Since LP's are en voque again, we're seeing tons of reissues of musical masterpieces from yonder years. Serial killer specialists Macabre's 'Dahmer' is one of those albums that now enjoys a reissue on vinyl. Originally released by Hammerheart Records in the year 2000, this reissue comes out as a 12" gatefold double LP on Hells Headbangers.
In my view, 'Dahmer' is not the most sublime piece of madness from the Chicago trio (that position still belongs to 'Grim Reality' in my humble opinion), but it still offers a solid bout of insanity, both lyrically and musically.
As we've seen so many times before, reality far surpasses fiction when it comes to insane acts, and Jeffrey Dahmer's life as rolled out for us by Macabre is just ridiculously bizar. I completely understand the band's fascination with a real-life yet completely surreal character like Dahmer who killed 17 men over the period from 1978 to 1991. He was killed in prison by a fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver (who by the way claimed he was the son of God, just to make things even more surreal). We hear the tales of how Jeffrey gets rid of bodies of the gay men he kills, and indeed how he doesn't really get rid of some of them because he eats some of them.
Macabre have never been scared of pulling peculiar musical stunts, and for that I loved them. Take the tune Jeffrey Dahmer and the Chocolate Factory, a children's song mock up with the cute line "Ubaduba, Jeffrey loved eating men from gay bars". Entertaining, surprising and grotesque for all it's worth. The same can be said about the upbeat Jeffrey Dahmer Blues.
At the same time you have a song like The Hitchhiker which is arguable one of the heaviest tunes of the planet. Now, that I like.
Not all songs are spot on in terms of composition, and you could imagine that Macabre got too focused on telling the entire Dahmer story, even if there was probably only really good material for 45 minutes and not 53 minutes. So, yes, there are a couple of fillers on 'Dahmer'.
That said, Macabre never cease to impress with their take on metal, and there are a bunch of really, really cool and absurd songs on this album.
