Type O negatives
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.jpg) Type O Negative in Berlin |
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| General information | |
| origin | New York City , New York , USA |
| Genre (s) | Alternative Metal , Doom Metal , Dark Rock (1996) |
| founding | 1989 |
| resolution | 2010 |
| Website | typeonegative.net (offline) |
| Founding members | |
Vocals, electric bass |
Peter Steele († 2010) |
Vocals, electric guitar |
Kenny Hickey |
Keyboard |
Josh Silver |
Drums |
Sal Abruscato (until 1993) |
| Last occupation | |
Vocals, bass |
Peter Steele |
Vocals, electric guitar |
Kenny Hickey |
Keyboard |
Josh Silver |
Drums |
Johnny Kelly (from 1993) |
Type O Negative [ ˌtaɪp oʊ ˈnɛgətɪv ] was an American rock and metal band . It was born in 1989 by the Brooklyn , New York musicians Peter Steele (real name Peter Ratajczyk, born January 4, 1962 - April 14, 2010), Sal Abruscato (born July 18, 1970), Kenny Hickey (born 22. May 1966) and Josh Silver (born November 14, 1962). Sometimes the band was assigned to Doom Metal or, because of their greatest hit ( Black No. 1 ), to Gothic Metal .
The band name is the English name of the blood group zero-negative, but at the same time an allusion to the typical depressive mood in the music and lyrics of the band, which sometimes called itself Drab Four (a play on words with Fab Four , drab is in the English language for "monotonous" or "gloomy"). The symbol of the band was a green circle (next to black, the characteristic color of the band) with a minus sign in the middle . All band members wore this symbol as a tattoo on their upper arm.
history
Carnivore and the beginnings
Sal Abruscato got to know Louie Beato, Carnivores' drummer at the time, through an instrument manufacturer . Beato taught Abruscato the basics of percussion and played him music by drummers John Bonham ( Led Zeppelin ) and Bill Ward ( Black Sabbath ).
Abruscato met Peter Steele, the singer and bassist of Carnivore at the time, through Beato. As the Carnivore broke up, Abruscato asked Steele if he didn't want to start something new. Steele was working for the New York State Park Administration at the time, and although he enjoyed his current job, he was persuaded to start a new band. With Kenny Hickey and Josh Silver, who had previously played with Steele in the bands Aggression and Fallout , the line-up was complete.
Against the originally intended band name Repulsion spoke that another band already had this name. The same applied to the chosen alternative Sub-Zero . Eventually the choice fell on the name Type O Negative, allegedly because of a random call on the radio at the time to donate the corresponding blood group.
Steele and Silver sent the first demo recordings (for which Steele supposedly had written the songs while drunk in just four hours) to various record companies, with the idea of giving the company the highest bid and recording the album himself. Finally, after eight months of negotiations, a contract was signed with RoadRacer - the Carnivore label - and signed by Peter Steele with his own blood. However, the grant that had been put forward for production was brought through elsewhere and on June 11, 1991 the demo tapes were finally released as the first studio album Slow, Deep and Hard .
Slow, deep and hard and controversy
The general style on Slow, Deep and Hard is a mixture of aggressive rhythms, grave chants and rock elements. Musically, Steele's extremely deep bass and Silver's almost epic keyboard arrangements dominated . Thematically, frustration about social conditions, problems with women and self-destructive tendencies are dealt with. A typical curiosity for the band is the one-minute piece The Misinterpretation of Silence and Its Disastrous Consequences , which only contains silence. Like the later albums with the band's involvement in the production process, it was recorded and mixed in Silver's own Brooklyn studio, Systems II . The same goes for Peter Steele's significant involvement in the artistic presentation of the product. The cover of Slow, Deep and Hard shows a green-colored, grainy close - up of a vaginal penetration .
The earlier influences of Carnivore, who had often pelted the audience with body parts and blood from animals from a slaughterhouse at concerts and were also relevant for texts in which properties of the sexes and their opposites as well as political and social ones, were also clearly evident Topics were hyped up to the apocalyptic. Type O Negative was attacked relatively quickly (especially during the first tours in Europe) for allegedly misogynistic and right-wing extremist tendencies, which were linked to the songs Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity and Der Untermensch , for example .
