Type O Negative

Dead Again

Written by: PP on 02/04/2007 16:12:22

This is the moment millions of fans worldwide have been waiting for. It's the return of Peter Steel and his band Type O Negative, and what a great return it is. "Dead Again" is not only one of the best albums Type O has written during their long career, but it also contains some of the best metal songs written in the last five years. They sound massive, they are melodic, and they are uniquely Type O Negative, with a sound that no band to date has come close to imitating.

Be it Peter's overwhelmingly high and powerful voice that you could recognize from a mile away, or their sense for absolute epicness when it comes to lengthy songs, "Dead Again" excels at almost every aspect of modern metal. In the most typical Type O way, the band yet again demonstrates how easy it is to make massively metallic and ballsy songs work without the unnecessary resort to growling and screaming. Peter's clean vocals reign over the colossal atmosphere, adding dark melancholy and hidden passion to their music, and occasionally breaks into passionate, long-lasting outbursts of scratched howls that dominate the open ended chords in the vast atmosphere created by the production. Imagine yourself standing at the back of Orange Stage behind 60,000 people watching a band lay out overwhelming, stunning melodies that are so perfect it makes you shiver.. because that's how "Dead Again" is recorded. The purposefully close-to-live sound adds character and distances the band almost as Gods to you. A song like the 10-minute epic "September Sun" is just so great it's hard to put it in words, it's got that partially restrained power/energy dynamic, where drips of passion are falling through the metallic riffs and dark emotional vocals. Or what about the title track, inflicting a goth-punk-metal vibe with its speedy riffs and a stupendously catchy chorus "I can't belive I died last night.. Oh God I'm dead again!"? Did you ever wonder where the meaning of 'melancholic' came from? Look no further than "Tripping A Blind Man".

The guitars are crunchy, the synths are undeniably gothic, but yet there is a sense of optimism and positivity depicted by the emotionally gripping hooks. It's that kind of contrast that when bands try to copycat it, they end up sounding miserably stupid instead. The beauty of Type O is that they are as extreme as they are mainstream appealing, and as heavy metal as they are punk rock. You'll hear the band on their most epic form on the 15-minute monster "These Three Things", where their sound is more sludgy and doomy, but on the other hand you'll get a raging vibe on "Some Stupid Tomorrow" not much unlike Mastodon, which is a speedy and monstrously heavy track with some of the least melody you'll ever hear from this band, although it doesn't really make much sense to not call the song melodic.

Type O are like a modern day Sabbath - yes they are that great and influential - and "Dead Again" is their new masterpiece. It is an album that crosses genre boundaries from punk through gothic to metal. It sounds exactly like Type O Negative, but doesn't sound like anybody else out there. Steele is one of the most charismatic frontmen out in the metal world, and deserves to be heard. They've gone platinum before, and "Dead Again" might do the same. Amazing.

9

Download: Dead Again, September Sun
For the fans of: Black Sabbath, Paradise Lost, Opeth, Metallica
Listen: Myspace

Release date 19.03.2007
SPV / Steamhammer
Provided by Target ApS

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