11 Unsettling Songs About Gay Serial Killers | Playlist 🎧

1. Macabre, “Fritz Haarman der Metzger”

💿 Murder Metal • 🏷 Nuclear Blast • 📅 2003

Gay Murderer 🗡️🩸: Fritz Haarman 

It wouldn’t be a serial killer playlist without Macabre! According to their website, 🎙 Macabre has been “delivering quality murderous music since 1985.” This doom metal band has rewarded us with a number of songs about these deranged mofos. This round, they tackle early serial killer 🗡️🩸Fritz Haarman (1879-1925).

Perhaps Haarman became overshadowed by the other homosexual killers like 🎙 Jeffrey Dahmer and 🎙 John Wayne Gacy.  Maybe it’s because he was German as opposed to American.  Regardless, he definitely shouldn’t be left out or underrated in the least – he killed 27. Furthermore, his heinous crimes included sexual assault, dismemberment, and biting into victims’ throats.

🎵“Fritz Haarman der Metzger” serves as the closing song on the Macabre’s 2003 album, 💿Murder Metal.  The lyrics are in German, with the translation going a little something like this:

“My dear child, pass better
Fritz Haarmann is looking for you
He’ll slash you, squirt your blood
To the quiet of hungry greed
Wait a while
Wait a while
Then Haarmann comes to you
With the hoe, With the hoe
He makes liver sausage out of you.”

While the track lasts nearly 13 minutes (!), most of the meat (questionable, totally suspect word choice) occurs within the first five minutes. There is more excitement at the tail-end.

2. Bloodbath, “Eaten”

💿 Nightmares Made Flesh • 🏷 Century Media • 📅 2005

Gay murderer 🗡️🩸: Armin Meiwes 

“I always had the fantasy and, in the end, I fulfilled it”. 🗡️🩸Armin Meiwes (1961 – ), a native of Rotenberg, Germany, infamously killed and ate Bernd Brandes. Eating human flesh naturally earns Meiwes the title of a cannibal.  Killing, coupled with the sexual pleasure, creates a ‘new monster,’ vorarephilia. Making things even worse is that Brandes agreed to be eaten and killed. That’s certainly not in line with euthanasia, particularly considering Brandes wasn’t physically ill or near death. As far as what he was thinking mentally himself, well, that’s a totally different conversation.  While we’re just piling on the disgusting, both men wanted to eat Brandes’ penis. 

Swedish death-metal band 🎙 Bloodbath captures the disturbed Meiwes on 🎵“Eaten,” ranked the 34^th best metal song of the 21^st century by Loudwire. Notably, rather than coming from the perspective of the vorarephile himself, “Eaten” actually comes from the perspective of the victim, Brandes.

“I’ve had one desire since I was born
To see my body ripped and torn
To see my flesh devoured before my eyes
Only for you I volunteer as a human sacrifice.”

Wow.  If the desires weren’t captured on the verses and the pre-chorus section, Bloodbath lays it out there on the chorus.

“Eaten
My one desire, my only wish is to be
Eaten
The longer I live the more I’m dying to feel the pain…”

Fittingly, the music is as dark and disturbing as the lyrics.

3. Slayer, “213”

💿  Divine Intervention • 🏷 American • 📅 1994

Gay murderer🗡️🩸: Jeffrey Dahmer 

“A lifeless object for my subjection / An obsession beyond your imagination / Primitive instinct a passion for flesh…/ Sadistic acts a love so true / Absorbingly masticating a part of you.” Dirty sex? Check. Cannibalism? Also check. What exactly is being checked you ask? Well, all of the horrible, totally disgusting and messed up things attributed to one of the most hellish deviants, 🗡️🩸Jeffrey Dahmer (1960 – 1994). Ultimately, Dahmer murdered 17 men horrifically, incorporating perversions including rape, dismemberment, necrophilia, and cannibalism.  He once stated, “I would cook it, and look at the pictures and masturbate.” The aforementioned lyrics hail from veteran metal collective 🎙 Slayer, specifically from the song 🎵“213.”

Of Slayer, AllMusic biographer Steve Huey writes:

Their graphic lyrics dealt with everything from death and dismemberment to war and the horrors of hell. Their full-throttle velocity, wildly chaotic guitar solos, and powerful musical chops painted an effectively chilling sonic background for their obsessive chronicling of the dark side.

Given such obsessiveness, Slayer magnificently tackles the darkness of Dahmer on “213,” the penultimate track from their 1994 studio album, 💿Divine Intervention.

