The audio bloodlust of cult metal pioneers Macabre is truly unparalleled. For the last 35 years, the trio of Dennis the Menace (Dennis Ritchie), Nefarious (Charles Lescewicz), and Corporate Death (Lance Lencioni) have amassed a catalog of music that chronicles an almost obsessive fascination with some of the most sinister human beings that have walked the planet.
Documenting the historical atrocities of some of the most infamous serial killers and their unfathomable acts of depravity, Macabre have spent their entire careers establishing their credentials by recounting the twisted tales of real-life horror.
Ahead of the band's first album in 10 years, Carnival of Killers, Macabre's guitarist and vocalist Corporate Death, provided some insight to the cinematic inspiration that has prompted some of the trio's notoriously graphic stanzas. For reference, the band's most recent singles "Your Window Is Open" and "The Lake of Fire" rehash the crimes of The Nightstalker Richard Ramirez and the torture bunker of Leonard Lake and Charles Ng respectively.
Given their three-decade long reputation as metal's morbid encyclopedia of murder and mayhem, Macabre should have an interesting offering of must-see horror flicks.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
Corporate Death - This is the film I watched when I was young. I got our band name from this film. When I watched the intro of the movie, I saw the word macabre and it stuck with me. Years later I thought of it for our band name, so I told Dennis the Menace and Nefarious and they both agreed that it would be a good name for our band. And at that time, we were already singing about killers; one was Ed Gein and the other was Albert Fish. That movie is based on Ed Gein with the skin mask, the corpse art, and cannibalism. So that movie inspired me to come up with the name of our band MACABRE.
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Corporate Death - I like the Freddy Krueger / Nightmare on Elm Street movies the most, but the original is my favorite. I think Freddy inspired my vocals and I try to pronounce the words better when I sing as I already have a crazy sounding dark voice.
BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS
Corporate Death - I think one of my early, lower budget movies that I really liked was Blood Sucking Freaks. It is a very demented movie and they also use the term "theater of the macabre" in the movie so...
FRIDAY THE 13TH
Corporate Death - I was also into the early Friday the 13th movies but the first one paved the groundwork for a lot more killing. Friday the 13th also happens to be the release date for our new Carnival of Killers album.
THE THING
Corporate Death - It's really hard to put these films in order because I like them all, but one of my favorites is John Carpenter's, The Thing. The special effects for the time were amazing and I just love the whole theme of it.
DEAD ALIVE
Corporate Death - One of my favorites for special effects before computer-generated images. This is one of the funniest and bloodiest movies you can watch and the best zombie movie ever!
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Corporate Death - Of course, I have to mention Silence of the Lambs, another one of my favorites and it's based on Ed Gein and Gary Hydenick. We have songs about both of them. Ed Gein also appears on our new Carnival of Killers album.
EATEN ALIVE
Corporate Death - 'Eaten Alive' inspired me to write our new song, "Joe Ball Was His Name". This song is based on all of his evil deeds. He had a pit of alligators behind his saloon, the Sociable Inn down in Texas. Women in the area were reported missing, including his barmaids, former girlfriends, and even his wife, but they were never able to find the bodies.
THE ICEMAN
Corporate Death - This movie did a really good job showing the true story of Richard Kuklinski's life. I read a lot about Kuklinski from books and did a song about him on our Murder Metal album. Years after we did that song, the movie came out also telling the twisted tales of him being a notorious cold blooded hitman.
SERIAL KILLER CULTURE
Corporate Death - If you like documentary films about killers you have to check out the work of John Borowski. 'Serial Killer Culture' is great because if captures all kind of people associated with serial killers and murderers. He does a fantastic job, he has a new John Wayne Gacy release coming out that I'm looking forward to, it should be great!!! Check it out, I should be in it. We have a new Gacy song on the Carnival of Killers albums called “Stinky”. It is about the backyard BBQ's Gacy would have while dozens of dead bodies were buried under his house.
The entire Macabre catalog can be streamed - HERE
Carnival of Killers from Macabre is available November 13th. Pre-order the album - HERE
