Type O Negative - Slow, Deep, and Hard (30 Year Anniversary Album Review)
Today makes thirty years since Type O Negative's debut album "Slow, Deep, and Hard" came out. While this album is mostly previously unreleased Carnivore songs, and came out two years before their iconic first big break "Bloody Kisses" album, it still has a lot of fantastic tracks on it that I feel like are somewhat overlooked. The first track, one of their longer ones, "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity" is also one of my personal favorites. It's one of those songs that has a multiple distinct songs all mashed into one, some sex sound effects, raw screams of anguish, and a super catchy chorus. It also has a lot of strong emotion in it, which I really like. It's also the only song on the album that I feel like gets mentioned very often.
"Prelude To Agony" starts off very slow and gloomy with the sounds of breathing, but it quickly speeds up and becomes pretty hard. This song also is the first time we hear choir type sounds to some of the vocals, which becomes more prevalent in some of their other songs. "Glass Walls Of Limbo" really stands out, it's very different than the other tracks. It's just the sounds of chains rattling and ghostly spooky voices, but then Peter starts doing these deep long drawn out notes. It's ominous and kind of unnerving, but I feel like it's honestly one of the best vocals performances he ever gave. Those notes are just so velvety soft and beautifully done in almost a secular type way.
"The Misinterpretation Of Silence" is just a minute of no sound, which I think is funny. They did the same thing at the beginning of "October Rust", and I love that they did that. I think it's really clever, and that it was a good way to hide the final track.
The final track, "Gravitational Constant: G = 6.67 x 10⁻⁸ cm⁻³ gm⁻¹ sec⁻²" is a great song too. It's got a great melody, which almost sounds like it picked after "Unsuccessfully Coping" and is sort of a continuation. I could be wrong, but that's how I interpret it. This entire album though is full of long songs that are multiple songs that are put together seamlessly. It's incredible how well they are able to flawlessly go between heavy sounds and dark gloomy gothic doom metal. I absolutely love this album. It doesn't get nearly enough attention, and I think it's a masterpiece. If you haven't heard it, I highly suggest checking it out. ~Gangis
Photo Credit: Picture of the original lineup of Type O Negative taken by John Wadsworth, borrowed from typeonegative.net