“Erotic sensations tingle my spine
A dead body lying next to mine
Smooth blue-black lips
I start salivating as we kiss…
Panting excitedly with my hands around your neck.”

“213” sounds from eerie from the jump – a perfect soundtrack to the horrific actions by Dahmer.  Throughout its course, it’s filled with angularity, with the twists and turns matching the perversion which they sing about.  In addition to the aforementioned lyrics from the end, there’s more atrociousness to partake of.

“Driving compulsion morbid thoughts come to mind
Sexual release buried deep inside
Complete control of a prized possession
To touch and fondle with no objection
Lonely souls an emptiness fulfilled
Physical pleasure and addictive thrill
An object of perverted reality
And obsession beyond your wildest dreams.”

4. Sufjan Stevens, “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”

💿 Illinois • 🏷 Asthmatic Kitty • 📅 2005

Gay Murderer🗡️🩸: John Wayne Gacy

“Twenty-seven people / Even more, they were boys / With their cars, summer jobs / Oh my God / Are you one of them?” Many of the best songs come in the hands of dedicated singer/songwriters.  🎙 Sufjan Stevens is a master at his craft, hence why he delivers the perfect song about 🗡️🩸John Wayne Gacy (1942 – 1989).  Scott A. Bonn, Ph.D., characterizes Gacy as a “Successful businessman, husband, lover of children – and psychopathic killer” in his article, John Wayne Gacy: The Diabolical “Killer Clown” (Psychology Today). It should also be noted, Mr. Gacy was part of the LGBTQ+, though I doubt many would want to claim such an evil man as a member of anything.

You can debate whether Gacy was bisexual as he claimed, or purely homosexual, but it wasn’t his sexuality that was the problem – it was his bloodlust. On the first verse of 🎵“John Wayne Gacy, Jr.,” Stevens paints the deceptive, eerie picture, while he summarizes his despicable, repulsiveness on the chorus. Stevens ‘goes for the kill’ on the second verse, describing the killer being “On his best behavior” when he dressed as a clown (Pogo), but ultimately “He’d kill ten thousand people / With a sleight [slight] of his hand.”  Perhaps the second chorus is the most disturbing:

“And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid.”

5. Swans, “Killing for Company”

💿 The Great Annihilator • 🏷 Young God • 📅 1995

Gay Murderer🗡️🩸: Dennis Nilsen

“I couldn’t stop myself / I knew I’d do it again / But I could heal myself /If I could feel your skin.” Those lyrics, excerpted from the first verse of 🎵“Killing for Company,” are a bit disturbing 🎙 Swans – just saying. Nonetheless, disturbing is the right vibe for the serial killer at hand. Jeffrey Dahmer gets a hell of a lot attention as he should – he was hellish to the nth degree. However, Dahmer had a disturbing British counterpart, 🗡️🩸Dennis Nilsen (1945 – 2018).

Like Dahmer, Dennis Nilsen was homosexual, targeting gay boys and men.  Also, like Dahmer, he enjoyed dismembering the corpses, necrophilia, and keeping trophies (aka “company”). As awful as Nilsen was to normal folks, he earned the nickname as “The Kindly Killer.” Don’t let the nickname fool you –  there’s very little “kindly” about killing between 12 and 15.

“And if I heal your wound
We will make love again…”

As for the lyrics featured above, arguably they seem to fit with Nilsen nearly killing Carl Stotter, but ultimately reviving him.  All for the sake of company?

“I know we'll never end
Now there is no beginning
And when it’s cold at night
I’ll kiss your velvet sleeve
I know we'll never end
I’ll keep you company.”

6. Church of Misery, “El Padrino (Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo)”

💿 Houses of the Unholy • 🏷 Rise Above • 📅 2009

Gay Murderer🗡️🩸: Adolfo Constanzo

Japanese doom metal band 🎙 Church of Misery have a knack for covering the deviants of societies – serial killers, mass murderers, and cult leaders.  On 🎵“El Padrino,” they provide the twisted soundtrack to one of the most twisted individuals to ever walk the face of the earth, Cuban-American serial killer and cult leader, 🗡️🩸Adolfo Constanzo. According to Guy Garcia, in the 1989 Rolling Stone article, The Believers: Cult Murders in Mexico, Constanzo was “A known homosexual who frequented Mexico City’s Zona Rosa, or Pink Zone, Constanzo had lived in the capital for several years before moving to Matamoros.”  Of course, being gay doesn’t make anyone evil, even if there are those who might ascribe to that way of thinking. This guy was cruel to the nth degree, and homosexuality wasn’t the catalyst.