Quote from the lyrics to Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity - also known as I Know You're Fucking Someone Else :
you had cock on your mind and cum on your breath
inserted that diaphragm before you left
practicing freelance gynecology
where there's a womb there's a way
with you it's for free
slut whore cunt
Quote from the lyrics to Der Untermensch :
hey you on public assistance
why don't you get a job
sell some dope and buy some pride
it's the only thing you couldn't rob
[…]
been doing some thinking and I have an answer
to arrest the spreading cancer
send you back from where you're from
get the fuck rid of you (sub) human scum
As a result, there were several violent incidents at concerts. Type O Negative have distanced themselves several times from the allegations, among other things by pointing out that one member, Josh Silver, was Jewish and that his membership could hardly be thought of as compatible with a right-wing radical or Nazi attitude of the band.
"'The press is known to twist your words in your mouth, for example when you said that rape was a beautiful thing ...'
,No I have not. I have five older sisters who I love very much and I would never want anything like this to happen to them. The statement was meant to be completely and totally sarcastic, but I am now used to being quoted context-free. '
'How do you feel about women?'
'On Type O's first album, Slow, Deep, and Hard, I used words - and please excuse me - like bitch, whore, cunt ... which weren't directed against the entire female population. That was only related to a specific person. I'm pretty upset that there are people who say I hate women. I find that very offensive. '"
"I think there are a lot of people here who are misguided and do not understand, or do not want to understand what I am about, who simply misinterpreted many things that I have said, consciously or unconsciously [...] and from the Have torn context. These people never came to us and [never] talked to us about it, behaved anonymously and tried again and again to get us into trouble. It's just a shame that people are so simple-minded that they are too cowardly to express their opinions to us. They called us Nazis, but what they did to us is fascism in my eyes. They wanted to censor us, they protested against us, sent bomb threats over the phone, threw windows into clubs we wanted to play in ... a whole list of things that I just find very fascist. "
The controversies, which had never been fully resolved, were later to be the subject of discussion in the music and the lyrics of Type O Negative, even if they deliberately devoted themselves less specifically to political issues in the following years.
Origin of the Feces
In 1992 the band was to record a live album on the advice of Roadrunner. In fact, The Origin of the Feces (not live at Brighton Beach ) became another studio album instead, mostly with (already more melodic) variations of songs from the first album. With the help of shouting friends from the neighborhood and some technology, the recordings were then simply trimmed to live. Numerous allusions were made to the hated image of the band: For example, the “concert” is interrupted by a bomb defuse command, and for the first time the “You suck!” Choirs of the fans appear on a sound carrier, which later briefly in a kind of traditional rite before the performances of Type O Negative intones were. The cover of the album showed a black and white close-up of Steele's splayed rump when it was first released (June 30th of that year) . The second release on May 17, 1994 (to which a cover version of Black Sabbath's Paranoid was added) had instead a green-colored representation of a dance of death on the cover (which is attributed to both Michael Wolgemut and Hans Holbein the Younger ). In the booklet , the band thanked the “ radical left ” for making them famous (“And a very special thanks to the radical left for making us so famous”).
Bloody Kisses and the Breakthrough
The album Bloody Kisses from August 17, 1993 was the big hit for the band: While the previous work was still quite bulky, Type O Negative on Bloody Kisses presented an opulent orchestral sound with choral songs and several organ parts . Hardcore and noise-heavy pieces faded into the background. The album received a platinum award from the RIAA in December 2000 .
About two months after the album was first released, drummer Sal Abruscato left Type O Negative to play in Life of Agony , as Type O Negative had no tours initially planned, but Abruscato was determined to go on tour and play live. A former roadie of the band, Johnny Kelly (born March 9, 1968), took his place for it. Kelly had previously driven the tour bus and carried out technical work on the drums, among other things. After proving his talent as a drummer with Type O Negative, he also played in this role with Pist * On , in a Led Zeppelin co-band called Earl's Court and since 2002 in the live performances of Danzig .
