For those that are unaware Macabre sings about serial killers and some of the songs will have a sing songy rhyming quality to them, with some homages to various jingles such as commercials or nursery rhymes.  The band mix in serious songs along with some of the tongue-in-cheek ones.  They are so serious about their interest in true-crime serial/spree killers that they sat in on Jeffrey Dahmer’s court trial and that eventually culminated with the amazing Dahmer album in 2000.  Part of the reason I am a huge Macabre fan is I am a huge true crime buff and even met one of the original FBI Profilers, Robert Ressler, in Maryland many years ago at a convention and I spoke with him and he signed his book for me.  The 3-piece band have remained intact for the duration of the bands existence and after seeing the band live several times and owning their discography, I can firmly attest they are some of the finest and unique musicians around.

Carnival of Killers is 16 songs about various serial/spree killers and I feel is their strongest album since Dahmer.  The album cover sporting a very clever Where’s Waldo collage of the killers Macabre sings about on this album, which is one of the best for 2020.  “Joe Ball Was His Name” may very be my favorite song for 2020.  The song focuses on a real loser named Joe Ball who killed waitresses and dumped them in a ravine where the alligators would feast on the remains.  He would eventually go on to commit suicide by a self-inflicted gun- shot wound to the head, when he was about to be apprehended.  The song has a jumpy and fun quality to it with excellent guitar riffing.  The chorus is what does it for me.  “Joe Ball Was His Name what he did to waitresses was quite a shame.. Joe Ball Was His Name…what he did to waitresses was quite insane…”  The cadence of the vocal phrasing, as well as the music, just comes together perfectly and no joke I have probably listened to this song 100x.

“Stinky” is up next and centers around John Wayne Gacy.  A very heavy and jumpy number and then more of Macabre’s genius with the slow down and boyyyyyy it’s a scorcher.  The song goes into the slinky old school commercial jingle.  Remember…It’s slinky, it’s slinky, a joy a wonderful toy..it walks down stairs…are you all with me??  Well then replace the word slinky with stinky and add in lyrics about Gacy’s house of horror stench and how he killed young males and the song is beyond catchy.  I have probably listened to this 100x as well.

“Them Dry Bones” incorporates the jingle of your hip bone is connected to your leg bone, etc.. about H.H. Holmes who was convicted of killing 27 people but he estimated he killed over 200 and may very well have.  The song explains in graphic, but fun detail, him taking apart the limbs and reconnecting them.  He was also a voyeur too and would pose the dead females, pieced together, and take pictures of them.  “The Wheels on the Bug” brings in more brutality and incorporates some blast beats as Macabre gets into the nitty gritty of Ted Bundy and incorporate the wheels on the bus theme and this is also a very strong contender as one of the best songs on Carnival of Killers.

The production is excellent and the sound and song structures really harken back to Sinister Slaughter/Dahmer era and maybe that is why I feel this is one of Macabre’s best works of art. I call it a work of art, because Macabre do not release an album every 2 years, there’s many years between album and that’s due to their intense research and the song structures they write.  Carnival of Killers is only their sixth album, by the way, so chew on that. As I previously mentioned the album cover is pure genius and the music from more of the fun, nursery rhyme parts to the more brutal songs on the album is played with such deliberate, fun and amazing conviction, that this is an absolute must own for 2020.  Buy or Die!!

In any event, this where I start my review by saying that I’ve not really given much of a —how you say?—shit about Chicago’s Macabre. I appreciate the talent and creativity involved with their quirky, darkly comedic brand of murderous death metal and found them to be an entertaining live act. Beyond that, this is just not what I want out of a death metal band and I can’t even remember the last time I went searching for a Macabre album for fun and enjoyment; it’s been years I’m sure. However… Just kidding; there is no “however” to it, as I’ve not changed my mind about Macabre after time spent with Grim Scary Tales.

Well, there is a mild “however” in that I did find the album to be somewhat entertaining and its manner of turning Grimm’s Fairytales (for the most part) inside out occasionally quite comical, if not side-splittingly so. But to be perfectly honest, I just don’t hear death metal when I hear the music of Grim Scary Tales, regardless of the aggressive moments involved. For that matter, I’m not sure I’d call most of these tunes aggressive in a USDM sense. A better word might be “manic,” as is the case with the moments of “Bella the Butcher” (this one inclusive of narrative intro) that move from those goofy melodic segments into Macabre’s patented knife-wielding nuttiness. In that regard, I found the mostly non-DM material at least amusing, even worthy of the occasional toe-tap. “Necro’s Inferno” with its faux Italian accent vocals, dramatic acoustic romp, and ridiculous chorus is a case in point. It is one of several deserving of praise for its creativeness since it’s not like just any Tom, Dick, Barry, Larry, or Harry deathster can pull this stuff off in any kind of convincing manner. The same goes with the spilled-guts rockabilly of “The Bloody Benders.” And come on, you have to appreciate the grisly tale and schizoid musicality of “The Big Bad Wolf.” But what song gets my Cro-Magnon Man cranium moving to and fro with force? It is rendition of Venom’s “Countess Bathory,” the song covered by thousands and the most straight ahead of the bunch. Big surprise, right?

It is true, drummer Dennis the Menace, guitarist/vocalist Corporate Death, and bassist/backing vocalist Nefarious are a talented, creative trio that are damn good at what they do and I mean that with the utmost sincerity. It’s just not for me. I do find the album’s artwork to be rather righteous, for whatever that’s worth. Macabre brings it in the only way they know how and more power to ‘em. But you know what? I still don’t give much of a shit about Macabre.