| Slow, Deep And Hard | review #2 | 1991 |
| The Origin Of The Feces | review #2 | 1992 |
| Bloody Kisses | review #2 | 1993 |
| October Rust | review #2 | 1996 |
| World Coming Down | review #2 | 1999 |
| The Least Worst Of | 2000 |
| Life Is Killing Me | 2003 |
A very intriguing combo led by bassist, vocalist and primary songwriter Pete Steele, who's quite a character in himself with his violin shaped, distorted bass, 6'7" frame, vampire-like vocals, gloomy lyricism and outspoken nature. Add in keyboardist Josh Silver, who brings a heck of a lot of ambience to the sound, guitarist Kenny Hickey (who is the most metal-oriented instrumentalist in the band) and drummer Johnny Kelly and you've got Type O's distinctive sound, which can be considered a hybrid of goth, progressive, doom, punk, pop, and metal, sometimes even like the Beatles meeting Black Sabbath, as Steele describes the sound of October Rust.
Type O's debut Slow, Deep And Hard was literally was a cross between hateful punkish attitude, Sabbath riffs, and progressive arrangements. The transition was made to a more 'gothic' sound with the introduction of Steele's vampire vocal style on the live effort Origin Of The Feces. Bloody Kisses, meanwhile, was the quintessential Type O album, encompassing all of their sides the best, and October Rust had a more sensual, taking the listener away to other places feel. Their latest effort, World Coming Down, returned a bit more to the slow riff dynamics of their first album, but maintained the catchy melodies and experimentation.
--Nick Karn
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(Nick Karn's review)
Slow, Deep And Hard is quite an appropriate title for Type O Negative's debut - the riffs (especially when there are no vocals) often grind at ridiculously slow speeds, the songs are involved in terms of construction, stretched out to epic lengths (there are two songs that exceed 12 minutes and another three somewhere between 6 and 10), often alternating between those slower riffs, faster punkish sections, and haunting organ breaks, and it's defintely hard musically, lyrically and vocally, as Pete Steele's vocals are more of the angry, vicious growling type than on future Type O albums, with lyrics that are extremely hateful, bitter and downright threatening failed relationship rants.
The first of these songs which seem to mock pretentiousness in their titles, "Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infidelity" (clocking in at 12:41), is fairly unmemorable in its first half, moving from torturously slow passages and more aggressive sections that don't really flow together, but the second half (which sounds like a separate song in itself), "I Know You're Fucking Someone Else", is a hysterically offensive aftermath of a girlfriend cheating on her man, with the riff and hook being damn catchy to boot (the chorus featuring a background vocal chant is classic), and the slower, more calm and reflective but still noticeably bitter, keyboard dominated section shows the band's promise extremely well.
"Der Untermensch" marks the first appearance of a mysterious "cranking" device, and is in the same vein as the first half of the previous song, kinda boring musically and half-baked in anger. "Xero Tolerance", however, is a more focused multi-part threat of rage that sounds genuinely terrifying - the psycho screams of 'I'll kill you tonight', the pounding middle section that outlines the details of the killer's twisted plan, and the organ and acoustic guitar sections of the song make it a major highlight. "Prelude To Agony", meanwhile, basically is what it sounds like from its' title, that mysterious "cranking" device making an even more prominent appearance in the 'agony' section with some convincing punkier moments, but at 12:14, it just drags a bit too long.
"The Glass Walls Of Limbo", meanwhile, is quite interesting as a background embellishment but it's not recommended that you give your full attention to it - it's basically a soundscape of what sounds like huge bags of glass being dragged off the top of a wall and being thrown to the ground with low-register chanting going on. A repetitive 6-1/2 minutes of it is just too much. "The Misinterpretation Of Silence And Its' Disasterous Consequences" offers a minute of silence before the album closes with the 9 minute "Gravitational Constant" (there's more to that title, but I won't bother typing it all out), the most riff-oriented number with hate filled lyrics, booming slow middle sections, a couple of low register chanting sections and some fairly profound lines at the end ('suicide is self expression' being the final one). Again, though, it's pretty representative of most of the album - being somewhat too long and unfocused. It's a good debut on account of its' more inventive, high-quality moments, though, just highly uneven with a few too many monotonous parts.
