Type O Negative
Posted: 10 Nov 2009, 20:52
I know there's some other fans here, so let's talk about the self-anointed "Drab Four" who are also the first and best heavy metal band to draw significant influence from The Sisters of Mercy. Their frontman Peter Steele would sound a hell of a lot like Andrew Eldritch if it wasn't for his thick working-class Noo Yawk accent which means he sounds more like Von doing a Sylvester Stallone impression.
The TSOM inspiration is only evident in places on their debut Slow, Deep and Hard which is mostly an extremely eccentric thrash album (in case you're curious, frontman Pete's previous band Carnivore sounded pretty much like SD&H but without the keyboards) but really blossomed on Bloody Kisses and October Rust. It become more understated on World Coming Down, though, which is pretty much a doom metal album all the way though there's a couple of basslines that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Floodland.
My favourite album of theirs is probably Bloody Kisses, probably the only record I've ever heard combining punky thrash, doom metal, industrial noise soundscapes and Floodland-era TSOM on many songs even seamlessly blending all those styles seamlessly... it's something that should by all logic not work but somehow manages to do. I think it's the band's very strange sense of humour that makes it all glue together, the song We Hate Everyone kind of resembles Frank Zappa having a go at speed metal. (I kid you not) Oh, and the last song on that album's closing track is a raga. A goddamn raga.
I recently finally got around to buying October Rust, which I understand is the most popular Type O Negative album. It's even more TSOM-influenced, but whereas Bloody Kisses pastiched Floodland with its long bass-driven songs and elaborate synth arrangements, October Rust seems more inspired by the early EPs and First and Last and Always. It's far from a bad album, really, but the crossbreeding between heavy metal and TSOM-style post-punk is a bit more literal here and there's some songs where it doesn't really work. Strange when the arrangements are a great deal simpler than on the previous album! It's worth the trouble just for odd man out My Girlfriend's Girlfriend, which can best be described as a bizarre metal parody of The Doors.
Speaking of which, for a while they also had a running gag of doing dark and gloomy metal covers of hippie anthems culminating in World Coming Down climaxing with a sludgified medley of Beatles song.
As for their other albums, I don't have Life Is Killing Me. Their latest one, Dead Again is pretty good but it's probably their most purely metal album since Slow, Deep and Hard.
The TSOM inspiration is only evident in places on their debut Slow, Deep and Hard which is mostly an extremely eccentric thrash album (in case you're curious, frontman Pete's previous band Carnivore sounded pretty much like SD&H but without the keyboards) but really blossomed on Bloody Kisses and October Rust. It become more understated on World Coming Down, though, which is pretty much a doom metal album all the way though there's a couple of basslines that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Floodland.
My favourite album of theirs is probably Bloody Kisses, probably the only record I've ever heard combining punky thrash, doom metal, industrial noise soundscapes and Floodland-era TSOM on many songs even seamlessly blending all those styles seamlessly... it's something that should by all logic not work but somehow manages to do. I think it's the band's very strange sense of humour that makes it all glue together, the song We Hate Everyone kind of resembles Frank Zappa having a go at speed metal. (I kid you not) Oh, and the last song on that album's closing track is a raga. A goddamn raga.
I recently finally got around to buying October Rust, which I understand is the most popular Type O Negative album. It's even more TSOM-influenced, but whereas Bloody Kisses pastiched Floodland with its long bass-driven songs and elaborate synth arrangements, October Rust seems more inspired by the early EPs and First and Last and Always. It's far from a bad album, really, but the crossbreeding between heavy metal and TSOM-style post-punk is a bit more literal here and there's some songs where it doesn't really work. Strange when the arrangements are a great deal simpler than on the previous album! It's worth the trouble just for odd man out My Girlfriend's Girlfriend, which can best be described as a bizarre metal parody of The Doors.
Speaking of which, for a while they also had a running gag of doing dark and gloomy metal covers of hippie anthems culminating in World Coming Down climaxing with a sludgified medley of Beatles song.
As for their other albums, I don't have Life Is Killing Me. Their latest one, Dead Again is pretty good but it's probably their most purely metal album since Slow, Deep and Hard.
Also one of the best cover versions ever period.
's sense of humour!