Alright, stop thinking about Pete Steele holding his wang in Playgirl - don't lie, you know you've Googled the pictures. Instead let's talk about better things, like Dead Again the "4 Dicks from Brooklyn's" seventh studio album, sixth if you're nit-picky and don't consider the faux-live Origin of the Feces a studio album. Anyone familiar with Type O Negative will immediately notice that this album is almost like a trip back in time when their songs sounded more like rehashed or unused Carnivore (Steele's destructive thrash/hardcore outfit before Type O Negative to those who don't know, but certainly ought to) riffs and songs. Not that that was ever a bad thing; the blazing-fast-parts-mixed-with-sections-of-gothic-keyboard-and-singing-interludes songs on Origin of the Feces and Slow, Deep and Hard sounded like the natural progression Steele's song-writing should make from his days of the ultra-fast, thrashy madness of Carnivore's Retaliation. But of course like all good bands do, Type O Negative came into their own. By the time October Rust came out they had essentially forsaken anything remotely fast and came to produce huge, gothic-inspired walls of dirging sound, backed by Steele's almost operatic crooning.
But it's 2007 now, and Pete and the boys (Josh Silver, Kenny Hickey, and Johnny Kelly to those wondering) have deemed it fit to revisit the old days and bring back some of the fast. The first and title track blazes by you and by the time you realize you're listening to Type O Negative it's almost half over. "Tripping a Blind Man" starts off with some Sabbath-inspired doom but it's not long until we're off to the races again.
Things do eventually slow down a bit, like in "September Sun" a long, melancholy ballad, if you will, that begins with a piano intro and never gets faster than a saunter. But it's pretty much the calm before the storm, as the following upbeat track "Halloween in Heaven" brings things back to a rock frenzy.
Their last few albums starting with October Rust have all seemed to follow their own specific formula, not straying much from it or having too much variety. Conversely, the three albums prior to October Rust (Slow, Deep and Hard, Origin of the Feces and Bloody Kisses) had more of an "anything goes" feel; fast parts flowed into singing parts into doom-ish parts and back. The same goes for Dead Again; Type O Negative has pretty much gone back to their old formula of not having a formula and just saying fuck it. This isn't to say they've done a bad thing by going backwards at all, because it works well on Dead Again. In fact, this is probably their strongest release since October Rust and this is coming from someone who enjoys everything they've done, with borderline obsession.
If you're already a fan of Type O Negativeââ¬Â¦well, you probably have already heard Dead Again. And if not, then make an immediate effort to correct that because you will find plenty to enjoy. If you're new to the band, take a listen to Bloody Kisses or October Rust and then come back to this one to hear the band's progression (or should I say regression???) and how they've come full circle.
