Horror Punk World Map

Originally a vague attempt at seeing where UK bands were from has developed into a rather more ambitious attempt at putting every horror punk band in the world (and plenty of adjacent bands) onto a single map.

Total Number of Bands (up to 6th March 2026): 1561!

How to use the map

Bands are in four regions - the UK (of course), USA, Europe and the Rest of the World. Each of these has a separate list for active and inactive bands, and the pins are coloured to reflect this if you have all the filters displayed. 

Dark Orange / Light Orange - denotes UK bands, dark orange denoting active bands.

Black / Grey - denotes US bands, black denoting active bands. 

Dark Blue / Light Blue - denotes European bands, dark blue denoting active bands.

Dark Green / Light Green - denotes bands from the Rest of the World; dark green denoting active bands.

Each band on the map has a link included, usually to Bandcamp or to a bands Facebook/Instagram/Linktree (or other social media/links). I've tried to stay away from linking to a Spotify page if possible.

Bands are listed in alphabetical order, ignoring 'The' and 'A' and the like. However I have kept bands with non-English names in the order they would be if including equivalent words (i.e. 'Los' or 'Das'). This isn't only a damning indictment of the linguistic skills of the English speaking world, but will hopefully make finding these bands easier. 

Icons on the map reflect the particular 'genre' the band can be classed as - whilst most bands will be in the broad 'Horror Punk' definition there are several adjacent genres displayed as well, for bands who share much of the horror punk sound and aesthetic but can be more closely attached to one of the numerous very similar genres, as shown below.

The ghost icon denotes bands labelled as 'Horror Punk'. This includes the more traditional style bands following in the doo-wop meets punk rock style pioneered by the Misfits, as well as others who may sound somewhat different but use many of the styles and tropes of what we all call horror punk. It is a particularly broad definition - pop punk, hardcore, skate punk, rockabilly/psychobilly influence, punk-metal etc. all sit alongside the bands that are most associated with the 'traditional' horror punk sound. For the most part these are bands who self define as the genre, although not exclusively. 

The flame icon denotes the various psychobilly/rockabilly/horrorbilly/gothabilly bands that often overlap stylistically with horror punk bands. The boundaries between these and horror punk bands has always been somewhat blurry, with many cases of a band falling into both definitions quite easily. However I have only included bands here who are distinctly horror-themed and have an element of Horror punk to them. I will admit that is often a rather arbitrary decision - but I wanted to draw the line somewhere and not include every psychobilly band in the world. Lyrical output with nearly entirely horror-themes, visual aesthetics close to 'traditional' horror punk and crossover sound with other punk elements will be the determining factors when including these bands. 

The hatchet icon denotes bands with a more metal influenced sound. This includes any of the tiringly numerous metal subgenres - black metal, horror metal, doom metal etc. As with the above, boundaries between what is and what isn't metal / punk are notoriously fluid and fuzzy and purists of various kinds will no doubt object to me putting bands on here. Well, this isn't the Metal Archives, I'm not gatekeeping shit, and there is some incredible music that fits just about every definition of what horror punk is that would be left out if I didn't include some of these bands. So yeah... you have some doomy metal dirges, ferocious black metal inspired epics and just some good ol' metal riffs throughout the bands on the map with this icon. 

The warning icon (admittedly some of these icons are random...) denotes punk bands of various styles that nevertheless don't quite fit into the horror punk definition. Electro-punk, garage punk, good old punk rock. For the most part these are bands who don't quite fulfill all the aspects that you'd expect a horror punk band to have - that is, focus on horror themes, a tendency to embrace the dressing up and visual style and/or a musical style somewhat distant from the 50s inspired melodic punk. Any band with this icon displays some of those aspects, but not all, and probably don't self-identify as a horror punk band. Genre labels are pointless after all, aren't they?

The radioactive icon denotes hardcore and crust bands. Again the genre definitions are hazy and there's much overlap with the icons above. As a fan of both, and a fan of the Danzig-era Misfits later more hardcore output, it's always irked me a little that bands who carry that sound through aren't always classed as horror punk. Plenty of influence from early 80s anarcho-punk as well, which is never a bad thing.

The crescent icon denotes gothic bands. These are mainly gothic rock bands who often overlap with some of the other icons listed here (although the boundary between gothic rock and deathrock, and with gothic metal, is notoriously blurry), but also includes bands that just exude that gothic feel a bit more than other bands. Awful definition I know, but it sorta makes sense. 