The first Type O Negative album doesn't sound a bit like any album they put out after it (except for the "live" Origin Of The Feces, but that's neither here nor there). It's pretty raw, in fact - very little of the pretty type, slow goth rock people came to expect from Type O Negative, and Peter Steele's voice is a hoarse shout, a far cry from the confident, dark, deep voice he would soon develop. Well, I'll give 'em slow - lots of these songs poke along at an extremely slow tempo. They didn't quite have the hang of this yet, so sometimes the riffs just grind on and on and never really lead anywhere.
I, for one, have never been too thrilled by the opening "Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infidelity", which goes on for about 5 minutes too long - each of the 2 halves should have been cut in half. I'd like it at 5 minutes, but 10 is too much, even if the chant of "I Know You're Fucking Someone Else!" is pretty dang funny. Similarly, the closing "Gravitational Constant" isn't too memorable. It isn't bad, but you probably won't remember it. There's also a really long atmospheric piece called "The Glass Walls Of Limbo", which would have been creepy for 2 minutes, but not for 6 and a half. It's weird "chunking" noises and some weird chanting in the background. With some editing, this could have been a really good album.
Fortunately, however, I like the rest of the stuff straight through. "Der Untermensch" is my favorite song here - it's got this awesome, grinding riff and some great sound effects to really bring out the creepiness of the music. "Xero Tolerence" starts out good, and then turns into an AWESOME thrash rocker with some vicious lyrics. It's silly and overblown ("I've got a pickaxe in the trunk of my car/I'lll put it on the grinder to get it real sharp"), but it's still great. Finally, the REALLY long "Prelude To Agony", in spite of being a couple of minutes too long, has a GREAT, pounding middle section and a hypnotic chant of the word "Pain" over and over at the end, while a slow riff eats into your brain. Great stuff. Still, it's not as good as they got later, the production is pretty bad, and the album needed a LOT of editing. Still, the highlights make it a worthwhile venture.
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(Nick Karn's review)
Type O Negative's second release is probably the best showcase of their dark sense of humor, as it's made to sound like a live concert where the crowd was extremely unappreciative (chanting 'you suck you suck!' and throwing bottles at Pete, for instance), but it's actually a fake live effort recorded in the studio with the crowd added on later. The set list is almost all songs from their debut album, which may prompt readers to question the point of buying this album Well, there are several reasons for that - first off, the debut album tracks are reworked in such a way that they're vastly improved and more focused, often cut down in length to more concise versions, retitled and in generally better, deceptively more passionate, form. Plus, with the reissue of this album (which also came with a cover change - don't ask) two years later came a bonus track in the form of a cover version of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", which I'll get into later.
The 'show' begins with "I Know You're Fucking Someone Else" (actually a 15 minute version of the whole "Unsuccessfully Coping..." suite), which is similar most of the time, but with one notable difference - Pete Steele's newly introduced 'vampire' vocal style on the second half of the song. The unreleased 'pro-suicide' anthem "Are You Afraid" is used as an intro to "Gravity" (new title of "Gravitational Constant"), whose torturously slow middle grind is musically made more interesting, and the song is stopped due to a 'bomb scare' before it has the chance to become overlong due to the ending chant, while the formerly 12 minute "Pain" is reduced to a thankfully more concise nearly 5 minute version, which very much improves it.
After Pete's announcement to the crowd of 'I've got some good news for you morons... this is gonna be our last song!', "Kill You Tonight" (essentially sections of "Xero Tolerance") follows, separated into three tracks, including the second, a cover version of the Jimi Hendrix classic that was already a cover itself "Hey Joe" retitled "Hey Pete", with different lyrics that suit the "Kill You Tonight" slasher mood (essentially an effective example of the 'pissed off relationship' / 'death metal parody' vibe of this material) before the reprise closes the show, as well as the original album, by which point whatever was remaining of the crowd had been left.
Afterwards, though, there's still the matter of the bonus cover of Sabbath's "Paranoid", which I think the band performed on a tribute album - it was either that song, or "Black Sabbath", and it's nothing short of phenomenal, showcasing Type O's considerable ability to really make cover versions their own at its' best. The original song clocked in at just under 3 minutes, but in typical fashion of the band, this version is extended to over 7 and drastically slowed down, really bringing out the tortured pain of the original with Pete's vocals, as well as additional eerie keyboards, and an actual chorus added on to give the song a majestic quality reminiscent of the "Green Man" anthem two albums later. As a result, this track guarantees Origin Of The Feces at least a solid 7 rating, and the album is absolutely essential for anyone interested in the band.
