|
Type O Negative
Slow Deep and Hard
(Roadrunner - 1991)
Having only listened to their later albums I finally got my hands on this debut release. October Rust was their most consistent and solid with many good songs, but suffered from too many boring ones too. Bloody Kisses suffered from too much unevenness, parody and filler samples. There always seems to be some tongue-in-cheek don't-take-us-seriously element in their releases and with this album it shows itself in the songs' composition. The songs at times sound like the band is just horsing around without trying to play anything serious or constructive. They give a sense of looseness due to the drawn out gothic passages, the lack of tight composition, the varying and suddenly changing moods, and the length of most of the songs (8-12 minutes). At times they remind me of Venom in the sense that they play it raw on purpose. It has a much heavier metal sound than Bloody Kisses, less gothic romance and slightly more consistency between songs. Peter does none of that bass crooning here either and instead uses a guttural yell most of the time. The low-tuned bass is still here though and there is a stronger emphasis on guitars rather than on keyboards. The songs still vary though with a good balance of goth, thrash, doom and even atmospheric sections. After a few listens when the lengthy tracks start registering in your brain, the album starts taking shape and turns out to be quite good. From one point of view, I think that this is their best album (although they do have better songs). It didn't make me into a big fan however and after a while, the primitive in-your-face attitude of the music and the lack of focus got on my nerves and left much to be desired. For the raw style that it is however, it is good, and it will appeal to some.
The Origin of the Feces
(Roadrunner - 1992)
A fake live album with the songs off Slow Deep and Hard only with more rawness, more energy and sloppiness, and more self-parody. The crowd noises are usually jeering at and insulting the band while Peter revels in this charming attention and curses them right back, then plays the next song. He even tries to annoy the 'crowd' even more with a silly interlude and a 'sloppy' screw up. The whole 'live' set up sounds like a cheap location with a small drunken crowd that only sometimes get excited and usually at the wrong moments ("I've got some good news for you morons - this is our last song" *CLAPS & CHEERS*). Amusingly done antics with a great *ahem* bombastic ending from the crowd. I confess I enjoyed this nonsense a lot, but after the fun is gone I'd much rather hear the originals. The tracks are titled and separated differently and sometimes played different as well with one added cover of Black Sabbath's Paranoid at the end (totally unrecognizable version that sounds just like a Type O song off October Rust). If you prefer this type of music raw and live and want to have a laugh or two while you're at it, pick this one up instead of SDaH.
|