Biography.com summarizes Constanzo’s claim to infamy simply: He was “a serial killer in the 1980s, whose religious cult [🗡️🩸The Narcosatanists or Los Narcosatánicos in Spanish] performed ritual murders.  He evaded police until his 1989 assisted suicide.” Wow.  In the headline of the aforementioned Rolling Stone article, Garcia writes, “They thought their rituals of human sacrifice would make them invincible.  In the end, a much stronger force prevailed.”

As with all serial killers/cult leaders, Constanzo was one HELL of a complex guy – emphasis on the hell part of course.  Keeping the explanation basic, he’s an example of a religious fanatic who became empowered, utterly narcissistic, and brutally murdered.  This included the most famous murder of the bunch, college student Mark Kilroy, who is referenced by the news report at the beginning of “El Padrino.” After setting up the premise of the song, the pure evil is experienced through biting, distorted, and most undecipherable vocals, and angular, jagged, and malicious sounding guitars.  Clearly, the satanic nature of Constanzo and his cult is well represented musically, even if it doesn’t come close to the horrific nature of the real-life events.

7. Macabre, “Diary of Torture”

💿 Murder Metal • 🏷 Nuclear Blast • 📅 2019

Gay Murderer 🗡️🩸: Robert Berdella 

“Robert Berdella / Would torture young fellows / Until they were skin and bones / And when they were dead / The garbage man / Would take them away from his home.”  That’s eerie AF – UNDERSTATEMENT. Notably, once more, we look to doom metal extraordinaire 🎙 Macabre to make a statement about a serial killer, this time 🗡️🩸Robert Berdella (1949 – 1992) via 🎵“Diary of Torture.” Mr. Berdella was infamously known as The Kansas City Butcher, notably keeping detailed notes and photos of his tortured and raped victims.  All I can say is, “Ain’t that some shit?”

Anyways, Cat McAuliffe does a superb job of capturing the horror of this infamous homosexual serial killer on her Ranker list, Horrifying Details About Robert Berdella….  One of the most bothersome points she makes is the fact that “He was friends with most of the men he tortured and killed.” Of course, she also mentions bothersome things like “The father of one of his victims suspected Berdella killed his son,” as well as the fact Berdella “Incapacitated his victims with sedatives and animal tranquilizers.” My, my, my!

But enough background.  Macabre definitely gives us a stunning, if satirical portrait of the evil of Berdella.  Also, worth noting, Berdella died of a heart attack while incarcerated in 1992, aged 43.

“My fist has ripped your anal wall
So, penicillin I prescribe
To keep you alive and subject you
To much more torture before you die
With a home-made ballast plugged in the wall
7000 volts I apply
With battery cables clamped on to your scrotum
Your testicles I will fry.”

8. Phoebe Bridgers, “Killer”

💿 Stranger in the Alps • 🏷 Dead Oceans • 📅 2017

Gay murderer🗡️🩸: Jeffrey Dahmer

“Sometimes I think I’m a killer / I scared you in your house / I even scared myself by talking / About Dahmer on your couch.” Chilling, particularly bringing 🗡️🩸Jeffrey Dahmer into the mix… That’s what singer/songwriter 🎙 Phoebe Bridgers does on 🎵“Killer,” a piano ballad from her critically acclaimed debut album, 💿Stranger in the Alps (2017). The psychological “Killer” explores dark thoughts, in addition to the reference to aforementioned reference to Dahmer on the first verse.  It recently appeared on the Dahmer-specific true crime playlist, 🎧Infernal Songs That Capture the Horrors of Jeffrey Dahmer.

Of course, Bridgers continues the reference to Dahmer. on this beautiful if somewhat disturbing number:

“But I can’t sleep next to a body
Even harmless in death
Plus, I’m pretty sure I’d miss you
And faking sleep to count your breath.”

Dahmer seemed to have no issues whatsoever sleeping next to corpses, not to mention abusing them prior and after death.  Here, Bridgers may have her share of dark thoughts, but she doesn’t take it to the same level as Mr. Dahmer in the least.  Still, on the chorus, Bridgers makes more killer references, though bloodlust itself might be an overstatement.

“Can the killer in me
Tame the fire in you?
Or is there nothing left to do for us?
I am sick of the chase
But I’m hungry for blood
And there’s nothing I can do.