A fake live album, cut in the studio with an unappreciative audience dubbed overtop (they throw beer bottles at the band, chant that they suck, and leave during the last number). Musically, it mostly overlaps the material on the last album except for 1 new song and a bonus track on the CD reissue of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", even though the songs have new names. It sounds like a big ripoff, but it's actually a little better than the last album, earning a low 7 instead of the really high 6 Slow, Deep and Hard got.
First of all, the audience makes the album funny, and has some great quotes and chants (the audience starts chanting "Fuck you!" during the opening "I Know You're Fucking Someone Else", which is actually "Unsuccessfully Coping" from the last album, before Pete just screams "Yeah, fuck you too". Funny in context, it is. Second, the production is MILES better. The group doesn't sound like the mics are coated in Jello anymore. Third, a lot of the songs are edited down a bit, which improves them more times than not. The songs basically sound the same as before, albeit shorter and with better production. I really mourn the loss of "Der Untermensch", though, as it was my favorite track on the last album and isn't played here (though a brief snippet does show up in one of the songs).
After the "live" show, though, comes the awesome cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". It was recorded several years later, so it sounds more like modern Type O Negative. The song is totally turned upside down, played EXTREMELY slowly and with a desperate, chiming "Can you help me feel love?" chorus added it. It sounds blasphemous, but the version actually DOES rule. If not for that track, this would get another 6, as a lot of the live songs aren't any stronger than they were before, but this cover and the improved production pulls it up a notch. It's basically only for big fans, but they should like what they hear.
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(Nick Karn's review)
This was Type O's artistic (and as close as they've come to a commercial) breakthrough, encompassing in 14 tracks all of their best ambitions, somewhat of a leap forward from the constant anger, hatred and extremely dragging qualities of Slow, Deep And Hard. There are fascinating, quite dark and disturbing interlude sound bite tracks (including the opening, uhh, orgasm fest of "Machine Screw", the tribal "Fay Wray Come Out And Play", the self explanatory "Dark Side Of The Womb" and the curious "3.0.I.F."), traces left of anarchic punk reminiscent of the debut and Pete Steele's pre-Type O band Carnivore (the musical joke "Kill All The White People", for example, is a hilariously great chant, with an adrenaline rushed purposely cliched punk riff), and extended progressive epic tracks ("Christian Woman").
There's also Halloween imagery (the 11 minute "Black No. 1", which has that perfect kind of atmosphere going in its' keyboards and Steele's vocals and lyrics), songs with lust sentiments (the killer riff-driven "Blood And Fire", which has a very sensual acoustic section in the middle with Steele speaking in French, plus the grinding, gothic rendition of Seals And Crofts' "Summer Breeze") and utter hopelessness (the nearly 11 minute title track which gives off the feeling of a 'death in the family' - it's bleakness at its' best). The classic "Too Late: Frozen", meanwhile, starts out in a tight, uptempo riff mode before going to a slow, desperate, completely powerful 'I'm freezing' section.
The album's signature song is the aforementioned 3 part epic "Christian Woman", which is very dark and emotionally intense. The first part features keyboards in the verse sections giving the song an added 'gothic' depth to go along with the low vampire vocals and a chilling melody, especially in the 'ooooooooh' choir-like chorus with nice riffage going along with it. The second part goes into relaxing acoustic mode before a perfectly placed solo section leads into the great riffing chug in the third part that ends the song (with the repeated line 'Jesus Christ looks like me'). "We Hate Everyone" is another stunning track, starting out like a normal venomous punk rocker with anger directed at Steele's detractors until it's amazing, drastically different but coherent irresistible middle section turns the song inside out.
