Band:	Macabre
Album:	Sinister Slaughter
Style:	Death metal, Grindcore
Release date:	April 13, 1993
Guest review by:	cynicoren

01. Night Stalker / Richard Ramirez
02. The Ted Bundy Song / Ted Bundy
03. Sniper In The Sky / Charles Whitman
04. Montreal Massacre / Mark Lupine
05. Zodiac / Identity Unknown
06. What The Hell Did You Do? / James Edward Pough
07. The Boston Strangler / Albert DeSalvo
08. Mary Bell
09. Mary Bell (Reprise)
10. Killing Spree (Postal Killer) / Patrick Sherril
11. Is It Soup Yet? / Daniel Rakowitz
12. White Hen Decapitator / Michael Bethke
13. Howard Unrah (What Have You Done Now?!) / Howard Unrah
14. Gacy's Lot / John Wayne Gacy
15. There Was A Young Man Who Blew Up A Plane / Jack Gilbert Graham
16. Vampire Of Dusseldorf / Peter Kurtin
17. Shotgun Peterson / Christopher Peterson
18. Whats That Smell? / Jeffery Dahmer
19. Edmond Kemper Had A Horrible Temper / Edmond Kemper
20. What The Heck Richard Speck (Eight Nurses You Wrecked) / Richard Speck
21. Albert Was Worse Than Any Fish In The Sea / Albert Fish

The second album by a band that deals with one subject: serial killers. 21 songs about 20 serial killers in 42 minutes are literally a blast. The cover of this album says it all - they took the cover of Sgt. Pepper and replaced the distinguished individuals there with the worst serial killers (as if there ever were any good ones), and the name of the band is written in bones surrounded by internal organs. Might seem cheesy today (and it was done to be cheesy on purpose with song names like "Edmond Kemper Had A Horrible Temper" or "What The Heck Richard Speck (Eight Nurses You Wrecked)"), but this album (cover and music) caused a lot of controversy when in came out in 1993. Why a Beatles reference? Maybe because they sang "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" on Abbey Road. They also wrote funny rhymes, and this makes the songs like an '80s action movie - cheesy and exaggerated (the same goes with their music) - but it is mocking the killers and the judicial system and not the victims. Dark humor death metal.

Musically, Macabre use dual vocals here, sometimes three vocal styles in one song (for example in "Sniper In The Sky / Charles Whitman"; I like it when Deicide used this more often in Deicide and [/i]Legion[/i]), super fast drumming (even when the music slows down, double bass is still rampaging; the recording of the drums is amazing and fun to listen using earphones, since the stereo is so evident), and emphasized bass. They manage to cram a guitar solo into almost every song on this album, including a super-fast classical guitar solo in "What The Hell Did You Do? / James Edward Pough". The album feels like Macabre were toying and having fun with their instruments (sounds bad, huh?), creating varying and changing tempos in and between songs. For God's sake, they managed to squeeze in here a 40-second clean-vocal ballad, and it feels OK with the composition of the album.

I hold that this is the best Macabre album that ever came out (others might say that the Dahmer album is better), or at least the most fun to listen to.
This album and Macabre in general are like sushi: you either love it or hate it. I really love it. Either way, after listening to the album you'll feel like you've been pounded by an evil clown.

Favorite songs: "Edmond Kemper Had A Horrible Temper," "Killing Spree (Postal Killer) / Patrick Sherril," "Vampire Of Dusseldorf / Peter Kurtin," "The Ted Bundy Song / Ted Bundy"