Shuddersome Soundscape #5: Twin Tales

Let me first start off with a jubilation: At last! October has graced us with its presence once again!

Now that that moment of silliness is out of our systems, let us proceed with the music.

One band that I find always plunges me into the Halloween spirit is Type O Negative. Anytime in the year when I find myself longing for this special season, I can simply play a Type O track, and I am instantly transported back to the crisp, pumpkin-fraught weeks of October. So appropriately, this band is the centerpiece to start off the month of honour. 

Also, as this is the first Shuddersome Soundscape post of October, I shall grant you two songs rather than just the one. Thusly, here are two featured tunes, both from the album World Coming Down (1999): "Creepy Green Light" and "All Hallows Eve."





Type O Negative can be described as gothic metal, or "Gothedelic," in frontman Peter Steele's words, as their sound fuses classic gothic metal with 1960s psychedelia. As typical of other works by the band, each of the two tracks runs longer than six minutes.

The two songs deal with a similar theme: the supernatural return of a dead lover on a Halloween night. However, the resurrection manifests differently in each story.

In "Creepy Green Light" - formerly named "Spooky Green Light" - the narrator waits at his spouse's grave from which the undead wife triumphantly rises, perhaps with the help of the titular green light. Interesting to note is that the song is split into three sections, or cantos: 1) "Creepy Green Light," where our narrator drunkenly waits, 2) "Frightening Black Light," an instrumental interlude of organ underscored by thick doom guitars (I like to think that this is the part where the wife orchestrates her self-resurrection), and 3) "Creepy Green Light Revisited," where the two lovers are reunited. Another unique detail is the soft backmasked vocals tucked into the beginning: Steele's recitation of the prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep," a suitable prelude to one who has already been laid to sleep.

In "All Hallows Eve" the narrator once again longs for his dead lover's return, but this time, his beloved needs a little help returning from beyond the veil. Our narrator indulges in some Satanic intervention as he sells his soul and uses a dark incantation to bring his love back to him.

For both songs, Peter Steele weaves spooky lyrics of dedication, romance, and horror which, when married with slow, reverb-filled riffs, heavily distorted bass, and Steele's melancholic growls, create the perfect Halloween tale.

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