Guility Pleasure...Type-O-Negative

Members
Peter Steele – Lead vocals, bass guitar, guitar, and keyboards
Josh Silver – Keyboards, synth, effects, programming, backing vocals
Kenny Hickey – Lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals
Johnny Kelly – Drums, percussion, backing vocals

With a career going from 1991 until 2007 as a band with little or no radio play, they are very under rated as artists. The style can be described as Gothic Metal. The deal with topics of humanities dark side or the depths of despair and human suffering that no band can put so eloquently or bring forth like they can.

The started out as a goth/punk act in 1991with Slow,Deep, and Hard where the songs were stripped down to the core with total rocking out riffs and dirge lyrics. Some of them clocked in between 8 and 14 minuets, Much too long for any radio play or music videos.

In 1992, The Origin of the Feces was released. It was a live remake of the 1st album. It had new arrangements of the tracks with the "live" part dubbed over as it was recorded in their basement. With some tracks clocking in at over 14 minuets and a very good cover of Paranoid by Black Sabbath.

1993 with the release of Bloody Kisses, their sophomore effort the band saw stardom and airplay with several tracks and heavy rotation on MTV. 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. 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 8½ and 11 minutes long, respectively), with heavy guitars and bass combining with ethereal keyboards and gloomy melodies. They also did a cover of Seals&Croft - Summer Breeze. It was a very good cover.

In 1997, October Rust was released. It can be compared to an epic Pink Floyd album in style and layering or instrumentation. With songs about love, loss, death, and vampires, all the bases were covered. The keys were very lush and layered giving way to Peter Steels deep bass voice. 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. Several other tracks that stand out are: Wolf Moon [Including Zoanthropic Paranoia], and Red Water (Christmas Mourning). The also, once again, did a cover song on this album. This time covering Neal Young - "Cinnamon Girl". They also had a few songs go to MTV videos.

In 1999, World Coming Down was released. It was a more stripped down album then October Rust with less instrumentation and more guitar. 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 a hard album to get into, but if you like Type O, then it is a must.

In 2000, The Least Worst of Type O Negative was released as a Best Of album going back 10 years with unreleased tracks and some remixed ones as well. 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".

The year 2003 saw an album called Life Is Killing Me. 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. The album conveyed the band's style or music and lyrics in their usually style.

Now 2007, Dead Again. The bands 7th studio album. IT is a rocking album in the Type O style with several tracks clocked at 14 minuets!! The have the same style as the last 2 but with a little more keys and some heavy bass elements included if you have a system that can produce that low of a frequency!! They are back after 4 years, still under recognized, but as always rocking the goth scene. Some stand out tracks are: The Profit of Doom, and Halloween in Heaven (with Lycia's Tara VanFlower)

They also have 2 DVD titles out. One in 2006 called Symphony For The Devil, is the first Live DVD of the legendary Type O Negative, featuring Pete Steele. The Live DVD features a concert filmed at the Bizarre Festival in Germany 1999, with an awe-inspiring 5.1 sound mix. Bonus features include an audio CDS with a Santana medley, behind the scenes footage, interviews with band members, photo history of the band, commentary with band members, bios and more.

The other DVD came out in 1998 and it is called After Dark. it is a collection of their music videos off of three of their albums. Here is the track listing for the video:

Tracks:

1. Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)

2. Christian Woman

3. My Girlfriend's Girlfriend

4. Love You To Death

5. Cinnamon Girl

6. Christian Woman (Naildriver Version)

7. Everything Dies (bonus video)

Yes, they are one of my favorite bands and the are kept on my Creative Zen mp3 player all the time. They are leaders in their style of music even if they are under rated and under played in main stream media. I for one, will always support them...

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