Review Summary: A stripped down masterpiece of depression with emotions laid bare from a much missed band.
After the lush sounding, melodramatic classic that was 'October Rust' came an album that for the most part grinds achingly along, submerged in distortion and full to the brim with anecdotes of depression. Although, these things may sometimes be typical with a band such as Type O Negative, the title of their 1999 release 'World Coming Down' says it all - things really are quite miserable this time out.
Now Type O are a band that should be taken with a pinch (or a cupful) of salt, previous song titles such as 'Kill All The White People' and a pseudo live album with Peter Steele's better side gracing the cover should provide an insight to the band's darkly humoristic style. But here, on 'World Coming Down', you really get a sense that Steele, the song writer and primary lyricist, was genuinely affected by dealing with family bereavements and other issues. The wit and overly passionate motifs that somewhat sharpened or distinguished Type O's image in the past has a hard time getting through on this album, thus it sounds the way it does. But, if you listen very closely you're sure to notice hints of dry humour here and there.
Much in the style of 'October Rust', 'World Coming Down' starts off with a joke. 11 seconds of noise sounding like the disc is broken followed by the word "SUCKA!!!” This may seem like a little dated now considering we're in the iPod generation, but still, this is a pretty funny gag and pretty clever. Typical of the band for punishing the listeners for listening to their CD. Onto the actual music and we have the two similarly and pessimistically titled 'Everyone I Love Is Dead' and 'Everything Dies'. Both of these songs clearly deal with deaths in the family, but the former is actually one of the most accessible songs on the album despite its subject matter. 'Everything Dies' however is a little darker; it starts with an incredibly dense bass riff but soon retreats into subtle piano laden verses before crashing back into an epic chorus. In this song particularly, Steele really hits home with the emotions dealing with a loved one’s death but he knowingly delivers it in his trademark dramatically under dramatic fashion. The verses in 'Creepy Green Light' sound almost like a crunchy reworking of 'Green Man' from 'October Rust' but it is clearly outlined as its own by the doomy passage towards the end of the song.
Unsurprisingly (probably due to its overall style), ‘World Coming Down’ holds two of Type O’s most under-appreciated and greatest songs (compared to let’s say, Black No.1 or Love You To Death). Firstly, the 11 minute plus title track; this song is one of the most accurate title tracks ever put forth on an album. It suitably serves as an epic amalgamation of all the problems and despair which the individual songs represent and the lyrics are brutally honest from the late front man. Kenny Hickey’s toweringly monolithic guitar riff fantastically matches Steele’s equally towering vocals and the quieter and lengthy mid section of the song keeps the bare emotions right up to the ending fade-out. The second masterpiece on this album is the first proper song ‘White Slavery’ which deals quite painfully and again, very honestly, with cocaine addiction. Imagine the polar opposite to Black Sabbath’s ‘Snowblind’. After Josh Silvers initial funeral dirge slides in the most apocalyptic doom riff Type O ever put out, this then slips into a just-as-menacing verse akin to their ‘Black Sabbath-title track’ cover. Also, it really takes balls to open an album with a song this ugly, this painful. Both songs are grinding, powerful, extremely depressing and brooding even for this band, yet they are the two masterpieces of this album.
The album is given interludes which are aptly titled after organs which correspond to the way the band members are probably going to die (if it was not already morbid enough). The most effective is ‘Sinus’ – the bad effects of cocaine condensed into a 53 second nightmare. However the other two of these interludes don’t quite match that intensity and one can’t help but wonder that if they were omitted for one of the albums B-sides featured on the retrospective ‘The Least Worst Of’ then it would have fared even better as a whole. The excellent ‘Stay Out Of My Dreams’ could easily have made the album cut and still felt in place...
...Even so, the bottom line is that Type O Negative never put out a 'bad' album, each one has distinctive character and style that fans kindle to. Here on ‘World Coming Down’, the pain and emotion that created the album has distinctively left its imprint on it and that is what sets this one apart. The coherently, overly gloomy feel could even be comparable to that of The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’, only here is it amplified twofold. Josh Silver's eerie key-playing gives WCD a familiarly gloomy atmosphere to Disintegration and is arguably the dark heart of the album.
This is a masterpiece of ultimate despondency -only with Type O's uniquely aware fashion, if not as prevalent here. Type O is just sorry that you had to hear it.
Listen to it in the dark for maximum effect.