In 1995, Peter Steele had himself photographed naked for Playgirl magazine (and, unusual for the magazine's models, with an erect penis), a step he decided to take because of the publicity he had hoped for for the band (after consultation with the band and their management) , which he said he later regretted. The related experiences (increased sexual offers to Steele on the part of the (predominantly) male readership of Playgirl) then inspired the song I Like Goils (in German: "I like girls") on the sixth album Life Is Killing Me .
October Rust and After Dark
On August 20, 1996, Type O Negative's probably most commercial album, October Rust, was released . Death, depression, drugs and sex were still part of the topic and mood, but the Gothic style had been abandoned in favor of paganistic elements and a generally calmer but also more poppy tempo with many more complex, but also the overall impression smoothing soundtracks. Even the previously clearly audible hatred of the world had given way to self-doubt and a basic theme of despair on this album. The song Red Water (Christmas Mourning) reflected Steele's experience of losing his father in February 1995 (according to his own account, the song was never played live). Although October Rust received gold on July 20, 2000 and four singles were released, it still had to take criticism, which this time roughly formulated that the band had become too happy with a larger audience with this release. The intermediate piece The Glorious Liberation of the People's Technocratic Republic of Vinnland by the Combined Forces of the United Territories of Europa , an allusion to the idea of America as Vinland , a term used by US neo-Nazis , went almost unnoticed .
In 1996 Type O Negative performed for the first time at the With Full Force Festival (June 22nd), the Roskilde Festival (June 28th), the Graspop Festival (June 30th) and the Monsters of Rock Festival (October 18th) ) on. In the following period the band toured more and more. In 1997 they accompanied the Ozzfest tour, in 1999 they performed as part of their Summer Breeze Europe Tour at the Doomsday Festival (August 21) and the Bizarre Festival (August 22).
On March 24, 1998, the band released a VHS video called After Dark , which, in addition to the music videos for the songs Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All) , Christian Woman (two versions), My Girlfriend's Girlfriend , Love You to Death and Cinnamon Girl can also be seen numerous backstage and home video recordings. From After Dark was published on 18 September 2000 an expanded DVD version. In October 2006, the video was awarded gold status by the RIAA .
World Coming Down
With World Coming Down , the band's darkest album was released on September 20, 1999, on which Steele processed painful experiences: He had not only lost his father, his mother had also become seriously ill, and there had been other deaths in his family, some he had rarely seen before because of the long touring times. The themes of mortality, loss, death and drug use were central on this sound carrier, the melodies ranged between deep heaviness and biting sharpness. Hard guitar riffs and clattering drums almost dominated the keyboard, which was even more in the foreground on October Rust . As the supposedly most difficult to access album, because it is probably also the most depressing, World Coming Down has also received criticism, not least from Peter Steele himself, who linked the memories with the songs until his death.
The Least Worst Of
On October 31, 2000, The Least Worst Of, the obligatory compilation of the band's most popular songs, also included some rarer and previously unreleased B-sides and two new songs ( It's Never Enough and Stay Out of My Dreams ). There are two versions of the album, a so-called "dirty" and a so-called "clean" version (the latter for sale in big chains like Walmart , on which the song It's Never Enough was not included (probably because of the chorus " Fuck you, God! ”) And Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity was replaced by the song Gravity ). On the back cover is the saying “Better to be hated for who you are than loved for who you're not.” ("Better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."), Attributed to a certain " Phlogiston Verdigris" ( verdigris is English for patina ), obviously a fictional one and from the Band fictional person. The quote has since spread as true. The name “Phlogiston Verdigris” first appeared in the booklet notes of the album Bloody Kisses . There it says:
“Additional vocal performances: The Bensonhoist Lesbian Choir. Erasmus High School Boys Special Ed. Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra (Verdigris Phlogiston conducting). "
Life Is Killing Me and Symphony for the Devil
The sixth album, Life Is Killing Me (working title: The Dream Is Dead ), was released on June 17, 2003 and again sounded (relatively) cheerful tones. The songs featured a variety of different styles, Steele himself described them as a mix of " hardcore / punk , almost party punk", the band's traditional Goth metal and a combination of types from 1960s and 1980s songwriting . Examples of this are the songs Electrocute or the cover version of the piece Angry Inch from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch about a transsexual rock star from East Berlin. Solid rock in the style of Black Sabbath and also poppy sitar sounds that are reminiscent of the Beatles formed the new, old sound. The well-known negativity is represented again, for example as compressed in the song Anesthesia , the desperation and the denial of one's own feelings thematized.