The masked face icon (allegedly, looks like a bearded skeleton to me) denotes deathrock bands. Another broad genre definition, there's plenty of overlap with both horror punk and gothic rock here, but broadly these are bands carrying on the post-punk deathrock tradition - and usually self-identify as deathrock.

The guitar icon denotes folk punk/murderfolk/dark country/acoustic bands. There is a strong tradition of these genres permeating horror punk, and whilst it is a wide definition there is some commonality between these genres. Bands with this icon will either have some bluegrass, gothic country or folk elements or be a purely acoustic horror punk band.  

The little surfer icon denotes surf punk/horrorsurf. A rich vein of horror inspired tunes, there's plenty of overlap here with psychobilly/rockabilly and horror punk. There is something so undeniably fitting for the horror punk vibe with any band who combines b-movie and horror sounds/aesthetics with the most summery of musical genres.

There is one special icon on the map - solely for the Misfits. Fitting I think. 

World of Horror Punk - Stats for the geography nerds

Total Number of Bands (up to 6th March 2026): 1561

Number of bands to add in coming weeks: 300

63 Countries from 6 continents are represented on the map:

From North America:

Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, USA

From South America:

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

From Africa:

South Africa

From Asia:

Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore

From Oceania:

Australia, New Zealand

From Europe:

Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales

There are also bands classed as 'UK' (as I'm unsure where in the UK they are from) and 'International' (bands who defy any national borders).

And for any American readers; there are currently 48 states represented on the map (plus D.C.)

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Currently only Montana and Vermont are without a band on the map!

All nations (and US states) represented with a band on the map is highlighted in red above.

Top countries by number of total bands:

USA - 748

Brazil - 109

England - 108

Germany - 85

Canada - 57

Spain - 42

Italy - 39

Mexico - 34

Russia - 28

Sweden - 25

Argentina - 22

Chile - 20

Australia - 19

France - 18

Finland, New Zealand - 17

Top US states by number of total bands:

California - 112

New York - 55

Pennsylvania - 50

New Jersey - 43

Texas - 40

Ohio - 34

Florida - 32

Illinois - 29

Washington - 28

Massachusetts, Michigan - 23

Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina - 18

Arizona, Virginia - 16

Continent breakdown:

846 North American bands in 9 countries (98 in 8 countries excl. USA)

466 European bands in 37 countries

186 South American bands in 10 countries

36 Oceanian bands in 2 countries

23 Asian bands in 4 countries

2 African bands in 1 country

Most Northerly band currently on map (and currently active) - Oops! I'm Dead (Russia)

Most Southerly band currently on map - Flesh D-Vice (New Zealand) (Hateseeker (New Zealand) and Pumpkin Kings (New Zealand) most southerly active bands).

Horror Punk bands per 1 million people

The following shows which countries and US states have the most horror punk bands compared to their population. 

Top ten nations:

1- Guernsey - 14.29 bands per million

2 - New Zealand - 3.18 bands

3 - Northern Ireland - 3.11 bands

4 - Finland - 3.02 bands

5 - Iceland - 2.54 bands

6 - Sweden - 2.26 bands

7 - USA - 2.10 bands

8 - Scotland - 1.98 bands

9 - Malta - 1.92 bands

10 - Wales - 1.88 bands

There are, of course, several issues with the numbers above. First of all the outlier of Guernsey, with just one band on the island, stands out clearly. With all of the constituent parts of the UK counted on their own, they occupy many of the top rankings - mainly due to the UK focus of this blog. There's also countries like Iceland and Malta, who both have one band on the map and of which neither can be called 'traditional' horror punk. If we take this outliers away, and combine the UK as one, the top ten would look like this...:

1 - New Zealand - 3.18

2 - Finland - 3.02

3 - Sweden - 2.26

4 - USA - 2.10

5 - UK - 1.93

6 - Canada / Denmark - 1.32

7 - Chile - 1.02

8 - Germany - 1.01

9 - Slovenia - 0.94

10 - Ireland - 0.92

...which is probably more reflective of the horror punk scene around the world! New Zealand, Finland and Sweden lead the way, with the US and the UK next in line. 

Top ten US states:

1 - Maine - 5.65 bands per million

2 - Wyoming - 5.09 bands per million

3 - West Virginia - 4.53 bands 

4 - New Jersey - 4.29 bands

5 - Pennsylvania - 3.68 bands

6 - Washington - 3.37 bands

7 - Ohio - 2.86 bands

8 - California - 2.67 bands

9 - Massachusetts - 2.66 bands

10 - New York - 2.65 bands