9. Rammstein, “Mein Teil”

💿 Reise, Reise • 🏷 Capitol • 📅 2004

Gay murderer 🗡️🩸: Armin Meiwes

“Denn du bist was du isst / Und ihr wisst was es ist.” In English, the German translation of the lyrics from the twisted 🎙 Rammstein gem, 🎵“Mein Teil,” translates into the following: “Because you are what you eat / And you know what it is.” While the saying is tried and true, it takes a disgusting turn given the fact Rammstein offer up the second song on this list about cannibal, murderer, and vorarephile, 🗡️🩸Armin Meiwes. Honestly, one song about the Rotenberg Cannibal just doesn’t sufficiently capture his utter insanity.

One particular section of “Mein Teil” highlights the eating of, um, the penis, specifically, the penis of his victim, Bernd Brandes. Luke Harding (The Guardian) wrote in his 2003 article, Victim of Cannibal Agreed to be Eaten:

On the evening of March 9, the two men went up to the bedroom in Meiwes’ rambling timbered farmhouse. Mr Brandes swallowed 20 sleeping tablets and half a bottle of schnapps before Meiwes cut off Brandes’ penis, with his agreement, and fried it for both of them to eat.

Yes, it’s too much information, but both Meiwes and Brandes wanted to partake in this perverted experience.  Of course, Rammstein have a total ‘field day’ with this shit, which you totally can’t make up.

“The blunt blade good and right
I’m bleeding hard and I’m sick
I also have to fight with the impotence
I continue eating cramps
Is so well seasoned
And so beautifully flamboyant
And so lovingly served on porcelain…”

10. Bathory, “33 Something”

💿 Jubileum III • 🏷 Black Mark Prod. / B.Forsberg • 📅 1998

Gay murderer🗡️🩸: John Wayne Gacy 

“Forcing his way into your ass / John Wayne Gacy is near / Flesh will rip and blood will flow / This death comes in your rear.” Oh shit! It should come as no surprise that an extreme metal band, 🎙 Bathory, named after an infamous serial killer (The Blood Countess, Elizabeth Báthory), lay claim to the most graphic song on this list. 🎵“33 Something,” which appears on the Swedish band’s 1998 album, 💿Jubileum III, is chaotic from the jump – madness exemplified.  The band gets right into the horror of 🗡️🩸John Wayne Gacy (1942 – 1994) – perhaps too much into it.

“One of 33 Something
All who were raped and bled
The last thing you will ever hear
Before you’re fucking dead is…
Drink my cum, take my rum
Blooded hole, twisted soul
Eat my shit, suck my dick
Writhe in pain and die insane.”

Raw to the nth degree.  Equally chilling, though less explicit is how Bathory sums up the experience with the serial killer.

“Once you’ve played with Mr. Gacy
There’s no way out, no release
In the attic is hell, then in the
Basement you’ll find peace.”

11. Moth Wranglers “Turnabout (For Dennis)”

💿 Never Again • 🏷 moth wranglers • 📅 2010

Gay Murderer: Dennis Nilsen

“Someone else has played this game / Did something awful – though I’m not quite sure how / Someone hid behind his name / Did things unlawful – and you can’t stop him now.” Just to reiterate, 🗡️🩸Dennis Nilsen (1945 – 2018) was the British counterpart to 🗡️🩸Jeffrey Dahmer – let that sink in… Also, in reiteration, like Dahmer, Nilsen was homosexual, targeting gay boys and men and enjoyed dismembering corpses and necrophilia. Let me make it clear, sexuality is NOT the problem in any shape or form – that should be obvious.  It’s the perverted stuff Mr. Nilsen did – Dismemberment and necrophilia – that’s GROSS to the nth degree. UNDERSTATEMENT.

“It’s just a lark, a little game / And darling, we’ve all felt the same / It’s just a fad, a passing stage / A product of this anxious age / Bad boy led the world astray / I can’t explain, but I can show you how / Sad boy sighed his life away / He felt no pain – well, not much anyhow.” Indie rock duo 🎙 Moth Wranglers tackle “The Kindly Killer” on the song, 🎵“Turnabout (For Dennis),” which appears on their 2010 album, 💿Never Again. And if I can’t make it clear enough, Nilsen was hardly kind, given his murderous escapades.

“It’s just a phase, perhaps a ruse
It’s nothing bad – he’s just confused
It’s just a shame, it’s just the truth
No, nothing serious – call it youth.”