Slow, Deep and Hard

I finally reviewed the 1991 Roadrunner records original pressing of Slow Deep and Hard in the mail today, and of course I was expecting a good sound, and boy did I find it. In the past 2 months, Type O Negative has been a band that somehow has perhaps overtaken my favorite band, Death. If not, they're teetering that line. The reason for this? Well, even in the genre of death metal, there are bands that are similar to Death, so much so that a band I heard that wasn't them, I had mistaken for being them due to the sound. Of course, when we listen to the discography of Type O Negative, there's something to be said when I can't find another band that even comes close to achieving the sound they strove for. They went from the Carnivore like gothic/doom/thrash (screw me for even combining those genres, but what better could I define it as?) to the more playful, sometimes serious goth/doom pop sound, that while heavy and dark, had influences from happy sounding music (Not always). For comparison, listen to Gravitational Constant and Love You To Death in the same session, and you'll hear two different, yet undeniably similar bands. That's the maturation of a composer, simply put. Today, I'm tackling an album very dear to me, this review being a celebration of sorts to me adding it to my small collection.

Slow Deep and Hard. 5 songs of pure emotional destitution. The pain of trust, the loss from betrayal, is all conveyed in this musical book of sorrows if you will. The album starts off with a frequency that keeps getting higher and higher, and I believe that symbolizes Peter's anger and emotion surmounting in intensity, his anger is going to blast you away with 5 anger laden songs. The first track, "Unsuccessfully..." is the ultimate song about misplaced trust, and my favorite of the whole album. The lyrics on the track are seldom deeper than "You fucking whore!" and "I know you're fucking someone else!" but what could be better? One doesn't need far reaching metaphors and philosophical words to tell a story with weight, and this song accomplishes that, from the thrash attacks, to the audio representing his unfaithful partner, to the punishing screams and doom sections. After the monumental album opener, Der Untermensch, Zero Tolerance, are the next two important songs, and are the shortest not counting the 2 rather useless tracks, Glass Walls... and The Misinterpretation of Silence... The other songs Prelude to Agony, and Gravitational Constant are great as well, carrying on the thrash/doom formula with good twists and variety, making them some of the best songs Type O ever did. The best way I can sum it up is the lost, more controlled, less barbaric 3rd Carnivore record. Now onto the production.

The album has a good song, despite actually being a demo. Crazy enough, every song had to be done in one take, without individual recording sessions for separate instruments, which is very impressive. Sal's drums are have a really good punchy sound, Josh's keyboard playing is great, and the sound levels is great in the doom and slower sections. Kenny and Peter are awesome, they each have a fuzzy, grinding, and thick tone that are fantastic, especially Pete's bass, the fuzziness of it makes his tone one of my favorite bass tones every. Kenny's tone is great for both the thrash and doom sections. I'm glad the album is just the reused demo, I wouldn't have it any other way.

All in all this album gets a 99, the only flaw I have with it at all is that darn Glass Walls song. I can put up with a minute of silence, but that 6 minute ambient sloth song does nothing for me, and I just don't have any use for it at all. Other than that, what can I say? It's one of the best debuts in metal history, in the same league as Dance of December Souls and Left Hand Path. I recommend this album for anyone who likes metal. Thrash, doom, and goth blend and brilliance is what we got!