TYPE O NEGATIVE LIFE IS KILLING ME ALBUM ROADRUNNER RELEASE: JUNE 16, 2003 REVIEW: JULY 7, 2003

After "World Coming Down" I, among others, wondered where Type O Negative would go next. Musically, you can’t get any harder - if you don’t want to rename yourself Korn and spend a zillion dollars on production that is. Thematically, you can’t get any more serious, unless you actually take on work as an undertaker and promise never to smile again. And although "World Coming Down" was a thoroughly produced and realised piece of work, sometimes the utter dullness of all the doom laden riffs and moaning about death made at least me wish Steele and his cohorts actually would reconsider their choice of career.
As it turns out, they didn’t. And boy are we all a little bit luckier as a result.
Where "World Coming Down" was dead serious, without catchy hit songs, and previous album "October Rust" was maybe a little bit too eager to please, "Life Is Killing Me" tries to marry the best of both worlds - and mainly succeeds. At least partially. From heavy instrumental Munster theme "Thir13teen", to catchy "I Don’t Wanna Be Me", oriental sounding "Less than Zero", rolling "Todd’s Ship Gods" and hardcore goth-punk song "I Like Goils" Type O Negative manages to recreate almost all the different styles and sounds of their career. And that’s just the first five songs. As 70 minute + "Life Is Killing Me" continues to unfold even more sounds and moods. Among them the title song is really good, as is cute "Nettie" and dark misanthropic "Anasthesia".
Type O Negative is back, and in style. The only thing holding me back from rewarding the album with an even higher grade is the fact that - even though all songs are good - very few are great. And none are as great as past time hits like "Christian Woman", "Black No 1", "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend" and "Love You to Death". Sure, Peter Steele sings about a few other things than death this time around. But the catchy, tongue in cheek tunes about sultry sex is still missing. Other than that, Type O Negative is yet again the premiere goth metal band.

KALLE MALMSTEDT