release some new music.”

Digital and physical copies are on sale here.

The 1990s are providing all sorts of treats this weekend with a handful of other notable releases, including:

• Puscifer – Existential Reckoning (Alchemy Recordings)

“Born somewhere in the Arizona desert, Puscifer is an electro-rock band, multimedia experience, traveling circus, and alien abduction survivors. The group’s catalog consists of three full-length studio albums—“V” is for Vagina [2007], Conditions of My Parole [2011], and Money Shot [2015]—in addition to a series of EPs and remixes. Beyond the core trio of Maynard James Keenan [vocals], Mat Mitchell [guitar, production], and Carina Round [vocals, songwriting], the group’s ever-evolving ecosystem encompasses a cast of characters such as Billy D and his wife Hildy Berger, Major Douche, Special Agent Dick Merkin, and many more. Meanwhile, the moniker’s origins can be traced to a 1995 episode of the HBO classic Mr. Show where Keenan first utilized the name “Puscifer.” Entertainment Weekly christened them, “Exceptionally groovy,” and Revolver fittingly described them as “indescribable.” Renowned for an immersive live show, the group’s performances blur the lines between concert and theater, traversing the dusty American Southwest with Billy D and Hildy or the sweaty squared circle with Luchadores. They’ve brought this to life everywhere from Coachella to Bonnaroo. On their 2020 debut for Alchemy Recordings/BMG, entitled Existential Reckoning, Puscifer track Billy D back to the desert and, just maybe, uncover the truth about aliens once and for all.”

• Mr. Bungle – The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo

“Not unlike most ‘80s thrash metal bands, Mr. Bungle was formed in an impoverished lumber and fishing town by a trio of curious, volatile teenagers. Trey Spruance, Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn beget the amorphous “band” in 1985 up in Humboldt County, Calif., sifting through a variety of members until around 1989 when they settled on a lineup that managed to get signed to Warner Bros. Records. No one really knows how this happened and it remains a complete mystery that even the algorithms of the internet can’t decode. Up until 2000 they released three albums, toured a good portion of the Western hemisphere and avoided any sort of critical acclaim. Some argue that the band subsequently broke up but there is also no proof of this. What is true is that they took 20 years off from performing under said moniker while they pursued various other musics that, in contrast, paid the rent. Though Bungle regularly amended and modified their orchestrations — incorporating such exotic instruments as the saxophone, synthesizer, or even timpani (!!!) — they maintained footing in the mosh pit of their youth and continued to reference metal in one way or another. Even in their last tours of the millennium they played songs from their very first demo, the self-produced, amateurish gem The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny (1986). The pull of returning to full-on metal was too strong to avoid and the idea arose to re-record that primal demo giving the music the much needed presentation and precision it deserved. Spruance, Patton & Dunn decided to go to the source, The Big Four of course, and hand-pick the two guys who could help them realize this body of work with the utmost brutality. Without hesitation, Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo (you may know their names from Anthrax and Slayer, respectively) were invited to get of off their poolside recliners and start speed-picking and double-bassing with these small town fan boys. They accepted and dove full force into the music like a skate punk dives into a wall of slam dancers. In 2020 the recording of The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny Demo was completed in about 10 days following a series of pre-COVID, sold out shows. Because this was a musical homecoming of 35 years, the relearning and re-recording felt brand new and was able to be enjoyed objectively, not to mention reinvigorated by the likes of the masters Ian and Lombardo. Mr. Bungle maintained the rawness and severity of the original demo without too much embellishment preferring to let the music speak for itself in all of its teenage-angst glory. In addition to what was on the original cassette-only release, three original songs from the same era were realized for the first time. With this new album, the first for the band in 20 years, Mr. Bungle has self-appointed themselves as the final puzzle piece in the pentagonal Big Five.”

• Pantera – Reinventing the Steel (20th Anniversary Edition)

A special edition of Pantera’s final album, Reinventing the Steel, has arrived in honor of its 20th anniversary. The three-CD set brings together a remastered version of the original LP, a new mix made by Terry Date, instrumental rough mixes of every song and covers of Black Sabbath (“Electric Funeral” and “Hole in the Sky”) and Ted Nugent (“Cat Scratch Fever”) songs. More details at UCR.

• Deftones – “Knife Prty” Purity Ring Remix from Black Stallion

The details have officially been unveiled for Deftones‘ 20th anniversary edition of their 2000 platinum-selling album White Pony, details theprp. In addition to the album itself, a companion remix album titled Black Stallion is included and it finds numerous guests putting new spins on tracks originally found on White Pony. The featured remix artists include: DJ Shadow, Phantogram, Robert Smith (The Cure), Purity Ring, Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park), Salva, Tourist ,Squarepusher, Blanck Mass, Trevor Jackson, and Clams Casino.

“Black Stallion” track listing:

01 – “Feiticeira” (Clams Casino remix)
02 – “Digital Bath” (DJ Shadow remix)
03 – “Elite” (Blanck Mass remix)
04 – “Rx Queen” (Salva remix)
05 – “Street Carp” (Phantogram remix)
06 – “Teenager” (Robert Smith remix)
07 – “Knife Prty” (Purity Ring remix)
08 – “Korea” (Trevor Jackson remix)
09 – “Passenger” (Mike Shinoda remix)
10 – “Change (In The House Of Flies)” (Tourist remix)
11 – “Pink Maggit” (Squarepusher remix)