History Main / HellIsThatNoise

* This Troper had been a metal fan for years, even death, black, and other "extreme" genres and still wasn't prepared for the unholy FUCK that is Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone. Then I heard their first album, which was almost creepier due to a tinge of Early Installment Weirdness. And then, oh dear god IOWA
** YMMV, as All Hope Is Gone is a relatively straightforward metal album by Slipknot standards, and largely free of the samples and sonic manipulation of early releases. The closing minutes of Iowa's title track, however, is almost entirely made up of Hell Is That Noise with a discordant bass riff for good measure.

* Music/{{Khanate}}. Dear God, KHANATE. Every "song" of theirs is completely demoralizing, specifically on their first album. Notorious examples of these would be the looping riff at the beginning of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIDP3-lPA_M&ab_channel=BeauJoshuaAmorDavidson Under Rotting Sky]] and the entirety of the depressing monstrosity [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo45E11AwsE&ab_channel=FreedomGrindFighter No Joy]]. This is as close to Hell as a human being will ever come to.

*** [[BlackSpeech PLEASE PLEASE]] [[MadnessMantra NO MORE BREATHE]]
* Prepare for the most spine chilling 7 minutes you will ever experience. Prepare yourself for Battle of Mice. The vocals are psychotic and distressing but worse still is the final two minutes of this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1CkdF7uoKk&ab_channel=DarthYoda song]] (You will be paranoid afterwards, guaranteed.)

* Anything by Music/BlutAusNord will automatically qualify

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', the Windswept Depths of Pandemonium is an Outer Plane associated with Chaotic Neutral and to a lesser extent Chaotic Evil. It got its name, ''windswept depths'', from the constant howling wind. The wind in Pandemonium never stops, and the incessant howling can cause deafness and insanity. Worse, there's a place in Pandemonium called Harmonica. There, the wind blows through stalactites and stalagmites riddled with holes, causing a sound so hellish it can cause people to simply drop dead.

What the [[TitleDrop hell is that noise?]] That noise is '''hell'''.

** It gets worse: Waters revived the Pict's vocal stylings for the schoolteacher from ''The Wall'' ten years later, and that guy sounds ''[[UpToEleven even more]]'' deranged and hellish.
*** Speaking of The Wall, the noises at the start of Empty Spaces, and the bridge in Hey You (with buzzing, dental-drill like noises) deserve an honourable mention, as does the absolutely batshit-insane megaphone speech at the end of "Waiting for the Worms." It's like a dramatic reading of WebOriginal/TimeCube that deteriorates into incoherent garble.

* Anything by Music/BlutArsNord will automatically qualify

* Anything by Music/BlutAsNord will automatically qualify

* Music/PinkFloyd's

* Music/{{Slipknot}} is usually quite tame for a band that many see as "extreme", but their album ''Iowa'' has two tracks that qualify for this trope: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr5spx6mmYQ&ab_channel=Slipknot (515)]] and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9PF09URHdQ&ab_channel=Slipknot title track]], with the closing minutes of said track being a nightmarish collage of sounds with a discordant bass riff for good measure.
* ''Music/{{Khanate}}''. Dear ''lord'' to they fit this trope to a T.

* Anything involving HarshNoise and [[{{Industrial}} Power Electronics]] automatically qualifies as this. Music/{{Whitehouse}} is infamous for this.

* Anything involving HarshNoise and [[{{Industrial}} Power Electronics]] automatically qualifies as this.
* Music/AnaalNathrakh is infamous for invoking this in their music. Have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS3xmhxhKS8&ab_channel=ThatWeirdGuy a]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCTXqi7NObQ&ab_channel=Papirkurven listen]].

* Anything involving HarshNoise automatically qualifies.

All pinball games have a [[MatchSequence Match Sequence]] in them and the noise when a number is matched is that knocker.

