Haunted Las Vegan sharing his sounds

He calls them holy crap voices, although he uses a different word for crap.

Zak Bagans is a spirit hunter, recording what he deems to be the utterances of the dead on a device called the SP7 Spirit Box.

Yes, there will be skeptics.

"Whether you believe or don't believe, I don't care," Bagans says. "If you're a nonbeliever, I want you to tell me how this is happening then. It's not a gimmick."

Doubters or not, Bagans has built quite a career for himself. He's the host of a couple of shows on the Travel Channel, "Ghost Adventures" and "Paranormal Challenge," and has penned a book, "Dark World," that made it onto The New York Times best-sellers list.

Now, the Vegas resident has made an album combining these ominous sounding voices with a throbbing post-industrial soundtrack. "NecroFusion," released on Tuesday, sees Bagans collaborating with Praga Khan, founder of Belgian techno pugilists The Lords of Acid.

Bagans spent a year recording voices all over the country, then he would relay the results to Khan.

"I would have Praga create the tempo and the mood of the music reflecting the tone of the spirit voice and what the situation and the topic matter was," Bagans says.

It's some creepy stuff, the sound of a haunted discotheque, and will surely soundtrack many a Halloween party.

One of the disc's more disquieting tracks, "Room 20," was recorded in Vegas at the Oasis in the room where "Suddenly Susan" actor David Strickland committed suicide in 1999.

"When I went in there, it was scary. It was a disturbing feeling," Bagans says. "I sat on the bed for about three hours, and all of a sudden, the room just turned cold. As soon as that happened is when the communication came through. I believe that it is David coming through."

Bagans moved here from Detroit years ago and initially founded a wedding DJ business. He was working a gig when he met Nick Groff, his future "Ghost Adventures" partner, who shared with Bagans an encounter of his own. The two bonded over their shared supernatural experiences and began filming ghost investigations just out of curiosity, which eventually led to their top-rated show.

Nowadays, Bagans says that he brings his work home with him, to his chagrin.

"There's a lot of problems at my house in Vegas," he sighs. "I just recently broke up with a girlfriend because of the energy in my house. Other girls have gotten attacked, pushed down the stairs, everything in their purses have been dumped out while we're sleeping.

"It can be a pain in the ass," he adds, "but I'm so far deep in it now, there's no getting out."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com
or 702-383-0476.