Slow Deep and Hard

Slow Deep and Hard is Type O Negative's first album, released on Roadrunner Records in 1991. It consists of seven tracks and runs at around 58 minutes. It is a semi-autobiographical album (with heavy amounts of black humour) based on a relationship that vocalist/bassist Peter Steele was involved in. The first track is one of their the most famous: "Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty of Infidelity" is a twelve-minute-long heartfelt song about being cheated on; the lyrics alternate between the poetic ("'Trust and you'll be trusted,' said the liar to the fool") and the crude (chants of "Slut! Whore! Cunt!"). The song has been attacked as misogynistic, although it remains one of their best-loved tracks.

Related Topics:
Type O Negative - Roadrunner Records - 1991 - Black humour - Peter Steele - Misogynistic

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The next track is just as controversial, titled "Der Untermensch", after the term used by the Nazis for those they considered unworthy of reproducing. The song attacks those who cheat on welfare and drug dealers, containing such provocative lyrics as, "If you don't pay taxes, you shouldn't vote, so get in line and get back on the boat," and "Spike in your arm, no money for food, yet there's plenty of gas in your BMW." Despite their meaning, the band met with tons of resistance and controversy in Europe that they later parodied on their "live" album "The Origin Of The Feces".

Related Topics:
Nazis - Welfare - BMW - Europe

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The third track, "Xero Tolerance", is a humorous look in the inside of a man who kills his wife and even contains samples of works by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

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The fourth track is "Prelude to Agony", lyrically dealing with the "pain of desire" and particularly of sexual desire. The song ends with samples of what are called "Jackhammer Rape".

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The next two tracks are a bit curious. First, track five, is "Glass Walls of Limbo (Dance Mix)" is a five-minute ambient mix of noise, and a repeated vocal choir. Following that is track 6, "The Misinterpretation of Silence and its Disastrous Consequences", which is one minute of silence.

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Finally, the album ends with "Gravitational Constant: G = 6.67 x 10-8 cm-3 gm-1 sec-2", a half-morbid, half-humorous song about the weight of life, losing the will to live and committing suicide; the last words of the song and the album are "suicide is self-expression".

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The album was voted as the best heavy metal album ever by a recent online poll http://www.scaruffi.com/music/metal.html. It is considered the catapult to launching the band's career (which later skyrocketed with Bloody Kisses and October Rust). While the album definately has a rawness that was prominent on Peter Steele's previous band Carnivore, it does incorporate elements that would be come standard for Type O Negative. Therefore, some (but not all) fans are divided on this album. Either way, it remains a masterpiece of merging styles of thrash, goth, and industrial music.

Related Topics:
Heavy metal - Bloody Kisses - October Rust - Thrash - Goth - Industrial

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