Macabre - Carnival of Killers (2020)

Back in the late 80’s Mortician and Macabre were two of the most extreme and yet crafty bands in the scene, we remember listening to all those horror movie samples just before the bands wailed with pummeling fury. Macabre has slowly evolved over the years and with “Carnival of Killers”, the band delivers nearly 41 minutes of music in 16 pieces encapsulating both their heavy and their bizarre side. While I am sure this will appeal to older folks like us, there are still some interesting and downright hilarious things to discover from this release.

As their first album in nearly a decade, “Carnival of Killers” continues the band’s fascination with serial killers and delivers a wide variety of tracks that range from Grindcore to Thrash to plain weird, with some brilliant sing-along sections. Never as heavy as Mortician, tracks like “Your Window is Open”, “Richard Speck Grew Big Breasts” and “The Murder Mack”, do still deliver some powerful riffs and Thrash-tastic tempo changes, mixed with the band’s funky vocal melodies and funny lyrics.

Other songs are definitely on the more playful side, even creating superbly catchy chorus sections that might have you singing along, like “Joe Ball Was His Name”, “Tea Cakes”, and “Them Dry Bones”. Lance Lencioni’s creativity and sick sense of humor is always present in this release, making you do a double take on certain completely bonkers vocal lines in this release. Tracks like “The Lake of Fire” have that timeless sound of the band that perfectly walks the line between heavy and direct and just plain silly (like on “Warte, Warte”).

With all the pretend seriousness and elitism that many bands in Metal, it is quite nice that old-school bands like Macabre do not give any shits and keep releasing their own funky brand of music. Having seen the band live in 2019 at Brutal Assault, we can only tell you that if you think their music is bonkers their live show is even crazier. Recommended release if you want to be amused or are a diehard fan of the band.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: November 13th, 2020

Genre: Death/Thrash/Grindcore

Country: USA