Rounding out the album are the two repetitive but truly mesmerizing side closers, the extension of "Summer Breeze", "Set Me On Fire", which has great organ work, and the incredible credit-rolling album ending track "Can't Lose You", a majestic, totally powerful and emotional song with sitar embellishments in between each verse adding to the mood. The song then builds up to a great chanting section before it all of a sudden ends without warning, a great example of Type O really toying with my emotions here. In all, Bloody Kisses is quite an addictive, consistently brilliant and all around creative effort, which is almost worthy of a 10, but doesn't quite attain it because the eclectic mix of songs here doesn't always quite gel together. Completely recommended by me though.
Type O Negative really came into their own here and delivered one of my all time favorite metal albums. I know they aren't considered "cool" anymore, and several people view them as sell outs, but the fact remains that this is some STRONG material, keeping me completely entertained for more than 70 minutes. Type O Negative sounds more like they're known for here - Peter Steele's voice has grown immeasurably stronger, the tunes are more developed, prettier, and don't sound a second too long, and the group has developed their own, totally original sound of beautiful goth/doom rock with some goofy humor thrown in.
The group's 2 epic tracks here, "Christian Woman" and "Black No. 1", both epitomize all of these qualities. The former is stunning, a 3 part epic about the Christian woman Pete's in love with and her infernal lust for flesh. The lyrics come across as funny, even though Peter Steele sings them as if they were of utmost importance. The groups keyboards become more prominent here, too, tossing in organ riffs and atmospheric wailings that add to the mood of any song, particularly "Christian Woman". "Black No. 1" is 11 minutes long, but it has a spectacular riff and more funny lyrics, this time about a goth girl who can't leave her house because her roots are growing back and she can't be clad in only dark black. Clever. There's a couple of poppier numbers here, too, and they also rule. I LOVE the fast chant of "Set Me On Fire", complete with backwards guitars and organs.
Elsewhere, "Too Late:Frozen" features an amazing riff and a breathtaking middle section, featuring Peter singing "I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZING!!!", and you really get the feeling of being frozen. The music complements it perfectly. The closing "Can't Lose You", a long, dreary chant, complete with sitar, is hypnotic, not getting dull for a second. I could go on about this record, but it'd be boring, so I'll stop rambling. Needless to say, this is a spectacular album. Looking at the tracks here, I can't think of a single track that doesn't stand out (except for the dorky joke of "Kill All The White People", but I can ignore that), and can't think of a single reason not to give this a 10. I'd recommend this album to anyone. Highest recommendations.
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COMMENTS
Actually, I don't think that's Peter Steele singing on the "Frozen" section; it sounds like a completely different signer. Even if Peter could sing that high I don't think he would sound like that. I'm not sure but it's probably guitarist Kenny Hickey. It could be Josh but judging from the introductory tack on October Rust he, unlike Kenny, doesn't seem like the person who would have an elfish voice like that. It obviously isn't Sal because those same vocals appear on subsequent albums after he left. Anyway, whoever is doing the doing the alternate vocals (i.e. the lead vocals that aren't from Peter that appear in various places throughout their post-Origin stuff) has got a great voice. A beautiful voice, one that really enhances the songs that they're placed in. Just listen to him singing in "Love You to Death", damn does it add a lot to the song!
Oh, the album. God it rules. I first heard Bloody Kisses back in November of '97 when me and my brother were scouring through his collection of dubbed tapes. I found a tape labelled "Type O Negative + Joy Division". I had already heard a couple of their songs ("My Girlfriend's Girlfirend", "Love You to Death" and "Bloody Kisses" on one of my local rock stations back in '96 when I lived in Kentucky (the latter song was played on the station's "metal" show which would expalin how it got on the radio in the first place) and was quite interested in them, not to mention the fact that my brother was a big fan. So I popped it into the tape player and was a bit surprised when the first song I heard was "Kill All the White People" ("Huh? Where's the keyboards? And what's up with the singer's voice?"). But once the tape got to "Too Late: Frozen" with that incredible hook I realized I had just stumbled upon a classic. So I took it with me on my family's trip to Alabama on Thanksgiving of that same year and listened to it riding in the backseat. Needless to say, I fell in love with the album, later buying it as part of my easter basket the following year and it became a staple of riding in the backseat at night on long car trips.
