World Coming Down

Music and lyrics

As with the band's previous album, October Rust, this album also has a "joke intro": in this case, the intro, appropriately titled "Skip It", is 11 seconds of staccato band noise, meant to sound as if the listener's CD player is skipping. Cassette versions had the noise of a tape being "eaten" by the tape player. The track ends with what is presumably the guitarist, Kenny Hickey, shouting, "Sucker!"

The first song, "White Slavery", deals with cocaine addiction. Two other songs, "Everyone I Love Is Dead" and "Everything Dies", touch on the difficulties of watching family members and loved ones die. Another track, "Who Will Save the Sane?" incorporates, among other oddities, Peter Steele reciting the number pi to 9 decimal places (3.141592653).

The album contains three "soundscape" tracks, which are named after internal organs, as segues between songs. Each of these songs is intended to suggest the possibilities of the deaths band members may suffer: "Sinus" as death from cocaine use, "Liver" as death through alcohol abuse and "Lung" as death from smoking. In an ironic foreboding, Steele once told a close friend that he could not bear to listen to "Sinus" after it was mixed and completed, because the sound of the heartbeat escalating to its furious pace after the cocaine-snorting sound effect actually drove him to the point of an anxiety attack because of its realism.

Also included, at the end of the CD, is yet another cover song, this one a medley of three Beatles songs. An additional song recorded during the album sessions, "12 Black Rainbows," was issued as the b-side for the "Everything Dies" single; later, it was included on the compilation album The Least Worst Of with two other outtakes from the same sessions ("It's Never Enough" and "Stay Out of My Dreams").

The reversed vocal technique of backmasking is used in several places on the album; some segments are more audibly apparent than others. In particular, backmasking during the intro section of "Creepy Green Light", which was originally titled "Spooky Green Light", refers to a third-person "spell" of a friend's intention to be reunited with a dead spouse.

When Type O Negative was still intact, the band had mixed opinions about the music on World Coming Down. The keyboard player and producer Josh Silver felt that the music was strong, while the bass guitarist and principal songwriter Peter Steele had said the songs were too strongly connected to an uncomfortable period in his life. Live shows performed since the initial tour to support World Coming Down usually had very few, if any, selections from the album in the set list. However, the band often played the song "World Coming Down" in its entirety during the Dead Again tour.

The album cover features a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Critical reception

World Coming Down received mostly positive reviews. AllMusic critic Steve Huey gave the album a 4-out-of-5 star rating. Adam Wasylyk of Chronicles of Chaos gave World Coming Down a very positive review: "An album that won't be ignored, it's my favourite album of 1999. Hands down." Christopher Thelen of The Daily Vault called the album "a great listen" and wrote that "for the most part", World Coming Down "suggests that" Type O Negative "is doing things right".

Track listing

All songs written by Peter Steele, except where noted.

Credits