In the United States, 27,000 copies of Life Is Killing Me were sold in the first week of its release , causing the album to hit the Billboard 200 chart at number 39 .
In Europe, appeared Life Is Killing Me as a double CD with rare B-sides, including the piece Out of The Fire (Kane's Theme) , originally as the band 2001 theme song for the wrestler Glen "Kane" Jacobs had taken, but until then had not published.
As part of a smaller European tour, the band performed at the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival and again at the Waldrock Festival (June 21), the Graspop Festival (July 4) and the With Full Force Festival (July 6).
In 2004 Type O Negative switched to the German record company SPV after the contract with Roadrunner expired and the band Roadrunners did not accept the offer for a new contract.
On May 13, 2005, the front page of the Type O Negative website featured a picture of an ivy-covered tombstone that read "[P] ETER STEELE / FREE AT LAST / 1962–2005". Although the alleged death of frontman Peter Steele very quickly turned out to be rumor, had the film, directed by Josh Silver Josh consequences for Peter Steele, as it had at the time problems with the law (and for 30 days in the prison of Rikers Iceland had incarcerated , according to his own statement, because he "accidentally hit someone in the face 50 times") and the judge in charge sent the police to Steele's apartment to find out whether he was really dead.
In mid-March 2006, SPV's metal label Steamhammer released a DVD with Symphony for the Devil (The World of Type O Negative) with live recordings from the 1999 Bizarre Festival as well as backstage material and other home videos as well as an attached maxi CD with Santana - Medleys .
In September 2006 Roadrunner Records released The Best of Type O Negative , a compilation of old and well-known material that the band had not been involved in producing. The song Highway Star contained on it , a cover version of the song of the same name by Deep Purple , could only be heard on the compilation NASCAR: Crank It Up , released in 2002 by NASCAR , FOX and the MCA .
Dead Again
On March 13, 2007, the latest album was released on Steamhammer in the United States and Canada. The working title was The Profit $ of Doom (a return to Carnivore beginnings according to Peter Steele) but was changed to Dead Again when it entered the mix in early November 2006 . On the album, Tara VanFlower (formerly Lycia ) made a guest appearance on the song Halloween In Heaven , a tribute to Dimebag Darrell, who was killed in late 2004 . The first single was the song "The Profit of Doom". In Germany the album was released on March 16, in the rest of Europe on March 19. On March 23, the album was even released as a bright green double LP in Germany .
The reasons given by the band for the usual long wait since the last studio album included deaths in the families of the band members (Josh Silver's father and Peter Steele's mother), as well as other personal problems, including Peter Steele's stay in prison and a drug rehab because of him Cocaine addiction , which he sings about in the theme song of Dead Again .
Dead Again surprised many fans, as the album thematically has a strong Christian influence in the song lyrics. Peter Steele justified this in interviews with the personal return to his Roman Catholic faith.
In terms of production, Dead Again differs from the previous albums, as the band had mostly recorded the songs in jam sessions and for the first time since Bloody Kisses the drums were played live instead of using a drum computer .
The cover of the album depicts the Russian miracle healer Rasputin .
Dead Again sold 22,000 copies in the United States in the first week of its release , making the album debut at # 27 on the Billboard 200 chart. In the special Billboard charts in the "Top Independent Albums" category, the album took second place.
