Macabre

Dahmer (Olympic)
by Tim Den

If you don’t love Macabre, you have no sense of humor. I mean, if you haven’t realized by now that most “murder metal”/gore death metal bands are just taking the piss, you’ve really missed the point. Like Scream and Spinal Tap, sick song titles set to chainsaw guitars are mockeries of – not provocators of – the darker side of life. How can you take a song called “Jeffrey Dahmer and the Chocolate Factory” seriously? You’re not supposed to. You’re supposed to sit back, bang your head, air guitar/drum, and have yourself some silly laughs. It’s almost like watching Bride of Chucky: gory, yet so unrealistic that you laugh at its exaggeration.

Alright, enough defensive explanations. Dahmer is a 26-track concept album that goes through the birth, growing up, adulthood, killing process, discovery and arrest, trial, incarceration, and murder of America’s most famous serial killer. Along with titles such as “In the Army Now,” “McDahmers,” “Into the Toilet with You,” “Scrub a Dub Dub,” “Do the Dahmer,” and “Dahmer’s Dead,” you get a busload of sewage growls and hollering screams. I don’t know about you, but it cracks me up. So brutal, but also so funny… Sometimes the guitar distortion’s so heavy and the pace so breakneck, you almost forget that music this unrelenting can have a lighter side. Then the bio reminds you that these guys have a side band (Macabre Minstrels) that intertwines classical medleys with death metal vocals and you’re back to roaring your ass off and loving every minute of it.

(1658 N. Milwaukee Ave. #245 Chicago, IL 60647)