As well as being one of the most innovative bands from the Post-Punk era, much of This Heat's music was amongst the scariest.
- The band's self-titled debut is an oppressively dark, joyless listen. There's hardly a song on here that doesn't qualify in one way or another:
- "Horizontal Hold" is a bizarre, plodding instrumental jam driven on by a bass riff that's so distorted and dirty it sounds like it's playing from the other side of a wall. The track's momentum is interrupted by several Scare Chords, courtesy of Gareth Williams' keyboards, which gives the track a feeling like a panic attack.
- "Not Waving" is a deeply creepy and sad song about a man drowning himself in the ocean because he can't cope with modern life. Between the Drone of Dread instrumental and despairing vocals, it sounds like a ghost eternally reliving its last moments.
- "Diet of Worms" is just wailing, atonal noise that borders on Sensory Abuse. Even if you're a hardened listener of dark ambient music it could set you on edge.
- The triple whammy of "Rainforest", "The Fall of Saigon", and "Testcard (Yellow)" that closes out the album absolutely manages to top everything that came before it. "Rainforest" is a straight up noise track that blows in out of nowhere and jump scares the listener with a barrage of screeching feedback and crashing percussion, which slowly fades into the ominous, marching beat of "The Fall of Saigon", itself sounding like nothing less than the end of civilization with its pounding, wardrum-esque percussion and chanted vocals. It ends with a guitar solo that sounds like the song is literally rotting apart, before fading out into "Testcard (Yellow)".
- Whilst more song-based than the debut, the whole of Deceit still manages to be as downright creepy, if the cover wasn't any indication. It was recorded when the Cold War was at its' boiling point, and as such the songs all have a relentlessly grim outlook towards modern society and potential nuclear armageddon, whilst the music for the most part is frantic and discordant. It all culminates in "Hi Baku Shyo", probably one of the darkest closing tracks ever put to record. Charles Hayward himself defined the album as "a dream within a dream".
