World Coming Down is the fifth studio album by the American gothic metal band Type O Negative. It is considered to be the darkest of the band's releases, having been written after a series of deaths in frontman Peter Steele's family, combined with the desire to break away from the sexually charged themes of the previous albums. It was also the band's first album to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard 200. Music and lyrics As with the band's previous album, October Rust, this album also has a 'joke intro': in this case, "Skip It", 11 seconds of staccato band noise meant to sound as if the listener's CD player is skipping. Contrary to common belief, Cassette versions did not have the noise of a tape being 'eaten' by the tape player, it was actually the same as in CD version. However, 2019 released None More Negative vinyl box set re-issue and 2020 released stand-alone vinyl version begins as if the record is damaged and stuck in a locked groove during the intro of "White Slavery". The track ends with the band's guitarist, Kenny Hickey, shouting "Sucker!" The first song, "White Slavery", deals with cocaine addiction. Discussing his dalliance with the drug and inspiration behind the song in a 1999 Kerrang! interview, Steele recalled: "There were a handful of times that were fucking horrible, but one night in particular was really bad, and that's when I stopped doing it. I was really depressed and homesick, and the worst part is when you're coming down from it. It's five in the morning and there's no one to talk to, you're on a tour bus doing 80mph and you look out the window and it looks like you're on Mars. All I could think about was jumping out of the bus while it was moving, but that would have made too many people happy." 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?", which deals with mental illness and psychiatry, incorporates 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 the members of the band may have suffered at the