If there’s one kind of sound in this world that almost everyone universally hates, it’s an alarm going off. It doesn’t matter whether it’s waking you up in the morning, yet another false fire scare in your apartment building or signalling the impending nuclear holocaust, these are noises designed to be as supremely annoying as possible. 

However, the reason for this is because they’re meant to make us alert and ready to take action. In a way, it kind of makes sense to prepare for the worst case scenario and familiarize yourself with the emergency alarm sound that your country uses, but most of us aren’t even really aware we have one. That is until now, as @calvinkrause has taken it upon himself to rate the many EAS alarms of the world. 

While the task might sound like it would give you more earache than entertainment, there’s a pretty startling amount of variation involved. Ranging from Japan’s delicate, musical alert to the end of days blaring chosen by Greece, possibly the best selections come from the club-ready bops provided by Italy and Germany. All of them are worth a listen, though, and they provide a weirdly thoughtful insight into each country’s attitude towards disaster.