Slow, Deep, and Hard: The Origin of Feces (1991-1992)
Type O Negative’s debut album, Slow, Deep, and Hard, featured dragging Black Sabbath-esque dirge riffs, furious hardcore outbursts, and droning industrial and gothic atmospheres. The songs were extended, multi-part theatrical epics, with lyrics roughly based on a story about a guy exacting retribution on an unfaithful woman before pondering his actions and killing himself.
They began working on a new record with the intention of presenting it as a live album. The succeeding 1992 CD was titled The Origin of the Feces, and the record cover bore the cautionary label “Not Live at Brighton Beach”. The album has faux-live recordings of songs from Slow, Deep, and Hard, as well as previously unreleased tracks like “Are You Afraid” and “Hey Pete” (a copy of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” with altered lyrics) and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”.
Bloody Kisses and October Rust (1993–1998)
Type O Negative’s third album, Bloody Kisses, was released in 1993 to critical and listener acclaim, and it became Roadrunner’s first record to be certified gold in the United States. The band’s unexpected prominence following the album’s release apparently put a lot of strain on them; at first, Peter Steele professed reluctance in performing nationally. Monte Conner, then-Vice President of A&R at Roadrunner, stated in a 2018 interview with Revolver Magazine, “There was a lot of pressure on him to take the band to the next level, but he didn’t want to lose his job… There was a period when it appeared that the band would break up.
Bloody Kisses’ songs, including “Too Late: Frozen,” “Blood & Fire,” and “Can’t Lose You,” largely dealt with loneliness and heartbreak. The organ-driven “Set Me on Fire” is classic 1960s garage rock, while “Summer Breeze” is a rendition of the 1972 Seals and Crofts song. “Christian Woman” and “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)” became the most popular songs after being trimmed down to radio-friendly lengths (the album versions were 9 and 11 minutes long, respectively). To promote the record, Type O Negative went on a two-year globe tour. During this period, the band was featured on MTV, VH1, and Rolling Stone. During this media blitz, drummer Sal Abruscato left the band to join another Brooklyn quartet, Life of Agony. Johnny Kelly, the band’s drummer, was thus appointed as a full-time member. A year after its original release, Bloody Kisses was re-released in a limited-edition Digipak format, comprising eight of the original’s musical tracks (without the “filler” tracks) and the previously unheard “Suspended in Dusk”.
Type O’s October Rust continued where Bloody Kisses left off, delving into themes of sex, nature, and sensuality, first humorously with the track “My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend” and then considerably darker with “Love You to Death”. This album also included a rendition of Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” and the fan favorite, semi-serene “Green Man”. While not as successful as Bloody Kisses, the album was certified gold in the United States and became the first Type O Negative album to reach the top half of the Billboard Top 200, peaking at number 42.
