Type O Negative: The History Of The Band & Death of Peter Steele

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The story of Peter Steele and Type O Negative

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Led by imposing frontman Peter Steele, Type O Negative would bring goth metal to the masses during the 90’s.
The band mixed themes of romance, drugs, depression, and death resulting in the name the "the Drab Four” which was a nod to the Beatles “the fab four” moniker. Type O Negative's keyboardist Josh Silver would reveal in the book The Oral History of Metal how frontman Peter Steele’s frustrations as a teenager and young adult influenced his song writing revealing: “Peter was big and considered himself kind of goofy. He didn’t have girlfriends growing up. A lot of Type O’s music was written from the perspective of someone who who couldn’t get laidd. We had songs like I know your fing someone else. He was able to be very honest about how hurt he was during a lot of these periods. I think it was part of what made us appealing. We told the truth" he’d say.
Several years prior to the formation of Type O negative in 1989, Peter Steele was fronting and playing bass in another band named Carnivore. The band would take to the stage during live shows dressed as warriors in worn clothing and attached spikes to hockey gear. The band’s music explored some pretty dark themes with song titles including "Jesus Hiler", "Race War", and "Thermonuclear Warrior,"
Steele was known for having a dark sense of humor as Type O Negative drummer
Sal Abruscato would tell Metal Hammer Magazine:“Peter enjoyed messing with people,”.
“People though he was serious when he was joking and joking when he was serious.”
Carnivore would only last for two albums before the band split and Steele went on to form a new band with longtime friend Josh Silver. They would originally called themselves Subzero before finally landing on the name Type O Negative. Type O Negative’s first record 1991’s slow deep and hard would feature songs more heavily influenced by doom, and thrash metal. The following year the band released 1992’s The Origin Of Feces which was a faux live record that featured a hostile live audience.

Bloody kisses featured the band’s best known song Black No. 1 which was a mainstay of MTV’s
headbangers ball. The song sarcastic lyrics were loosely inspired by a relationship Steele
had with a goth. The singer would tell Revolver how he wrote the song while working as a truck
driver revealing "I was waiting in line for three hours to dump 40 cubic yards of human
waste at the Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station, and I wrote the song in my head.
I'm not kidding you."
The second single released from the record Christian Woman which had a successful run
on US rock radio and along with the album’s first single pushed the album to go platinum
in the US.

It wasn’t until 1993’s bloody kisses that the band’s goth metal sound took center stage According to Abruscato “Peter loved the goth girls,”“We used to go to the bars where they all hung outto pick them up. But he was really into tha tsound – The Sisters Of Mercy,, My Bloody Valentine. That whole scene was attractive to him, so he made it his own.”
The goth element wasn’t the only new thing brought to Type O Negative’s sound on bloody
kisses as according Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey “Peter decided that melody was really where it’s at,”“which was a hard thing to do. He went from screaming his head off and
Former drummer Sal Abruscato would reveal to Widerhorn his summary of Steel’s personality saying“Peter was a very sweet, very funny guy, but he was also very fragile,” “And that vulnerability allowed some demons to come in.”
October Rust would go gold it failed to match the success of Bloody Kisses., but would still go gold.
Life Is Killing Me would be the band’s sixth studio album and their final record released on labell Roadrunner Records. The album once again dealt with mental illness, the death of Steele’s parents.
Steele would be forthcoming about his problems with the law and relationships he’d had. He would reveal in the Oral History of Metal: