HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Type O Negative

Standing at 6’8”, the formidable and brooding presence of Peter Thomas Ratajczyk, or more commonly known as Peter Steele, as he fronts Brooklyn gothic doom metal outfit TYPE O NEGATIVE is a captivating image. His seductively deep baritone voice casting a spell over you as he launches into raunchy yet hopelessly romantic lyrics about all things gothic and nihilistic, often with some tongue-in-cheek humour.  Even though it has been 14 years since the iconic frontman dies, TYPE O NEGATIVE still have a bewitching hold over the metal community, whether you’re an all year round listener or you strike up 1996’s October Rust when Hallowe’en season comes around. Despite only being active for 21 years, disbanding in 2010 after Steele’s death, TYPE O NEGATIVE still have a loyal and passionate fanbase well into 2024, which marks the band’s 35th anniversary.

TYPE O NEGATIVE formed in 1989 when Steele’s former band, the crossover thrash outfit CARNIVORE disbanded. Steele was joined by childhood friends Sal Abruscato (drums), Josh Silver (keyboards, piano, backing vocals), and Kenny Hickey (guitars, backing vocals), and originally called themselves REPULSION. The band would change their name to SUB-ZERO in 1991 before finally settling on TYPE O NEGATIVE. During this time Steele was still signed to a multi-album deal with Roadrunner Records from his days in CARNIVORE, and after hearing a TYPE O demo, Roadrunner decided not to drop Steele and signed TYPE O NEGATIVE as a new entity. 

The band’s debut album Slow, Deep and Hard (1991)laid the foundation for the successes of their seminal albums October Rust and Bloody Kisses (1993). Consisting of BLACK SABBATH style dirges, frantic hardcore and droning, industrial, gothic atmospheres. They were multi-part epics that loosely told the story of a man enacting revenge on his heating girlfriend before ultimately contemplating what he had done and committing suicide. Love and death would become common themes in TYPE O’s music. In 1992 the band’s sophomore faux live album release, The Origin Of The Feces, consisted of faux-live recordings of songs from Slow, Deep and Hard with a cover of BLACK SABBATH’s Paranoid and an altered version of JIMI HENDRIX’s Hey Joe called Hey Pete. The album is initially quite convincing in its rawest form but you can also see the band’s unique sense of humour coming through in the covers and in the album itself. 

The band’s third album Bloody Kisses would launch the band into the mainstream and gain them a passionate cult following. Considered as a classic of the gothic metal sub-genre Bloody Kisses is a seamless composition of poppy doom, satirical hardcore and obscure noise interludes that cover all sorts of lyrical topics such as sex, religion, image, racism and death. The album’s success put pressure on the band as Steele expressed a disinterest in touring nationally due to his reluctance to quit his job. This would be the catalyst to Abruscato’s departure shortly after the album was completed. Monte Conner, Vice President of A&R at Roadrunner in 2018, said in a interview with Revolver Magazine, “There was a lot of pressure for him to take the band to the next level, but he didn’t want to quit his job… There was a point where it looked like the band might break up.”

However, Abruscato was replaced by Johnny Kelly and TYPE O eventually embarked on a two year world tour to promote the album. They would return in 1996 with their magnum opus October Rust. Continuing the themes of sex, nature and sensuality in both a humours and darker sense with songs such as My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend and Love You To Death respectively. It was also the first album to have one of the band’s joke intros and in 2017 was ranked by Bill Ward (BLACK SABBATH) as one of his favourite metal albums of all time. Yet commercially it wasn’t as successful as its predecessor. 

After another successful word tour, a series of deaths in Steele’s family took the band down a darker path with their fifth album World Coming Down (1999). It is a much bleaker and darker affair and it’s where the band broke away from the sexual themes they has explored on their last two albums. Despite its solid critical reception, it had mixed reviews within the band with Silver saying it was strong but Steele found it hit too close to home, as a result songs from the album were rarely performed. 

This was a turbulent time for Steele, and would make its way into the band’s sixth album, Life Is Killing Me (2003). It is a cynical album at heart, with Exclaim! Magazine stated “pays tongue-in-cheek homage to the world and the women that have screwed Steele over so badly. But musically, the disc is pure pop-rock bliss.” The band’s seventh and final album Dead Again (stylised as DЭДD ДGДIИ) was released in 2007 and despite receiving positive reviews is often a forgotten album, being dwarfed by its predecessors and frequently left out of box sets. 

TYPE O NEGATIVE have had a storied career that still resonates with many metalheads today. Much like MOTÖRHEAD’s Lemmy Kilmister, the band couldn’t continue without the talismanic Peter Steele. 35 years since their inception, they still continue to inspire bands that want to channel brooding gothic atmospheres and darkness into their music today. While their satire might not age well, their iconic melodic doom riffs are timeless.

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