By Summer of 1993, I was enjoying my deep love of violent music. The heavier, the better. I was also negatively reacting (sew what I did there?) to the grunge revolution going on. I absolutely hated that kind of music. Alice In Chains was about at close to this kind of music that I could tolerate.
Beyond that, every day with the death metal.
Fun Fact: Obituary didn't write lyrics - just sang stuff about death and dying.
By now, Headbangers Ball bean airing the "Triple Thrash Threat" and this showcased the darker and heavier side of metal, usually death metal/underground stuff. It was always my favorite part of the show. But at the same time, some favorites outside of death metal were emerging such as Sepultura (Arise, Chaos A.D.), Amorphis (Tales From The Thousand Lakes, Elegy), Fear Factory (Soul of a New Machine, Demanufacture), Savatage (Edge of Thorns, Dead Winter Dead), Dream Theater (Images and Words), Pantera (Cowboys Form Hell, A Vulgar Display of Power) and Cathedral (Soul Sacrifice EP, The Ethereal Mirror).
Still one of my favorite albums of all time.
But one evening while watching Headbangers Ball around August or September of 1993, this video played.
Not sure how these guys were not included in "The Crow" Soundtrack.
I had not (and still to this day) heard ANYTHING like this before. Nothing. I can remember asking for this album, Bloody Kisses, on my 17th birthday and lo and behold, I received it. During my gathering of friends for my party, we all were in my parents basement and I put on this album as we all talked (with I think one candle lit between us for ambience) while we took bong hits off my friends bong he made in pottery class. This album just encompassed me. I drove my friends nuts playing it all the time. ALL THE TIME.
I was also very unlucky in love in my life at this time. This statement on Bloody Kisses made me feel like the band understood my pain:
"This entire opus is respectfully dedicated to all those who have loved unconditionally only to have their hearts unanesthetically ripped out; Base not your joy upon the deeds of others, for what is given can be taken away. No hope = no fear. — Peter" [Despite "Don't Mistake Lack of Talent for Genius" on the back of the album.]
In the meantime, I looked more into the band and discovered two additional albums in their discography, Slow, Deep and Hard and The Origin of the Feces. I can even recall seeing an ad for Slow, Deep and Hard in a metal magazine I had (Metal Edge, I think?)
This was quite fortuitous. At this time, I was in a very immature relationship with a girl - let's call her "A" (this is where the statement Peter made above comes in). This girl led me on quite a bit, promised her love to me and proceeded to screw two of my friends behind my back. (In hindsight, I'm still friends with the two guys while she rots in obscurity.) This album has an overarching story of:
1) Discovering Infidelity and the Angry Reaction To It
2) Shitting On Her Home Life
3) Killing Her And The Other Guy
4) Agonizing About Women, Torturing Her, Then Going To A Dark Place
5) Killing Yourself
But, this album got me through all of it. I was almost literally living that story and listening to that album got me through all of that drama without me resorting to actual violence or self-destruction. I let the music do it for me and it probably saved my life, despite the insane content. In context for the band, the song was written about one woman that betrayed Peter Steele and his fantastical reaction to it. For me, I felt his pain because I was going through it. It was like he was singing to me.
This quote on Bloody Kisses spoke volumes to me:
"This entire opus is respectfully dedicated to all those who have loved unconditionally only to have their hearts unanesthetically ripped out; Base not your joy upon the deeds of others, for what is given can be taken away. No hope = no fear. — Peter"
This despite "Don't Mistake Lack of Talent for Genius" on the back of the album.
Anyway, I see a tendency of Type O Negative discography reviewers to rank this one lower down - today it's still one of my favorite albums of all time. Especially since it was genre hopping LONG before that was trendy.
The first time I bought Slow Deep and Hard, my brother reacted to it as if he was hearing porn and wasn't sure he should be listening to it.
Ironic considering the artwork was a literal picture of penetration from a porn magazine, fuzzed out.
I was then overjoyed when I found The Origin of the Feces, as it appeared to be a live re-telling of Slow Deep and Hard. In retrospect, I did not know that technically Slow Deep and Hard was the demo the band gave to Roadrunner Records when they were known as Repulsion and the demo was titled None More Negative. I also was unaware of the controversies the band experienced in Europe due to comments by Peter Steele and to some extent, from his previous band, Carnivore (which I was unaware existed at the time - more on that in a minute). I am not going to recount all that here but it's easy to google nor will I post the absolutely fantastic album cover - well, at least, not the original which should have been a clue. Again - google, but with caution.
I could not understand why the audience was so negative to the band on this album nor why they basically rehashed their first album again in a live setting. Turns out there were a couple of things going on that most people weren't aware of at the time.
The band was paroding the things that happened to them during their live tour in 1991 in Europe. While the album recording was fake, several things that occurred on the album did actually happen to them.
The band were unhappy Roadrunner Records chose to release their first album which was technically their demo as they had more ideas and an additional song they wanted to include.
This is why Origin of the Feces came out. It's basically their version of Slow Deep and Hard on their terms, mocking things that happened to them, and wrapped as a troll job for its fans. I loved this kind of humor - they just didn't take themselves very seriously.
A little later, I discovered that Peter was in another band in the 1980s I had never heard of called Carnivore. I remember ordering the CD special order since it was not a common album anymore. This was before the remasters came out so both albums were re-released on one CD with some songs taken out. I can remember anticipating this album so much, I had a dream about it. I had already read about the band and who was in it at the time but for whatever reason, in this dream, it was Peter and Kenny Hickey (also of Type O Negative) but with Glenn Danzig on vocals and Danzig's drummer on drums - playing live in my bedroom. Weird. Oddly enough, Johnny Kelly and Kenny Hickey would both go on to play in Danzig later on.
Because guys who dress like this should be taken 100% seriously.
I was not disappointed by their music, and they remain part of my musical rotation as much as Type O Negative does. I was truly a fan for life. So, as I moved along through the Mid-90s now, it seemed maybe underground metal was perhaps behind me. The goth scene began to really grow especially with the mainstream arrival of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails (which was almost obligatory in my high school).
Quite frankly, it was very interesting to see how fashion and tastes changed from 1989-1995.
[While I am getting ahead of myself on this overall respective of my musical tastes, Type O Negative would continue to be a part of my listening rotation long into the future and after writing this, have made a huge come back (and made me remember why I loved them so much).]
Then in the Spring of 1997, the underground came storming back, and everything went black.
[NOTE: This blog was originally much longer so a deeper dive into Type O Negative is coming soon.]
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