Miserable goths, or just misunderstood? Brooklyn's Type O Negative have been parading their morbid, dry-humoured doom-goth sound since 1990. They are:

Pete Steele - bass/vocals
Kenny Hickey - guitars
Josh Silver - keyboards
Johnny Kelly - drums

Picked up by Roadrunner, Type O quickly recorded and released their 1991 debut Slow Deep and Hard. Whilst touring the album in Europe, Steele commented that they were "bigger than Hitler", mimicking the Beatles' comments on Jesus a few decades previous. It went down about as well, and Type O were forced to call off the tour after repeated bomb/death threats. You know the sort.

As part of the Roadrunner deal, Type O Negative were expected to record a live album. They spent their advance instead on cheap vodka, and dubbed in a load of live noises in their home studio and staged a fight. Roadrunner were not impressed, but released the album anyway.

The second, more-gloom-less-thrash album Bloody Kisses proved highly successful, and to celebrate Type O hit the road constantly for two years backed by two big commercial singles, edited down for radio from their epic super-long album versions. Pressure mounted from the label and press for a successful commercial-sounding follow-up album, and Type O (apparently begrudgingly) tried to strike a balance between creative and commercial with third album October Rust. It didn't quite work out, but still sold well.

After that, Type O returned to their less-accessible roots, releasing the dirgey World Coming Down in 1999 (heavily influenced by Steele's alcohol dependency) and the more uptempo Life Is Killing Me in 2003. There should be a new album in 2007. Stay tuned.

Releases

• The Best Of - album, out 25/09/2006 on Roadrunner Records. 1 review (read/post)
• Life Is Killing Me - album, out 16/06/2003 on Roadrunner Records. 1 review (read/post)

Links

• Keepers of the Lame - TON.net

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