Type O Negative is a
heavy metal band from
Brooklyn, New York City. Although commonly viewed as a
gothic metal band, Type O has also incorporated elements of
doom metal, and
thrash metal. Their dramatic lyrical emphasis on themes of
romance,
depression, and death has resulted in the nickname "The Drab Four" (in homage to The Beatles "
Fab Four" moniker). The band went
Platinum with 1993's
Bloody Kisses, and has gained an enormous following with seven studio albums, two best-of compilations, and concert
DVDs. Their most recent album is 2007's
Dead Again.
Type O Negative's members were originally in a band called Fallout, formed in the early 1980s by then-teenager Peter Steele. He was joined by fellow teens John Campos, Louie Beato, and 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 combined the sounds of eighties hair metal and new wave. Meanwhile, Steele went on to found the thrash metal band Carnivore. Carnivore spent much of the mid-eighties playing venues in and around the East Coast, including the now defunct CBGBs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and the now defunct L’amours in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The band's lyrics were harsh and very politically incorrect, dealing with race, religion, war, and misogyny, with a sound reminiscent of speed metal mixed with hardcore break-downs and three-chord punk rock.
Following the release of their second album, Retaliation, Carnivore went on hiatus. Two years later, Steele recruited long-time friend, Sal Abruscato, Type O Negative's original drummer. Soon after, Silver was convinced to join, with fellow childhood friend Kenny Hickey following suit. They originally named themselves "Repulsion" and "Sub-Zero,"[1] but after an extensive search through the Yellow Pages for potential names, they realized "subzero" had already been taken. Due to the band already having the "o" negative tattoos for subzero, they decided to name the band "Type O Negative." The band released a demo, which caught the ear of executives at Road Racer Records which later Became Roadrunner Records, a prominent American label for metal and hard rock in the late eighties and early nineties. Roadrunner signed them to a five-album record deal, and in 1991 the band quickly released their debut, Slow Deep and Hard.
Produced under the working title None More Negative,[2] Type O's first album Slow Deep and Hard incorporated dragging dirge riffs, 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, and even contemplating suicide. Their first tour following the album's release was met with hostility, primarily by Dutch political activists who failed to recognize Peter Steele's tongue-in-cheek humor regarding certain social topics, which resulted in false accusations that the band's members were misogynists and Nazi sympathizers.[3] This was perceived as ironic by the band, as Josh Silver is Jewish (they made light of the situation on a later album with a song titled "We Hate Everyone").