From the end of March to the beginning of May 2007 the band completed a US tour together with Celtic Frost , in Europe Type O Negative played from June to August at several festivals (including Rock am Ring , Rock im Park , Sauna Open Air , Woodstage Summer Open Air , Fields of Rock , Wacken Open Air , Graspop, Hellfest ) as well as at normal gigs, including for the first time appearances in Southeast Europe ( Zagreb on July 1st, 2007, Belgrade on July 3rd, Sofia on July 4th, and Thessaloniki on July 6th and Athens on July 8th). This was followed by a mini-tour in the United States.
Peter Steele's death
Singer and bassist Peter Steele died on April 14th, 2010 as a result of inflamed organs, which ultimately led to an aortic aneurysm , although heart failure was initially assumed . In November 2010 the remaining members announced in an interview with Rock Hard magazine that the band had ceased to exist with Steele's death.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1991 | Slow, Deep and Hard Roadrunner Records |
- | - | - | - | - |
First published: June 16, 1991
Republished: 2009 |
| 1992 | The Origin of the Feces (Not Live at Brighton Beach) Roadrunner Records |
- | - | - | - | - |
First published: May 17, 1992
Republished: 1994 |
| 1993 |
Bloody Kisses Roadrunner Records |
DE60 (8 weeks) DE |
- | - | - |
US166  (11 weeks)US |
First published: August 17, 1993
Sales: + 1,000,000 |
| 1996 | October Rust Roadrunner Records |
DE5 (12 weeks) DE |
AT8 (10 weeks) AT |
CH46 (2 weeks) CH |
UK26 (2 weeks) UK |
US42  (8 weeks)US |
First published: August 20, 1996
Sales: + 500,000 |
| 1999 | World Coming Down Roadrunner Records |
DE3 (8 weeks) DE |
AT17 (4 weeks) AT |
- |
UK49 (1 week) UK |
US39 (6 weeks) US |
First published: September 21, 1999
|
| 2003 | Life Is Killing Me Roadrunner Records |
DE9 (9 weeks) DE |
AT51 (7 weeks) AT |
CH98 (1 week) CH |
UK78 (1 week) UK |
US39 (4 weeks) US |
First published: June 17, 2003
|
| 2007 | Dead Again SPV |
DE18 (5 weeks) DE |
AT25 (3 weeks) AT |
CH89 (1 week) CH |
UK87 (1 week) UK |
US27 (3 weeks) US |
First published: March 13, 2007
|
Web links
- Official website ( Memento of October 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- Type O Negative at SPV ( Memento from March 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Type O Negative at Discogs (English)
- Type O Negative on MusicBrainz (English)
- Works by and about Type O Negative in the catalog of the German National Library
- Link catalog about Type O Negative at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
- Type O Negative Interview on benrocks.de
Individual evidence
- ^ A b J. Bennett: Type O Negative . ( March 19, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive ) In: Decibel Magazine , April 2007.
- ↑ See Josh Silver in an interview with Todd Newton ( memento of October 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on Blasting-Zone.com.
- ^ Translation of an interview, via thegrimoire.com ( Memento of February 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in: Metal Interviews , # 29.
- ↑ Interview with Peter Steele 1993 ( Memento of February 27, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) in: Iron Curtain , September 1993
- ^ Gail Worley: The Power of Negative Thinking . In: Ink 19 , October 2003.
- ^ Brian McQueen: Turning a negative into a positive . In: The Gazette , January 28, 1997.
- ↑ Free at Last. Type O negatives, archived from the original on May 13, 2005 ; Retrieved May 13, 2005 .
- ↑ Type O Negative's Peter Steele Is Not Dead . ( Memento of April 18, 2010 on the Internet Archive ) Blabbermouth.net, May 14, 2005
- ↑ Interview in the podcast (mp3) with Peter Steele. indie1031.fm, February 3, 2007, archived from the original on October 23, 2007 ; Retrieved February 3, 2007 .
- ↑ a b Chris Harris: Type O Negative Remember Dimebag Darrell On 'Positive' New LP . MTV News, February 28, 2007.
- ↑ Sascha Blach: Type O Negative: 'The end is here' . ( Memento of March 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: subKULTUR , 02/2007.