Type O Negative

Members: Peter Steele, Josh Silver, Kenny Hickey, Johnny Kelly

Active: 1990 - present

HISTORY

Type O Negative is a band from Brooklyn, New York. The band is well known for its dry, morbid and self-ironic sense of humor and their often slow and brooding music. The band rose from the ashes of Carnivore and gained significant popularity with most of their released albums and their often relentless touring schedule, despite a lack of mainstream radio play and little support from music television. Their popularity grew in 1993 with their now legendary opus, Bloody Kisses, however this mainstream popularity was fleeting. It remains to be seen whether or not they will regain the fame that they had in the mid 90s, with their first album of new material in 4 years released in March 2007).

FALLOUT AND CARNIVORE

Type O Negative's origins lie in Fallout, formed in the early eighties by then teenager Peter Steele. He was joined by fellow teen and Brooklyn native, Josh Silver. The band released one EP in 1981, titled Batteries Not Included. It enjoyed modest success on college radio.

Shortly thereafter, Silver left Fallout to form Original Sin, which sounded like most eighties hair metal bands at the time, with a new wave twist. Meanwhile, Steele went on to found the thrash metal band, Carnivore. Carnivore spent much of the mid-eighties terrorizing concert goers at various venues in and around the East Coast, including the CBGBs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and the now defunct Lamours in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The band's lyrics were harsh and very politically incorrect, dealing with race, religion, war and misogyny. The band's sound included elements of speed metal mixed in with hardcore break downs and a three-chord punk rock sensibility.

Following the release of their second album, Retaliation, Carnivore went on hiatus, as Steele decided to pursue the more stable and lucrative career of working for the New York City Parks Department. In 1989, after two years of looking after hedges in Prospect Park, he was forced out of retirement by long time friend, Sal Abruscato, Type O Negative's original drummer. Soon after, Silver was convinced to join the band, with fellow childhood friend, Kenny Hickey, following suit. They originally named themselves "Sub-Zero," but soon discovered this was already taken. After an extensive search through the Yellow Pages for potential band names, they all agreed upon Type O Negative to best describe their sound. The band released a demo which caught the ear of record executives at Roadrunner Records - the premiere American label for metal and hard rock in the late eighties and early nineties. Roadrunner signed the band to a five album record deal, and in 1991, the band quickly recorded and released their debut, Slow Deep and Hard.

SLOW, DEEP AND HARD

Slow Deep and Hard was just that; dragging dirge riffs, interspersed with maniacal punk-metal outbursts, and droning industrial and gothic atmospheres. The songs were long, multi-part theatrical epics, with lyrical topics ranging from heartbreak, to getting revenge on a cheating lover, contemplating suicide, and unleashing a massive diatribe on the left wing political agenda.

EUROPE CONTROVERSY

Their first tour also landed the band into a lot of trouble, especially in Europe, where political leaders labeled them Nazis and Hitler sympathizers (regarded as ironic by the band, considering that Josh Silver is Jewish).

THE ORIGIN OF THE FECES

Back in the States, Roadrunner Records held Type O Negative to a contractual obligation of recording a live album. With the money they received from the label to facilitate the recording of said album at Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, the band instead used it for buying cheap vodka, and re-recording their debut in Silver's basement. They later dubbed in live noises, and improvised a fake fight between the band and the hostile crowd. Entitled The Origin of the Feces (a take on Charles Darwin's case for evolution, The Origin of the Species), a warning label was put on the album cover: "Not Live At Brighton Beach." Roadrunner was not amused with the prank, but went ahead and released the album in 1992 anyway.

BLOODY KISSES

Their sophomore effort, Bloody Kisses, was released in 1993 to critical and listener acclaim. The thrash metal and ranting from the first album was all but gone, and the band had made huge strides in the progression of their musical style. The Beatles proved to be an accurate reference point, as they incorporated the psychedelic mysticism and melodies of the legendary sixties rockers mid-period work, with particular emphasis on their Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper's catalogue, along with a growing influence from The Sisters of Mercy.

Bloody Kisses mostly addressed loneliness and heartbreak, with songs like Too Late: Frozen, Blood & Fire, and Cant Lose You all being tributes to long lost loves. The organ-driven Set me on Fire is vintage sixties garage rock, showcasing the band's keen sense of melody. The title track is a Romeo & Juliet retelling of a love/suicide pact. The two singles, Christian Woman and Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All) were more radio friendly and accessible, after having been edited down to more radio-friendly lengths (the album versions of these songs were 8 and 11 minutes long, respectively), with heavy guitars and bass combining with ethereal keyboards and gloomy melodies.

In order to promote the album, the band embarked on a grueling two-year world tour. Much to their good fortune, there were no protests this time around, and Bloody Kisses eventually racked up worldwide sales in the millions and was certified Platinum in the USA. This was a first for an underground metal band on the Roadrunner label, and the diligence and sacrifice the band had put in for three years were now beginning to pay off. Brief features on MTV, VH1, Rolling Stone Magazine, amongst various other mainstream musical media outlets, followed. In the midst of this media blitz, drummer Sal Abruscato quit the band to join another Brooklyn hard rock quartet, Life of Agony. Johnny Kelly, the band's drum technician, was therefore hired as a full fledged member.

