UMUR "Unabomber" is a compilation by US extreme metal act Macabre. The compilation was released through Decomposed Records in 1999. At this point it had been quite a few years since the release of the band´s last full-length studio album "Sinister Slaughter (1993)" and although they did release the "Behind the Wall of Sleep" EP in 1994, there had been awfully quiet from the Macabre camp for some years.

While the "Unabomber" compilation broke the silence, there is only one track here which is exclusive to this recording, and that is the title track. The two demo versions of "Ambassador Hotel" and "The Brain", which would appear in their "regular" studio versions on the "Dahmer (2000)" album only a year down the line, are in these particular versions also exclusive to this release, but especially "Ambassador Hotel" sounds very similar to the version on "Dahmer (2000)". "The Brain" features effects on the vocals, which provide this version of the song with a psychadelic twist, but the core elements of the song are the same as the version on "Dahmer (2000)". There are only 7 tracks featured on the 17:01 minutes long compilation, and the remaining four tracks are culled from the "Grim Reality (1987)" EP and from Macabre´s debut full-length studio album "Gloom (1989)" (two tracks from each release).

So there are no tracks featured from "Sinister Slaughter (1993)", which makes it a bit of an odd compilation in terms of who the target audience is. With only half of the very short compilation featuring "rarity/different version" type material, and the rest just being culled directly off the releases they originally appeared on, doesn´t make it a very interesting release for fans, and for newcommers there simply isn´t enough material to provide a decent impression of what Macabre sounds like. Add to that the fact that there aren´t a single track featured from "Sinister Slaughter (1993)", and this becomes a bit of a redundant compilation release.

With the issues out of the way, the material featured on "Unabomber" is still worth a listen though. Macabre deliver their material with great passion and conviction, and they have a very unique extreme metal style, which is also a great asset. So while I don´t find the idea behind releasing "Unabomber" that great, and the release in itself a bit redundant the quality of the recordings still makes me rate it with a 3.5 star (70%) rating.