Type O Negative~
I've been wanting to do a write up of these guys forever, one of my all time favourites and (along with Electric Wizard) they were the catalyst to starting Doom Month to begin with. A unique sound of doom with some gothic elements thrown in. Touching on themes of sex and drugs, love and death, anger and sorrow, sprinkled with ambient tonesetters, dark humor and Brooklyn attitude.
One of my bigger regrets in music is that I didn't find out about them until about a month or so before Peter Steele (frontman/bassist) died. Since then every time I listen to each album it carries an additional little bit of gloom knowing I'll never get to see them preform live. RIP
As every album is worth a listen from start to finish I'm going to do something a bit different and try to do a write up for each one, starting with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeD0OoQwaXw
Slow, Deep and Hard (1991)
I'm pretty sure thats a picture of sex for the cover... anyway,
I'd say their first album is the most raw and angry. Starting from the production quality its got a gritty sound, harking back to Pete's earlier band Carnivore, that's not found on their later albums, there's still plenty of production effects so I'm pretty sure its intentional, but i'm not the biggest fan of it, and I'm glad they went with a 'cleaner' sound for later albums. However dont let that make it seem like this album is bad, quite the contrary, maybe #3 for me overall.
It opens with 'Unsuccessfully coping with the natural beauty of infidelity', thats really the song title and imo its a fucking great one, bouncing between super heavy gloomy doom and hyper angry thrash as fitting the subject matter. The chorus of "I KNOW YOURE FUCKING SOMEONE ELSE" has an undeniable energy, set against the slower gloomier parts makes for quite the rollercoaster of an opening track. would have LOVED to see this live ;_;.
Following this is the equally angry and extra heavy "Der Untermensch" providing some time to catch your breath before going into an angry breakdown of its own "WASTE OF LIFE", also that pipe/machine(?) sound is metal as fuck.
The next track, "Xero Tolerance", opens with some grinding shit, that drops into a nice heavy theme of anger, before speeding up into a fun romp about murder in Brighton Beach (the russian part of Brooklyn). My headcannon is that this is the sequel to the opening track. Slowly winding to a close with the sound of axe chops in the background this would have also made an amazing live song.
"Prelude to Agony" is overall one of the slower/heavier tracks on the album, some high quality doom coming through on this one, but thats not to say that it stays in the glumps constantly, the 'jackhammering' has a good amount of energy to it, as fitting for some good ole fashion murderrape. Closing out with actual jackhammering lol.
"Glass Walls of Limbo (Dance mix)" is like a bit of an intermission to me, it would be fitting to play as atmosphere at a haunted house, although I gotta say I do kinda like the chanting and chains. Helps set the tone, kinda therapeutic too, but thats just IMO. I'll let it play out if I'm driving alone, but I'll usually skip it if I have other people in the car.
"The Misinterpretation of Silence and Its Disastrous Consequences" is just silence :3.
Finally closing out the album "Gravitational Constant: G = 6.67 x 10⁻⁸ cm⁻³ gm⁻¹ sec⁻²", jesus christ titlegore, anyway, this feels like the continuation of the story from earlier, with our protaganist unable to justify his existance, feeling the weight of gravity crushing him, and ending it all. Heavy, solid track all around and a great way to close out the album.
Next time I'll go over their fake live album where they rework some of the songs from the first one, add in a couple new tracks and a few covers, and ship the album cover with a picture of Pete's ass.