(Roadrunner)
When reviewing Type O Negative, you have to understand one simple thing: they are not a joke. Their cover of "Summer Breeze" on their Bloody Kisses album, as well as their cover of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" on the latest, entitled October Rust, is not meant in jest. Sure, they sound a little different, but those versions of the covers listed above are only songs done in their style: lots of crunch, with Peter Steeles brooding vocals.
Now, all that being said, it must be said that when I told my editor I was interested in the latest from Type O Negative, I did so by saying that they are "always good for a laugh". But October Rust stops that train of thought in its tracks. From the opening of the album, one minute-plus of fuzzy sound entitled "Bad Ground:", to the ending of the album, which closes the same way (both followed by and preceded by announcements from the band that they appreciate you buying the album, as well as letting you know they'll see you on the road - a novel idea if there ever was one), October Rust is packed with good songs done in the typical Type O Negative fashion.
Songs like the first musical track on the album, "Love You to Death" to the closer "Haunted" stick with you more than anything on either Origin of the Feces or Bloody Kisses. Steele's vocals lend themselves well to a song like the occult-themed "Be My Druidess" where his entoning of "I'll do anything to make you come" seems like not only a promise, but a warning, as well.
And while that concept alone may sound amusing enough, true fun on the October Rust album can be found in the little ditty "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend". Steeles vocal delivery, which could best be described as a cross between Barry White and Glenn Danzig, changes the complexion of all the musical arrangements on the album.
But the arrangements of the album are where Type O Negative seem to have fallen into a rut. Each song is of a fairly good length, which most running in the five or six minute time frame. And while some other bands have no problems with this, there just isnt that much lyrically or musically in the songs to warrant that much time. The end result is something quite like Spinal Tap, where each song has that nice mellow part (the best Tap example of this is "Stonehenge").
Overall, the majority of the songs on October Rust work, although tracks like "Die With Me" and thewell, interesting "The Glorious Liberation of the Peoples Technocratic Republic of Vinnland By The Combined Forces of the United Territories of America" (a song whose title takes longer to say than the track itself) don't hold up against "Red Water (Christmas Mourning)" or "In Praise of Bacchus". Type O Negative has progressed miles from the style they exhibited on Bloody Kisses, and it should be interesting to see where they go next.
