Type O Negative’s 1993 album Bloody Kisses could be great, only for
the irritating interludes which interrupt the mood of the album. I refer to opening track, Machine Screw which
features a woman moaning and groaning for 39 seconds, before the first proper
song, Christian Woman. But what a
song.
Despite opening with Peter Steele saying “forgive her, for she knows
not what she does” deadpan, Wayne Hussey style, we get a real epic, kind of
three songs in one over nine minutes. It
features some enormous guitars from Kenny Hickey and great doom-vocals and
lyrics from Steele (“for her lust she’ll burn in hell, her soul done
medium-well”). After the mellow ‘To Love
God’ section, special mention to the final ‘movement’ of the track, which
mainly consists of Steele singing “Jesus Christ looks like me”. How bloody awesome is that?!
The next track, Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All) is even longer
at 11 minutes. Opening with distant
church bells and Steele’s brooding double bass, the hammer horror is turned up
to ‘eleven’ here, with creepy keyboards adding even more atmosphere before the
entrance of more big guitars and a huge chorus.
Steele sings this time about a girl who’s “got a date at midnight with
Nosferatu”. This one does go on a bit
though, it has to be said, Steele repeating “loving you was like loving the
dead” endlessly.
Kill All The White People is a tongue-in-cheek mindless thrash,
along the lines of We Hate Everyone later on the album. It’s followed by a cover of Seals &
Crofts’ Summer Breeze which actually works in a really downtuned, draggy,
dirgey way. Set Me On Fire is a fine
piece of midtempo goth-rock, sung this time by Hickey before another stupid
interlude Dark Side of the Womb (yes, really), this time a crying baby fused
with a clanking machine.
They wheel in the church organ for the slow burn of the title
track. Too Late: Frozen is a heavy,
anthemic chant, while Blood & Fire is a little close to the Sisters of
Mercy’s More for comfort. The album finishes
with the slow grind of Can’t Lose You which even introduces a sitar.
Ok, some of this is hilarious, unintentionally or otherwise but for
what it is (overblown, preposterous goth-metal), it’s ‘bloody’ great.
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