* Similar to Pan is the skinwalker of Navajo folklore. It initially freaks out its victim with two loud whistling noises that can be heard for miles. Its "speech" sounds like a distorted voice or animal call.
* A number of {{youkai}} are know to torment travelers by making sudden and terrifying noises, like the ''kerakera onna'' (a giant, ghostly woman who haunts brothel patrons with an EvilLaugh only her victim can hear), or ''Hachishaku-sama'' (Ms. Eight-Foot-Tall), who stalks young children and can imitate the voices of their loved ones but can only make a terrifying "po-po-po" sound otherwise.

All pinball games have a [[MatchSequence]] in them and the noise when a number is matched is that knocker.

A character within the story hears something odd. Unnatural. When they hear the sound once, it may not be that terrifying, but as time passes, they become more and more frightened. The sound gets scarier as it gains more and more relevance. Given time, the sound comes to haunt them, even away from the source. The sound has taken on a nightmarish relevance because of the setting. The sound could come from ''anywhere''.

* A variation on this happens in one of the ''Creator/ECComics'' stories, wherein a king's daughter falls to her death while he is enjoying himself at a party, and her scream keeps ringing in his ears afterwards in every sound he hears, starting with the local church bells (he has them melted down), the movements of the castle inhabitants (he has them wrap their feet in soft cloth), and even the sounds of people working in town (he has them cease working). Unfortunately his quest for absolute silence reaches a head when his ears become so sensitive that he can hear the people breathing. He orders them to stop breathing, and finally he is beset by an angry (and loud) mob. One of them, a clockmaker, sews a clock inside the king's chest that automatically wound itself up at the slightest movement and took hours to run down. The king is left lying on a bed, hardly daring to move, hardly daring to breathe, so as not to trigger the clock. Then a spider comes down on a silk line, heading for his face...

[[folder:RealLife]]
* MosquitoMiscreants. Go, try to sleep with one of those lil buggers circling over you (even in a no-malaria zone), instead of bringing some slipper fu wrath on her. If you manage that, you may even [[OnlyTheWorthyMayPass skip the entry test for Buddhist monks.]]
* You let your PC running, doing something else, and suddenly ka-system-ploing! Unless its the sound of an incoming message, it will strike anxiety into any user. (Upgrade to sheer panic if your unsaved great unfinished novel is under work.)
* Koala bears, in contrast to their cuddly appearance, sound like demonspawn when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8oLu7znwQ0 upset]].
* The sound of an EmergencyBroadcast qualifies as this, mostly for the knowledge that, unless it's a test, something has gone horribly wrong in the world.
[[/folder]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Grisaia No Kajitsu}}'': The clicking sound of Yumiko's boxcutter is something you learn to fear in Mihama Academy, as it indicates that it's wielder is royally pissed.

What the [[TitleDrop hell is that noise?]] The noise ''is'' hell.

* In the song "Spooky Scary Skeletons" by Music/AndrewGold, the titular skeletons, despite being "shy" and "silly", are still considered scary because they "speak with such a screech", "shriek", and "shout startling shrilly screams".

The trope isn't limited to a sentence, a catch phrase, or a song. The sound that terrifies the character can be made by the living, such as footsteps, a laugh, the call of [[CuteButCacophonic a loud little animal]]. The sound may be made by the non-living, such as the creak of a chair, a door, a bouncing ball, [[Franchise/SilentHill the crackle of radio static]], or any one of hundreds of other seemingly mundane noises. Often times it signals the coming of a yet-unseen threat, usually one you ''don't'' want to be anywhere near you, and hearing it is [[OhCrap more than enough of a sign]] to tread carefully... or '''{{run|OrDie}}'''. Better pray it doesn't mean that YouAreAlreadyDead.

The trope isn't limited to a sentence, a catch phrase, or a song. The sound that terrifies the character can be made by the living, such as footsteps, a laugh, the call of [[CuteButCacophonic a loud little animal]]. The sound may be made by the non-living, such as the creak of a chair, a door, a bouncing ball, [[Franchise/SilentHill the crackle of radio static]], or any one of hundreds of other seemingly mundane noises. Often times it signals the coming of a yet-unseen threat, usually one you ''don't'' want to be anywhere near you, and hearing it is [[OhCrap more than enough of a sign]] to tread carefully... or '''{{run|OrDie}}'''. Better pray it doesn't mean that YoureAlreadyDead.