Type O Negative

Dead Again NUCLEAR BLAST

Goth-metal kings’ patchy 2007 swansong, exhumed after years out of print.

’I can’t believe I died last night/Oh God I’m dead again,’ Type O Negative singer/bassist Peter Steele howls on the punk-edged title track of the New Yorkers’ seventh album Dead Again.

The frontman’s obsession with mortality had been ever-present in his lyrics, but this time it proved prophetic. In 2010, Steele died of sepsis following years of alcohol and substance abuse, and at least one suicide attempt.

It would be easy to say Dead Again is a fitting epitaph, but it isn’t. The dark majesty and humour of mid-90s epics Bloody Kisses and October Rust had long been replaced by a stifling sense of gloom and bitterness. Tripping A Blind Man and The Profit Of Doom weigh in at a joyless 17 minutes between them, which wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t the second and third tracks. There are flashes of the beauty that once sat shoulder to shoulder with despair, notably the plaintive September Sun, but they’re scarce.

Dead Again was surrounded by an air of finality even before Steele’s death – their label Steamhammer went under in 2009, and the album has been out of print until now. This reissue adds a disc’s worth of live tracks of varying quality, which will make Type O fans happy, even if it remains an imperfect headstone.