RIP Peter Steele

[Ksyrup]

This hasn't been totally confirmed, but a bunch of sites, KNAC, the chick from Fuse's metal show, and an in-tune metal reporter who posts on another forum I frequent have "confirmed" that Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele died yesterday. Huge loss - I loved that band.

TON was not for everyone - Steele had a voice that made James Earle Jones sound like Richard Simmons, and they played really slow, sludgy doom metal with controversial, depressing, mysogynistic lyrics tinged with humor. They also loved taking old songs and playing them in their style (Seals and Crofts' Summer Breeze being the best). They basically gave off a hugely creepy vibe - Steele was like 6'8" with teeth like Dracula and with that voice, he was a menacing frontman. In fact, given the recent vampire craze, one could say that they missed their chance at greater fame by a decade. I recently played one of their songs for my wife and told her she ought to pass it around to her Twilight Mom group of friends.

Their best stuff was probably off of Bloody Kisses, which spawned two "hits" - Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All), a 10+ minute ode to gothic chicks (with the refrain, "Loving you was like loving the dead"), and Christian Woman (another 10+ minute song), which was a purposeful integration of religious and sexual imagery that was perfectly done. Both were made into videos and edited down to (bite) size, and the Christian Woman lyrics were edited as well. I think Black No. 1 appeared on Beavis & Butthead.

And of course, on an earlier album, they had what are probably the two best song titles I've ever run across:

Unsuccessfully Coping With the Natural Beauty of Infidelity (I Know You're Fucking Someone Else)

Gravitational Constant: G = 6.67 x 10-8 cm-3 gm-1 sec-2

Both of those songs were off an album called The Origin of the Feces, which originally had an album cover showing...well, the origin of feces. Those are now collector's items!

Anyway... big loss for the metal community, even if TON's time had kinda passed. RIP.

[Ksyrup]

just saw this:

TYPE O NEGATIVE keyboardist Josh Silver has confirmed to BLABBERMOUTH.NET that the band's frontman, Peter Steele, passed away yesterday (Wednesday, April 14) at the age of 48. No official cause of death has yet been released, but it is believed that Steele died of heart failure.

[BYU 14]

Wow, I like Type O neg as well, they were not for everyone, but had some good songs. Steele was apparently really into staying fit from what I remember from an interview back in the late 90's, much too young!

[Ksyrup]

He's faked his death before, so everyone is a bit leery. And you can't put it past a guy who's written songs called Everything Dies and Everyone I Love Is Dead to rope in others with his sick sense of humor.

I also remembered another song of theirs I love, as a contrarian counter-argument against traditional Christmas music - Red Water (Christmas Mourning), which was basically about how depressing the holidays are because all it does is remind you of everyone who is no longer around to celebrate with you. The "God damn ye merry gentlemen" part and the keyboard melody of one of the traditional songs overlayed on the heavy music was brilliant. I guess I'm weird that way...

[claphamsa]

wow, I remember seeing them live, and he played an upright base, but held it like a normal base, I tried it at school ( I was in highschool then) and those things are heavy!

[Rizon]

wtf

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

He's faked his death before, so everyone is a bit leery. And you can't put it past a guy who's written songs called Everything Dies and Everyone I Love Is Dead to rope in others with his sick sense of humor.

I also remembered another song of theirs I love, as a contrarian counter-argument against traditional Christmas music - Red Water (Christmas Mourning), which was basically about how depressing the holidays are because all it does is remind you of everyone who is no longer around to celebrate with you. The "God damn ye merry gentlemen" part and the keyboard melody of one of the traditional songs overlayed on the heavy music was brilliant. I guess I'm weird that way...

I have never heard this band's songs before (although I've heard of the band), but after reading this, I'm going to listen to some of their stuff. This whole description you posted is cracking me up.

[Ksyrup]

I was going to link a couple of YouTubes, but they're all copyrighted by Roadrunner Records and embedding is disabled. And aside from that, I'm really, really lazy.

[Ksyrup]

If you're looking for a chuckle, check out their cover of Summer Breeze or their (IMO) 60s/gothic joke-take on The Cars My Best Friend's Girl, an original song called My Girlfriend's Girlfriend. And also Black No. 1, which is hilarious, too.

[Coffee Warlord]

Ahhh Type O Negative. Fun in concert, and Pete Steele is one of the biggest, most imposing dudes I've EVER seen in person.

...he also went through 5 bottles of wine at the concert I was at. And bitched about being out of wine.

[Ksyrup]

I heard (secondhand) that he posed for Playgirl at some point in the 90s and that he, uh, was as well-endowed as you would guess a 6'8" guy with a voice llike a foghorn would be. I'm listening to the album version of Christian Woman right now

She'd like to know God
Ooh love God
Feel her God
Inside of her
Deep inside of her

Dude definitely had both a literal and figurative set of brass ones...

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I heard (secondhand) that he posed for Playgirl at some point in the 90s and that he, uh, was as well-endowed as you would guess a 6'8" guy with a voice llike a foghorn would be. I'm listening to the album version of Christian Woman right now

He actually wrote a song after the fact about that, after he found out it's mostly dudes who buy Playgirl. The song was entitled "I like Goils"

[DrAFTjunkie]

Wow! I remember seeing Type-O at, I believe, the first Ozzfest. I was amazed at how, even with the decidedly metal crowd in attendance, Type-O was able to bring a strange hush over the entire audience when they played "Jackhammer Rape." Grown men in Slayer shirts had utter looks of horror on their faces. They sort of went in a different direction after their first 2 albums, and although I liked Bloody Kisses, I considered it their jumping the shark album and was highly disappointed by October Rust. Even still, their first two albums, Origin of the Feces and Slow Deep and Hard were huge for me in my youth and selections from both still make their way onto my various playlists.

Pete Steele is dead. Wow.

[Ksyrup]

I loved the more accessible stuff from the later years, especially when they added the keyboard. But yeah, he seemed to realize the potential for capitalizing on the goth thing with Bloody Kisses and just hooked into that and never veered off the course, even making sure they included the odd cover on nearly every album (Cinnamon Girl, Light My Fire, that Beatles medley, etc.).

[BYU 14]

I never got October Rust, but just listened to Red Water (Christmas Mourning) really like it, darkest Holiday song I have ever heard, as you would expect from them.

[Ksyrup]

Interesting quote from a guy from Lacuna Coil:

"He saw the true face of the 20th century and chose to become a reflection, a parody of it. No one else saw the joke, that's why he was lonely."

[SteveMax58]

I saw Type O when they opened for Pantera. They were (all but) booed offstage as the crowd was really not in the mood for anything but Pantera. I do recall him flipping off the crowd there (which was pretty funny actually).

Wasn't that big of a fan of them but they were in the "alright" list I guess. Still sounds strange to think of Peter Steele as being 48. That's young in the grand scheme...but it makes me feel older now.

[Ksyrup]

I only saw them once, opening for Queensryche on the "Sorry We Couldn't Write Another Silent Lucidity" tour.

I also saw Pantera with Skid Row opening... and that wasn't a pretty sight. Thirty seconds into Pantera's set, there was a stream of teenage girls running for their lives from the front of the stage with tear-stained mascara all over their faces.

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by SteveMax58

I saw Type O when they opened for Pantera. They were (all but) booed offstage as the crowd was really not in the mood for anything but Pantera. I do recall him flipping off the crowd there (which was pretty funny actually).

Wasn't that big of a fan of them but they were in the "alright" list I guess. Still sounds strange to think of Peter Steele as being 48. That's young in the grand scheme...but it makes me feel older now.

i saw this tour as well... a very poor mix

[Senator]

A cross upon her bedroom wall.
From grace she will fall.
An image burning in her mind.
And between her thighs.

[claphamsa]

BLACK BLACK BLACK BLACK NUMBER OOONEEEEE

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Senator

A cross upon her bedroom wall.
From grace she will fall.
An image burning in her mind.
And between her thighs.

I read somewhere that he was actually ex-communicated for writing that song.

Interesting interview from late last year - strange, STRANGE dude, but seems to have gotten sober and found God.

http://www.metalinjection.net/latest...sober-god-shit

[Recoil]

Woke up yesterday to find this sad news. World Coming Down is such a great record.

[Ryche]

Originally Posted by SteveMax58

I saw Type O when they opened for Pantera. They were (all but) booed offstage as the crowd was really not in the mood for anything but Pantera. I do recall him flipping off the crowd there (which was pretty funny actually).

Wasn't that big of a fan of them but they were in the "alright" list I guess. Still sounds strange to think of Peter Steele as being 48. That's young in the grand scheme...but it makes me feel older now.

Saw them open for Pantera too, that crowd was more friendly to them. Phil Anselmo came out and sang Black No. 1 with them, he was jumping trying to sing into Peter's microphone it was so high.