So yeah, the album has a lot of sentimental value to me, and the memories it brings back do help, but that doesn't mean the album doesn't rule on its own. Quite the opposite in fact. Unlike a lot of other goth/doom bands, Type O Negative mastered a very important aspect of music that other bands in the genre preferred to skimp on: melody. And boy does this album have it! Killer riffs (made even better by Kenny Hickey's marvelous, vibrant tone), lovely keyboard passages, great vocals courtesy of Peter Steele (which would get even better on the next album), and spectacular, creative drum lines from Sal Abruscato (his replacement, John Kelly, does a great job of taking his place, though he doesn't have the god-like tone that Sal presented on the first two Type O albums) all wrapped up in a series of catchy hooks that keep the album from ever getting boring in its 74 minute run time. I could go on all day about the wonderful things that go on in the album: the beautiful chorus and breathtaking solo in "Christian Woman", the kick-ass keyboard/guitar interplay in the middle of "Black No. 1", Kenny's lovely vocals in "Set Me on Fire", the climax of the title track where Peter is screaming over Kenny's soaring solo (quite possible the highlight of the album, and perhaps the band's entire carreer), the killer guitar/drum interplay in "Too Late" etc. etc. Every song on this album rules. EVERY SONG. How many albums can you name that have nothing but great tracks? Even the somewhat nondescript "Kill All the White People" has a really catchy riff and aweseome, rolling drums. There's not a dull moment on this album (well, the "Frozen" part of "Too Late" is a little long, but that's neither here nor there); most bands would saw off their legs to make an album this consistent. Simply put, despite what some nay-sayers might have you believe, these guys have TALENT! And the production is great! Crystal clear, well-balanced (although the keyboards are a bit soft at times), and pristine, it's really hard to believe that this album was self-produced, as well as on the kind of budget they must have had. Ah, the benifits of digital recording! True, there's a distinct lack of bass, and you could make a case about the sparseness of the sound as well as a slight lack of punch on the guitar (though that's to be expected since Kenny's sound has always been more about texture than crunch), but when you've got a mix this clear and vibrant on an underground recording (remember this was 1993, before the big nu-"metal" craze that put Roadrunner in the ssame league as the bigshots; they were pretty much an indie label back then), how can you complain? There's a good reason why this album has been so close to my heart over the years: it kicks fucking ass. A definite 10. Get it, it's that simple.
(Nick Karn's review)
This was the band's attempt at a goth, pop and metal hybrid, and it works excellently. More 'fuzz noise' distortion on the guitars (along with Pete Steele's distorted bass and Josh Silver's keyboards) make the songs sound more like soundscapes that happen to have hooks than riff-driven metal numbers. Anyway, October Rust flows a bit more than the previous album, with the songs mostly dealing lyrically with nature, lost love, death, and romantic lust, which are more coherent themes this time around. It doesn't get off to that great a start, though, as the album basically wastes a minute by making an "Intro" track of nothing more than the sound of an amplifier being plugged in, and the first untitled one the band laughing thinking they've played a joke on the listener, then subsequently introducing themselves thanking them for buying the album.
Once the actual songs start, however, it's a different story - the passionate lyrics of "Love You To Death" coupled with gentle piano in the verses and an uplifting riff at the bridge make the song special, while the most riff-based song here, "Be My Druidess", has very upfront bass work, more romance in the air and an eerie slow 'I'll do anything, to make you come' ending section. "Green Man" is most representative of a 'being one with nature' desire lyrically (great guitar work), while "Red Water (Christmas Mourning)" is about the most depressing Christmas song you'll ever hear (being 'Negafied' it would have to be) - unsettling eerie, soaring keyboards, loud as hell guitars, a breathtakingly depressing hook and lyrics about the death of Steele's father - on Christmas day. "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend" meanwhile, is the most uptempo pop number with an incredibly addictive keyboard part and a really fun hook - it's also lyrically intriguing, being about a love triangle between two lesbians and another man.
"Die With Me" is a more longing and reflective song that starts out in an acoustic vein before getting a bit heavier and progressive, and "Burnt Flowers Fallen" takes a riff and a few lines of lyrics and proceeds to cement them into your brain with a slower, more mopey section of 'all of the flowers I gave her, she burned them' thrown in there. The most obviously gothic song, "In Praise Of Bacchus", throughout its 7-1/2 minutes boasts good riffs, time changes, nice harmonies and a low register choir section at the end, while the cover choice of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" this time around lyrically and musically fits Type O's ambition for the album. The minute long soundbite "The Glorious Liberation Of The People's Republic Of Vinland" leads into two more dark gothic numbers to close the album, the creepy, purposefully overblown and ridiculous "Wolf Moon" and the slow, dirgey, and romantic "Haunted". Overall, October Rust isn't as consistent as the previous offering, but is still very well constructed and outstanding.
