I looked and there before me was a pale horse! It did not take much thought before I started to download it. Death be damned, it was a new dose of doom I was looking for in the follow up album to the excellent ‘And Hell Will Follow Me.’ Did I find it? Not half! Of course you possibly know that this lot were formed by former Type O Negative and Life Of Agony drummer Sal Abrascato after the far too early demise of Pete Steele. Sal decided to take over on vocals and got together a band for recording and with a slightly different line up for touring, something else that I had the pleasure to witness and was equally blown away by. Naturally I had big hopes for this one and by just the second listen as occurred with the first album the hooks were in and I found myself singing along like the numbers were miserable old friends. The ideas behind them are not that different and we have odes to killing ex-girlfriends (although apparently ‘Shallow Grave’ does not advocate violence) and battling with addiction, suicide and if either don’t kill you off getting past your prime and aging. So it’s a lot like life and death basically then!
After the title track takes part of an atmospheric opener with a very Type O life support machine beep on it we start to dig that ‘Shallow Grave’ with instantly recognisable bass chugs. Drums come in then guitar harmony and finally bitter clean vocals. Any man and for that matter women can completely appreciate the lyrics and it is a real sing along number that as I said is very quickly accessible. Complete with weeping guitar leads and a deadbeat gothic feel it really is a fantastic number and hard listening and wondering what it would have sounded like with Pete Steele singing. It really is very much in the Type O vein and if he had not died you could think of this as being a natural sort of song for them. The whole album does kind of project that vibe, it is littered with subtle musical nuances and a dour and wry lyrical sense injected with black humour. There can at times be a bristling indignant anger overlaying things as witnessed in ‘The Needle In You’ with choppy and scything guitars and a big yell of “suicide” making you think that death is being stared in the face and told where to go in no uncertain terms.
Some numbers are slow burning misery serenades others are more upbeat rock outs such as the fun sounding ‘Killer By Night’ which has almost stoner / glam sounding riffs and an infectious and upbeat melody and chorus that won’t get out your head for an age. Dare I say it’s very much the My Girlfriends Girlfriend of the album? There’s a splash of retro organ work opening ‘Growing Old’ giving it a funeral march feel at complete contrast to the number before it. It’s something that only death can stop and as only the good die young the number spreads hopelessness by its own inevitability. As for the harmonic crooning and acoustic neo-folk ‘Dead Of Winter’ well it’s quite gorgeous in an Ancient VVisdom sort of way. I find myself yet again with an album that each of the eleven songs has something about them that want me to describe them, it is a versatile listen with a real passion about it and one that keeps drawing me back. No doubt as with the last album I am going to have to buy this one.
We continue with another rocker ‘Devil Came With A Smile’ with fuzzy T-Rex like chords about it and sleazy and wicked sense of blackness. The epic ‘Day Of The Storm’ is excellent and blows in quite calmly with some of the best vocal harmonies of the album. It bristles and has your hair standing on end at mention of electricity and is really highly charged as the deluge comes in apocalyptic torrents and melodic drenches in its hopelessness. The album is I suddenly realise almost bio-polar as it moves from sudden happily charged numbers to the complete other end of the scale and if that does not sum up life perfectly and closing number ‘Cold Dark Mourning’ does not bring a tear to your eye you probably don’t need music like this in your life. Frankly I do and the score reflects an excellent album which I hope sees the band back here performing songs off it again.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
http://apalehorsenameddeath.com
Leave a Reply