Dead Again

The Lords of Gothic Industrial Metal are back after a four year hiatus with Dead Again. With more mood swings than the female species, Type O Negative have given us an album that is both somber, sad and depressing yet at other times is uplifting and energetic. After listening to Dead Again, one may become mentally unstable and will have to get a prescription to either uppers or downers! One of the the first things you will notice on Dead Again is Type O Negative's return to some very fast, thrashy songs with a punk attitude that really haven't been as evident on their albums since songs like I Know You're Fucking Someone Else, Kill All The White People and We Hate Everyone. The title track Dead Again and Tripping A Blind Man are perfect examples and get the album off to a very upbeat start. Later on the album, songs like Some Stupid Tomorrow and Halloween In Heaven continue this trend. But don't worry! Fans of the more doomy and dirge like styles will be happy to hear that these are also present. The sound of the bass guitar and rhythm guitars compliment each other so well and blend almost seamlessly together that one can almost be mistaken for the other. The bass guitar has distortion with some chorus effects on it, but this time they are not as saturated. The tone of the rhythm guitar has a slightly higher treble level than the bass. Many of the sludge like guitar riffs sound more along the lines of Tommy Iommi.. Another characteristic of the music you will notice is how the vocal duties are distributed. Kenny Hickey' more aggressive, harsher sounding vocals are utilized alot more this time, offering an effective counter balance to Peter Steele's lower baritone vocals. I actually prefer Peter Steele's vocals over all. I feel his vocals give Type O Negative their over all style and identity, which is that Gothic and depressive mood. During certain songs they use effects on the vocals like distortion or that very treble "man in a tin can" sound but it's not over used. I do wish more keyboards were used. There are some pipe organ sounds used at times (She Burned Me Down), some piano (September Sun) and even what sounds like a mini moog at the beginning of Tripping A Blind Man. I also didn't notice any acoustic guitars anywhere. Some female vocals are used on Halloween In Heaven, courtesy of Tara Van Flower from the Goth band Lycia. Dead Again clocks in at almost 77 minutes and has some very long songs on it. By the third listen or so the songs will really start to stick and grow on you. If fact, songs like Dead Again, Tripping A Blind Man, Profit of Doom, September Sun and Halloween in Heaven have some very catchy and memorable choruses. In case you were wondering who the man is on the album cover, it's the Mad Monk Rasputin. He was considered a mystic, a visionary, a healer and a prophet who the Russian nobility unsuccessfully tried to kill on several occasions because of his influence on the last family of Czars. The album was recorded and produced by bassist/vocalist Peter Steele and keyboardist Josh Silver. They've done a fantastic job mixing everything just right. It is also their first record for the SPV label after being on Roadrunner for so many years. By the way, there is a very limited edition of Dead Again. It's a Best Buy exclusive, limited to 1,777 units. It includes a bonus live CD which is basically some tracks from their live DVD, Symphony For The Devil. Included are Everything Dies - My Girlfriend´s Girlfriend , Are You Afraid - Gravitational Constant, Black Sabbath (Intro) - Christian Women, Love You To Death and Black No. 1. The sound quality on this recording ok, almost like a good bootleg. The drums are very thin and the guitar is over powered by a very distorted bass guitar. The vocals are pretty good. Still, some die hard fans of the band will want this. I went crazy trying to find it and was lucky enough to get one but after all the money and time I spent running around to get it, I probably could have done without it. Dead Again is sure to resurrect any interest you may have lost in Type O Negative, while at the same time grab the attention of people who may like what I like to call "The Black Sabbath of Gothic Industrial Metal".