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Macabre: Grim scary tales
13/04/11 || revenant
Macabre, at their best, can be one of the most entertaining metal bands going around. Combining their death/grind with children’s songs and nursery rhymes topped off with darkly humorous lyrics about serials killers, Macabre delivers an end product that is indeed worthy of the name “macabre”. Being one of those bands that do walk that thin line between what is genius and what is shit (the combination could so easily go either way depending on how successful they are at it), I guess it was only a matter of time before the joke wore thin and Macabre produced a poor album, and that album is “Grim Scary Tales”.
I have to admit, despite the trashing this album received in the January edition of Audio Autopsy, I had hoped my worst fears were not confirmed. Unfortunately they were; Macabre had flopped. There are some glimpses of the greatness that Macabre has delivered in the past, but these are only passing moments on journey that dwells deep in mediocrity. Where exactly did the band go wrong? All the elements are there…
The first downfall is the song writing. Macabre just don’t deliver. Where in the past the music has contained wicked hooks and melodies (coming from the aforementioned nursery rhymes and so forth), here they are less prevalent and when they do appear they are just damn annoying. Take “The Big Bad Wolf” for example. Now you probably already know the tune (“who’s afraid if the big bad wolf”), well that exact ditty is sung here with no real metal infusion and it just damn sucks. The songs that don’t use well recognized tunes and styles, on the other hand, are completely forgettable. Even now, glancing down the track list below, I can’t think for the life of me how “The Kiss of Death” or “Burke and Hare” even go.
Despite Macabre’s background in working stories into their lyrics (something they’ve always done), they make a complete hash of it with this album. In each song they are trying to tell a self contained story on each serial killer. In some instances it works, mostly it doesn’t. Check out the appalling work on “The Black Knight”, where lines feel rushed and the number of syllables contained in consecutive lines rarely match. As for rhyming, fucken forget it. It sounds terrible and completely disrupts the flow of the songs. The other issue with the concept lyrics is in order to tell the complete story, songs are pushed longer than the need to be. These songs should be no more than 2-3 minutes each. “The Sweet Tender Meat Vendor”, probably the best song in the collection, hits the five minute mark and is immensely repetitive because of it. Never before have I encountered an album so badly impacted by lyrics.
Musically, I have to say the drumming performance here is notable for it’s determination to make something great. There are some fantastic fills and sections throughout the album, and the performance is constantly active and vibrant. Only it’s too obvious. It’s like he’s overcompensating for the deficiencies of the music itself, like a small dicked man who drives a sports car. It doesn’t work though, because despite the over zealous work the songs still come across quite flat.
Ok, I’ve spend pretty much all of this review ripping this album. When all is said and done, this is a pretty rotten album. There are glimpses of the things that did make Macabre great, and there are some definitely catchy moments, but these are fleeting at best. Old Macabre fans might derive some pleasure out of the experience (I have a little), but anyone new to the band is better advised to check out “Dahmer” or “Murder Metal” instead. Fingers crossed Macabre find what made them great again with the next one.
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Decomposed Records
- Website: www.murdermetal.com
- Band
- Corporate Death: vocal, guitars
- Nefarious: vocals, bass
- Denis The Menace: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Locusta
- 02. Nero’s Inferno
- 03. The Black Knight
- 04. Dracula
- 05. The Big Bad Wolf
- 06. Countess Bathory (Venom cover)
- 07. Burke and Hare
- 08. Mary Ann
- 09. The Bloody Benders
- 10. Lizzy Borden
- 11. The Ripper Tramp from France
- 12. Bella the Butcher
- 13. The Kiss of Death
- 14. The Sweet Tender Meat Vendor
