Biography:
New York goth metal quartet Type O Negative is led by vocalist/bassist/songwriter Peter Steele and features guitarist Ken Hickey, keyboardist Josh Silver, and drummer Johnny Kelly. Steele formed Type O Negative in 1990 out of the remnants of thrash band Carnivore, along with his friend Sal Abruscato (drums). Type O`s music slowed down the tempos of thrash metal, alternately satirizing and wallowing in a glum mixture of misanthropy, misogyny, depression, and vampiric vocals, as well as loads of cheap-sounding guitar distortion. The band`s debut album, Slow, Deep and Hard, was released in 1991, featuring long, mopey dirges with titles like "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity." Not everyone appreciated Steele`s dark sense of humor, though, and he was roasted by some critics who charged him with being a homicidal misogynist and Nazi sympathizer. A fake live album, The Origin of the Feces, appeared the following year, its notorious cover depicting a pair of spread buttocks (the album was eventually reissued with less graphic artwork). 1993`s Bloody Kisses added surprisingly skilled Beatlesque melodies, and Steele`s often ironic treatments of his depressing subject matter and the emotional and musical excesses of goth (particularly Type O Negative`s brand) were deadly accurate and often very funny. Abruscato depart ...