The intentionally "commercial" follow up to Bloody Kisses isn't quite as perfect as the album the preceded it, but it's damn close. Here, Type O pretty much dropped the edge from their music, concentrating more on the heavy, slow riffs, gorgeous organs, Peter's great voice, and the dark atmosphere that their music creates. The group also tries one total pop song, "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend", which sounds kinda awkward and dumb. The rest of this material is still top notch, featuring moments that rival the best on Kisses. Notably, the opening cut (though it came after 2 short "joke" tracks) "Love You To Death", is one of my all time favorite songs. It has the most majestic, perfect guitar riff imaginable, an amazingly chilly atmosphere, and Peter Steele's best vocal performance. It rules!
Likewise the majestic "In Praise Of Bacchus", which has a nearly perfect ending and another hypnotic chant. "Green Man" sounds very stately, featuring lyrics and music that both give the listener a great feel of autumn coming on. The title of this record, October Rust, suits the music perfectly - this is perfect music to listen to in 50 degree weather during a shower, watching the leaves change from green to orange and red. I've never heard a title that fits the music better anywhere. Plus, the booklet features some great pictures and photographs that help set the mood. This is a really well thought out album.
In what would become a tradition, Type O Negative covers an old song and radically reworks it here. On the last album, it was "Summer Breeze". On this album, it's Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl", which turns into a great goth chant. The guitar riff the guys add into the middle of the tune gives it more majesty (I know, I've used the word too many time, I'm sorry...) than even Neil could muster. Great album! Not quite worth a 10, as a couple of tunes aren't as shattering as others, but that's no reason not to buy it NOW.
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(Nick Karn's review)
A darker, heavier and slower album than the previously 'pop' October Rust, World Coming Down returns a bit more to the Slow, Deep And Hard era in terms of grinding riffs, but with much more focus, better arrangements, atmosphere and lyrics than that album. In fact, this may be the most coherent Type O record yet, as all the songs convey dark and bleak emotion with even Josh Silver's sound bite interludes completely fitting the mood of the album (unlike Bloody Kisses). Although Silver's keyboard playing (an important part of the band's sound) is hardly prominent at all this time around, the strong melodies, riffs, song arrangements and feeling often make up for it. I just wish they'd get rid of those short, pointless musical jokes that open the album (this time it's an 11 second track called "Skip It", which makes it sound as if the CD's skipping).
World Coming Down's real opener, "White Slavery", is a nearly 9 minute grinding, cynical look at popular culture, apparent in such lyrics as, 'Let me say Pepsi generation, a few lines of misinformation, watch your money flow away oh so quick, to kill yourself properly Coke is it', with a chilling stripped down portion of the song in the middle ('I rot away…') and a soaring chorus ('I've lost myself again…'). "Everyone I Love Is Dead" has a nice riff, bassline and grieving lyrics about Pete Steele's losing of close family members in such a short span of time, while "Who Will Save The Sane" (which has very intriguing lyrics with scientific references) is one of the few tracks where Josh Silver makes a prominent appearance, his organ giving the song a jazzy feel, and the title song closes the first half as the slowest, dirgiest song on the album at over 11 minutes, but it never gets boring for a second on account of the eerie middle section where the lyrics are fairly profound life philosophies, plus the majestic rendering of the powerful chorus with sitar backing towards the end.
The second half gets a bit weaker, although still fairly consistent and strong - "Creepy Green Light" is very reminiscent of the more 'gothic' sounding October Rust material, while "Everything Dies" is the highlight of the record, Pete Steele again singing heartbreaking lyrics over the death of loved ones being made more powerful by beautiful, laidback Motown-ish piano, a nice bassline, and a fantastic interlude section ('oh God, I miss you…') with a wonderfully moving uptempo guitar solo. "Pyretta Blaze", another October Rust style song that still manages to gel with the rest of the album, has the most striking chorus, and "All Hallow's Eve" is a brilliantly moody Halloween song with some strong backing vocal parts from Kenny Hickey and an exceptional chorus.
Closing out the album, meanwhile, is the mandatory cover version, which this time around is a medley of Beatles classics built on the riff-oriented "Day Tripper" that also ventures into "If I Needed Someone" and the slow riff part of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which is absolutely perfect for the Type O style, and the rest of the medley is convincingly executed. Overall, despite a few tracks being a bit too lengthy and some of the riffs being somewhat similar to earlier songs, this is still Type O's most consistent outing, earning a high 8 as opposed to a low one for October Rust.
A bit of a step down. Type O Negative is trying to retreat a bit here, bringing back the endless slow riff pattern of Slow, Deep and Hard on a few songs. Plus, the group isn't really trying new ideas here - they're basically treading water. As such, a few of the tunes don't go anywhere, especially on the second half. "All Hallow's Eve" and "Creepy Green Light", while not bad per se, certainly pale next to the groups other post-hardcore material. And "Pyretta Blaze", in spite of having a spectacular chorus, is too long.
Thankfully, though, a lot of this material is still totally excellent. My favorites are the title track and "Everything Dies". The title track is really long and ridiculously slow, but it really drags you in, with its endlessly pessimistic "I know that my world is coming down/and I know that I'm the one who brought it down/Brought it down/Bring it on down..." chorus draining your soul. Plus, its got a cool sitar arrangement on it! "Everything Dies", on the other hand, is a more upbeat form of melancholia, featuring a soaring chorus and guitar solo. "White Slavery", the album opener, is painfully slow, but I mean "painful" in a good way - it sounds really dark and depressing and captures a mood of despair perfectly. And speaking of despair, there are 3 sound bites depicting death by different types of diseased body parts and drugs. Lovely! They add to the mood quite well, actually. I never skip 'em.
The closer here, a medley of Beatles songs, is interesting, to say the least. It starts with "Daytripper", featuring an obscenely heavy version of that famous riff leading into some great singing. It crashes into "If I Needed Someone", which sounds extremely moving here. Great tune by the Beatles, and Type O make it sound just as good while being totally different. A brief reprise of "Day Tripper" sends the group into the dark coda of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which drags on a bit too long (like the Beatles original did), but still sounds pretty good. This is a worthwhile album, but it seems that the group is kinda in a rut here. Fans of the last 2 albums should feel free to pick it up, as it's certainly enjoyable, just not amazing.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
A modestly titled best of collection, The Least Worst Of does a mixed job of summarizing the band's career. The major singles and most celebrated songs from the albums are mostly here, but the problem is they're almost all in edited or remixed versions, which isn't always effective. Sometimes this doesn't matter ("Everyone I Love Is Dead", "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend", the studio version of the 'live' "Hey Pete"), and an interesting techno remix improves "Cinnamon Girl", making it sound different than even the October Rust version does from Neil Young's original. Other times, however, the edits seriously take away from the epic effect of the song ("Love You To Death", "Christian Woman", "Black No. 1") or save an important climax for near the end ("Everything Dies"), while the one song that badly needs the most editing (the 12 minute "Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infidelity") is the only one left unchanged.
There are also four cuts not on any studio album (two of them released only on singles and tributes), and while decent, none of them really add anything to the Type O legacy, and they're all undeservingly lengthier than the edits of the hits. The 8 minute World Coming Down leftovers "It's Never Enough" and "Stay Out Of My Dreams" are little more than average rehashes of previous work, while the cover of Black Sabbath's signature title song (from the Satanic perspective, no less) is so unbearingly plodding, even the notorious 'interval of the devil' section and ending chant doesn't help. "12 Black Rainbows" is probably the best of the lot, due to its' much shorter length and catchy chorus, but even that one isn't too spectacular. In all, though, this is still a worthwhile summary of Type O's career, since there's a good amount of fine music within (and fans should own it for the new tracks), but you'd be much better off with the albums to start with, since they're so much more convincingly epic and well put together.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: I Don't Wanna Be Me, Life Is Killing Me. LOW POINTS: None.
