Type O Negative – Metal Express Radio

TYPE O NEGATIVE – Dead Again

March 13, 2007 Torgeir P. Krokfjord

Led by a Peter Steele in tip-top shape, New York’s darkest are back with another serving of their trademark black, sticky stew. This time fans get a total of 10 songs with a running time of 77 minutes, sporting song lengths from the 4:15 minute opener “Dead Again” to the 14:21 syrup dance “These Three Things.” Both are great tunes, by the way. The expression “Great Tunes” is actually very relevant when describing this album as a whole. This is not Type O Negative’s darkest or heaviest album, and not their most accessible, but it is a very good one sporting quite a few examples of that very thing – great tunes. The aforementioned title track is one of the best of the lot with its very catchy chorus, melody, and up-tempo beat, and the following “Tripping A Blind Man” is another highlight with its fascinating lyrics and varied musical content. “The Profits Of Doom” and “September Sun” both clock in around the 10 minute mark, but except for that common feature, they are very different compositions indeed. “The Profits …” (very cool title) displays a lot of Black Sabbath/general 70’s influences in both the riffs and vocal melodies, while “September Sun” is far more Goth in its harmonies and melody lines. Which one is the best is hard to choose, but both are strong tracks, which definitely deserve taking up 20 minutes of the listener’s time. Steele’s vocals also deserve to be mentioned here, as the way he executes the spoken parts of “The Profits …” is nothing but insanely cool. “Halloween In Heaven” is another short and quickly-paced track, but unfortunately it may be among the weakest on the album. The chord progressions are overly predictable, and the band has used the same ideas before yielding far better …READ MORE

TYPE O NEGATIVE – Symphony For The Devil

March 14, 2006 Per Olav Heimstad

Have the Type O Negative fans been longing for a Typo O Negative live DVD? Yes, they have indeed. Now, finally, it is here: Symphony For The Devil … but, will it please anyone else but the Devil? The show that’s recorded is the band’s 1999 appearance at the Bizarre Festival in Germany. That makes the live material on the DVD more than six years old. “Everything Dies” is the only track included from the World Coming Down album released the same year. In other words, you get no live version of “Pyretta Blaze,” the aforementioned album’s finest moment. This means too, of course, that you’ll find no songs at all from their latest studio album, Life Is Killing Me (2003). It’s fine that their Bizarre Festival appearance was a big event, and it’s cool with a live DVD showing tens of thousands of people in front of the stage … but these are not surroundings the fans normally would associate with the band. Most fans would find it more representative to watch Type O Negative in a more intimate and darker indoor location, where all the attendants are the band’s own fans, not a festival crowd. However, the DVD’s 5.1 sound is great, and the production bases itself upon enough cameras to provide a great variation of angles and clips throughout show. The DVD will also be available with a CD single, containing three never before released tracks. The ball opens with the intro of “In The Flesh” from Pink Floyd’s The Wall before the band does their take on Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl.” Throughout the set, songs from Slow Deep And Hard, Bloody Kisses, and October Rust are neatly interweaved so that the show is all the way balancing evenly on all three of the strongest legs of …READ MORE

TYPE O NEGATIVE (Live)

June 25, 2003 Guest Writer

The recent Type O Negative tour took the Brooklyn goth-rockers to Oslo in support of their sixth album (including a best of compilation, dubbed “The Least Worst Of” in typical Type O fashion), which is tellingly titled “Life Is Killing Me.” And —if we are to believe the critics — it showcases a return to form. Having seen them set the same venue on fire back in 1997, I was anxious to find out if they could still deliver the goods. Unfortunately, this time around their set was hampered by technical problems, and the sound remained pretty bad throughout the whole concert. It certainly didn’t do charismatic frontman Peter Steele’s vocals any favours, which is a shame since he normally commands the microphone with great authority. After a rather scrappy and slow start, things started to pick up with the classic “Wolf Moon,” introduced by Steele — a self-proclaimed expert in the noble art of cunnilingus — as a song about the possible downside of going down on a woman during the time of her period. This could be a pretty messy affair, according to Steele, apparently happy to share his first-hand experiences with the crowd. So if you ever wanted to know what that particular sensation might be like, study the lyrics to the song closely. On the other hand, this could turn out much more information then you ever needed about Steele and his sexual preferences. All sane people should therefore concentrate on the melody and general atmosphere of the song, and simply let go of the lyrics … Anyway, “Wolf Moon” ranks among Type O’s finest moments, and it really got the until-then very reserved crowd going. It was followed by a couple of other classics, mainly the brilliantly melodic “Love You To Death,” which is probably …READ MORE

TYPE O NEGATIVE – Life Is Killing Me

June 17, 2003 Per Olav Heimstad

Shortly after Type O Negative released World Coming Down in 1999, Peter Steele said the album was only worth one purpose — feeding it to the fireplace. A lot of fans with the same talent of honesty as the band’s singer would agree, even though the track “Pyretta Blaze” in itself made it worth buying the CD. Then, Type O Negative made a “best of” album, and more than just the fans mentioned above gave birth to the thought that the story of Type O Negative was reaching an end. Several pessimistic interviews made with Steele and the band in that same period added food to that thought. Then the band faced a choice, and after a bit of a break they probably found out they should try to postpone getting a day job even longer, and so they went back to the studio. Life is Killing Me is the result. Listening to their new album you don’t need long to find several reasons to be happy about Steele and co giving their careers another shot. Track two, “I Don’t Wanna Be Me,” is a huge party breaker! With this one, they’ve got a perfect live opener. Close to punk, this song’s catchy chorus will probably force everyone in any audience to go mad screaming the lyrics. The following track, “Less Than Zero,” doesn’t break any new ground for the band at all, but states what this band is all about: keyboard wrapped guitar riffs swimming in mud chased by hungry drum beats. Parts of both the melody and the strings emit sounds unpleasantly close to Nuno Bettencourt’s (ex-Extreme) “Fallen Angel,” but in a couple of weeks I probably won’t notice it any longer. The album goes on without any highlights, like “Love You to Death” or “My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend” …READ MORE

Type O Negative Audio Interview 2003

June 12, 2003 Stig G. Nordahl

Interview with guitarist Kenny from Type O Negative about why it took for years since the last album, the new album Life Is Killing Me and why they put cover tracks on their albums. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW HERE! by Stig G. Nordahl

KENNY HICKEY (TYPE O NEGATIVE): “I Don’t Think We’re A Goth Band”

August 12, 1996 Stig G. Nordahl

In 1996 Type O Negative released their fourth album October Rust that followed their platinum selling album Bloody Kisses. This interview with guitarist Kenny Hickey was conducted in August as the new album was hitting the shelves in the record stores. Kenny talks that the band “shitting their pants” by the thought of recording a sequel to Bloody Kisses, the three years between the albums, the reason for calling the album October Rust, that he doesn’t look at the band as Goth, and much more!