Bloody Kisses was re-released a year after the original release, in a limited-edition Digipak form, including eight of the musical tracks from the original (omitting the rest of the "filler" tracks) in addition to the previous unreleased vampiric ode "Suspended In Dusk."

OCTOBER RUST

This unexpected success brought the burden and pressure of recording a worthy successor to Bloody Kisses. The record label, suddenly capitalizing on the revenue being generated by Type O Negative, began pressuring Steele and company to write even more commercial sounding songs, specifically for the purpose of making money and augmenting their bottom line. The band protested, and refused to sell out. According to many fans, by striking a balance between the commercial and the creative, the band combined the two, and the result was the album October Rust. Picking up where Bloody Kisses left off, the album continued to explore themes of sex and sensuality. The album incorporated ambient keyboards, cold guitar melodies, and noticeable bass guitar, all subordinated to Steele's basso profundo vocals. Songs such as Love You to Death, Be My Druidess, Green Man, Die With Me, and Haunted all combined goth, rock, and new wave styles. While not quite the success that Bloody Kisses was, the album was certified Gold in the U.S. It was also the first album of theirs to enter the top half of the Billboard Top 200, debuting at No.42.

WORLD COMING DOWN

With the completion of another successful world tour, the band began writing and recording their fourth album. In the period immediately following the release of October Rust, Steele experienced several deaths in his immediate family, and he began drinking heavily to mask the bereavement and pain. This epoch of self-loathing would eventually manifest itself in the next album, entitled World Coming Down, which was released in 1999. The overall vibe of the album was a significant change from the pop inflected and airy nature of October Rust: this time the band revisited the more doom and dirge oriented sounds from Slow Deep & Hard, and the result was an honest (if difficult) tone, where the band seemed to wallow in their misery. This time around, instead of sex, the lyrics focused on death, drug addiction, depression, and suicide. Songs such as Everyone I Love is Dead, Everything Dies, World Coming Down, and All Hallows Eve were not meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but rather, real life reflections of the mindset affecting Steele at the time. It was nowhere near as accessible as Bloody Kisses or October Rust. Despite the morbid subject matter, World Coming Down debuted at #39 on the Billboard 200 charts.

THE LEAST WORST OF TYPE O NEGATIVE

Type O Negative released a 'Best of' album in 2000, entitled The Least Worst of Type O Negative. Although most songs appear on previous albums, many are unreleased remixes or remixes that were B-sides on previously-released singles. Along with these songs are some unreleased numbers from the World Coming Down sessions. Also available is the band's cover of "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath, and a cleaner officially studio version of "Hey Pete", which was originally released on the mock live album "Origin of the Feces".

LIFE IS KILLING ME

Type O Negative released their sixth studio album, Life Is Killing Me in 2003. For this album, the band picked up the pace of their sound from the dirgeful slowness of World Coming Down, while still keeping the slow, deep and hard Type O Negative sound. Songs such as "Todd's Ship Gods," "(We Were) Electrocute," and "I Don't Wanna Be Me" convey the band's by now classic elements of length and melody. A humorous cover of the song "Angry Inch" from the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, detailing a sex change operation gone terribly wrong, marks the band's return to its trademark humor that had been absent on their previous album.

DEAD AGAIN

Type O Negative entered the studio to work on the follow up to Life Is Killing Me in August 2006. Little was heard from the band for some time, however, on December 18, 2006, the band announced the title of the new album to be Dead Again, and gave the following release dates:

March 13, 2007 - USA/Canada

March 16, 2007 - Germany

March 19, 2007 - Europe

The album will be released in other areas, such as Australia, South America and Asia, around mid-March.

Type O Negative has also released the current track names for the Album Dead Again, they are as follows:

1. Dead Again

2. Tripping a Blind Man

3. The Profits of Doom (confirmed as the new Single)

4. September Sun

5. Halloween in Heaven (with Lycia's Tara VanFlower)

6. These Three Things(now playing on type o negative.net)

7. She Burned Me Down

8. Some Stupid Tomorrow

9. An Ode to Locksmiths

10. Hail and Farewell to Britain

The total disc running time is expected to be a tad over 77 minutes.

ALBUMS

1991 - Slow, Deep And Hard

1992 - The Origin Of The Feces

1993 - Bloody Kisses

1996 - October Rust

1999 - World Coming Down

2003 - Life Is Killing Me

2007 - Dead Again

COMPILATIONS

2000 - The Least Worst Of

2006 - The Best Of Type O Negative

VHS & DVD

1998 - After Dark (VHS)

2000 - After Dark (DVD)

2006 - Symphony For The Devil (DVD)