Ugh... maybe a better title for this album would be Creative Stagnation Is Killing Me. Or at least that's what my 'negative' side happened to be pondering on first listen to this. If it seemed that World Coming Down was somewhat of a regression for Pete Steele and the rest of Type O, its' followup is probably even more so - here, it seems like Pete is almost incapable of creating original vocal melodies anymore, with the atmosphere and hooks of almost every song really, really strongly bringing to mind something from a previous album (October Rust and World Coming Down especially). But on future listens, I found myself enjoying this a lot more. Repeating a formula or not, the Type O sound on here still sounds really attractive to me, with the huge production, heavily distorted guitars, lush harmonies, ironic lyrics and such all still worked in perfectly. But that's not the only reason the album's enjoyable.
Actually, there are a couple main reasons I still consider Life Is Killing Me a success in spite of obvious retreading flaws. One, this is probably the band's most song-oriented effort ever - dude, every track on here can be called a song! Yeah, "Thir13teen" and "Drunk In Paris" are short interlude-length pieces near the beginning and end, but they're still instrumental songs, both with memorable themes - especially the latter, with its' beautifully sorrowful keyboard part. Also, for the most part they've slightly toned down their repetitve, dirge-like tendencies of old, as there aren't very many overwhelmingly slow numbers, and a large number of them don't exceed 6 minutes. Plus, there's still a few clever ideas scattered around here and there, like about the hugest sitar sound ever on the typically bombastic "Less Than Zero" and the perfectly Beatles-eque piano pop chord progression of "(We Were) Electrocute", to name a couple.
Oh, and get this - there are even fast songs on here! I guess the speed is one of those things I sorely missed on the last two albums where they were non-existent, and they come right out of the gates with that quality on "I Don't Wanna Be Me", probably the band's best punk-styled track and one of the few instances where the vocal melody is actually distinctive and really catchy. Everything about the song is a rush, from the pessimistic lyrics, the '1-2... 1-2-3-4!!!' chanting, the riveting guitar breaks, and the chilling bass/keyboard-laden 'dress in black....' bridge. It's definitely the major classic on the album, and a perfect choice for the lead single. "I Like Goils" and "Angry Inch" (the mandatory cover this time around, taken from the musical Hedwig And The Angry Inch) are also among the most delightfully amusing and entertaining Type O performances out there, and the failed sex change operation subject matter of the latter song in particular is right up their alley. I always get the aggressive delivery of 'SIX INCHES FORWARD AND FIVE INCHES BACK' caught in my head.
Make no mistake about it, though, this is still Type O Negative, and there's still plenty of epic-styled stuff on here. "Anesthesia" has a really passionate sounding yells of 'I don't neeeeeeeeed love...' coming out of its' bass-driven moodiness and actually gets more keyboard-heavy as it goes on for once (Josh Silver is, unfortunately, again neutered for most of the album), "Nettie" boasts the most eerily gorgeous harmonizing, and the closing "The Dream Is Dead" overcomes a lame "Sweet Leaf" ripoff opening riff by later turning into a beautifully optimistic-sounding pop song in contrast to its' deciedly not optimistic lyrics. And although the overly pretentious lyrics to the title track annoy me in places (the lines about doctors and thieves both wearing masks in particular), the song structure, with its' choir-like opening verses, aggressive catchy chorus and the descending riffage on the bridge ('just let me die... with dignity'), makes it a major highlight.
And the rest... while nothing is overly bad, and all these other tracks have something to recommend them in addition to the still awesome sound, there are a bit too many annoying flaws and formulaic tendencies. The gimmick of Pete naming as many female TV characters as he can in the verses of "How Could She?" is rather corny, with a dull melody to boot (though the rest is partially rescued by the thrash-styled middle - more fast stuff... woooo!), and the revenge anthem "IYDKMIGTHTKY (Gimme That)" has a really pedestrian Type O grind (not to mention its' stupid title is a goddamn bitch to type out) again only saved a really effective idea, namely a really catchy Kenny Hickey-sung coda. Also, "Todd's Ship Gods" and "...A Dish Best Served Coldly" are okay, but merely second-rate, imitations of all the dirgier October Rust tunes rolled into one. Good, consistently enjoyable album overall, but maybe we can get something more, uh, creatively fulfilling after the next three or four year wait? Would that be too much to ask, Pete?
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