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Type O Negative is a band from Brooklyn, New York. Type O Negative are notable as one of the earliest successes in the goth/doom metal style, complete with distorted guitars, frequent keyboard use, and the low, operatic vocals of Peter Steele. In addition, however, Type O Negative has always balanced a variety of non-goth influences, such as The Beatles (sometimes referring to themselves in jest as "The Drab Four"). Despite a dramatic lyrical emphasis on themes of sex, romance, depression, and death, Type O Negative is also known for an irreverent and self-deprecating sense of humor. Type O Negative's popularity grew in 1993 with the now-legendary album Bloody Kisses, which featured the provocative hits "Christian Woman" and "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)". Type O Negative's most recent album is 2007's Dead Again.

Type O Negative’s origins spawn from a band called Fallout, formed in the early eighties by then teenager Peter Steele. He was joined by fellow teen and Brooklyn native, Josh Silver. The band released one EP in 1981, titled Batteries Not Included. It enjoyed modest success on college radio. Shortly thereafter, Silver left Fallout to form Original Sin, which sounded like most eighties hair metal bands at the time, with a new wave twist. Meanwhile, Steele went on to found the thrash metal band, Carnivore. Carnivore spent much of the mid-eighties terrorizing concert-goers at various venues in and around the East Coast, including the now defunct CBGBs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and the now defunct L’amours in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The band’s lyrics were harsh and very politically incorrect, dealing with race, religion, war, and misogyny. The band's sound included elements of speed metal mixed in with hardcore break-downs and a three-chord punk rock sensibility.

Following the release of their second album, Retaliation, Carnivore went on hiatus, as Steele decided to pursue the more stable and lucrative career of working for the New York City Parks Department. In 1989, after two years of looking after hedges in Prospect Park, he was forced out of retirement by long time friend, Sal Abruscato, Type O Negative’s original drummer. Soon after, Silver was convinced to join with fellow childhood friend, Kenny Hickey, following suit. They originally named themselves "Sub-Zero", but soon discovered this name was already taken. After an extensive search through the Yellow Pages for potential band names, they all agreed upon Type O Negative to best describe their sound. Type O Negative released a demo which caught the ear of record executives at Roadrunner Records - the premiere American label for metal and hard rock in the late eighties and early nineties. Roadrunner signed them to a five album record deal, and in 1991, Type O Negative quickly recorded and released their debut, Slow Deep and Hard. Type O Negative has since gained an enormous underground following, having released seven studio albums, as well as two best-of compilations and concert DVDs.

Type O's first album, Slow Deep and Hard, was just that; dragging dirge riffs, interspersed with maniacal punk-metal outbursts, and droning industrial and gothic atmospheres. The songs were long, multi-part theatrical epics, with lyrical topics ranging from heartbreak to getting revenge on a cheating lover, and even contemplating suicide. Type O Negative's first tour following the album's release was met with hostility, primarily by Dutch political activists who failed to recognize Peter Steele's tongue-in-cheek humor regarding certain social topics, which resulted in false accusations that the band's members were misogynists and Nazi sympathizers. This was perceived as ironic by Type O Negative, as Josh Silver is Jewish (they later made light of the situation on a future album with a song titled "We Hate Everyone").

Back in the States, Roadrunner Records held Type O Negative to a contractual obligation of recording a live album. With the money they received from the label to facilitate the recording of said album at Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Type O Negative instead used it for buying cheap vodka, and re-recording their debut in Silver’s basement. Type O Negative later dubbed in live noises, and improvised a fake “fight” between Type O Negative and the hostile “crowd”. Entitled The Origin of the Feces, a warning label was put on the album cover: "Not Live At Brighton Beach". The cover was also controversial, as it originally depicted a man's anus (believed to be Steele) being spread by his hands until later copies featured a different cover depicting skeletons. Roadrunner was not amused with the prank, but went ahead and released the album in 1992 anyway.

Their true second album, Bloody Kisses, was released in 1993 to critical and listener acclaim, and eventually became the first record for Roadrunner to reach certified Platinum status in the US. Type O Negative had made huge strides in the progression of their musical style; The Beatles proved to be an accurate reference point, as they incorporated the psychedelic mysticism and melodies of the legendary sixties rockers mid-period work, with particular emphasis on their Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper’s catalog, along with a growing influence from The Sisters of Mercy.

Bloody Kisses mostly addressed loneliness and heartbreak, with songs like “Too Late: Frozen”, “Blood & Fire”, and “Cant Lose You”. The organ-driven “Set me on Fire” is vintage sixties garage rock, while "Summer Breeze" covered the 1972 Seals and Crofts hit. “Christian Woman” and “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)” became the most popular tracks, after having been edited down to radio-friendly lengths (the album versions were 8½ and 11 minutes long). In order to promote the album, Type O Negative embarked on a grueling two-year world tour. The unexpected success of Bloody Kisses proved the diligence and sacrifice the band had put in for three years was beginning to pay off. Features on MTV, VH1, and Rolling Stone followed. In the midst of this media blitz, drummer Sal Abruscato quit Type O Negative to join another Brooklyn quartet, Life of Agony. Johnny Kelly, Type O Negative’s drum technician, was therefore hired as a full-fledged member. Bloody Kisses was re-released a year after the original release in a limited-edition Digipak form, including eight of the musical tracks from the original (omitting the rest of the "filler" tracks) in addition to the previous unreleased vampiric ode "Suspended In Dusk."

The unexpected success of Bloody Kisses brought on the pressure of recording a worthy successor. The record label, suddenly capitalizing on the revenue being generated by Type O Negative, began pressuring Steele and company to write even more commercial-friendly songs. Type O Negative instead tried to strike a balance between the commercial and the creative, and the result was 1996's October Rust. Picking up where Bloody Kisses left off, this album continued to explore themes of sex and sensuality, explored in a humorous sense on the single "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend" and then taken much darker with "Love You To Death". This record also saw a cover of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl", and a fan following surrounded the semi-serene "Green Man" as years passed on. While not quite as successful as Bloody Kisses, the album was certified Gold in the US, and was the first Type O Negative album to enter the top half of the Billboard Top 200, debuting at No.42.

With the completion of another successful world tour, writing for a fourth album began. In the period immediately following the release of October Rust, Steele experienced several deaths in his immediate family, and he began drinking heavily to mask the bereavement and pain. This epoch of self-loathing would eventually manifest itself in the next album, 1999's World Coming Down. The vibe of the album was a significant change from October Rust; this time the band revisited the more dooming sounds of Slow Deep & Hard, where the band seemed to wallow in misery. This time around, instead of sex and romance, lyrics focused on death, drug addiction, depression, and suicide. Songs such as “Everyone I Love is Dead,” “Everything Dies,” “World Coming Down,” and “All Hallows Eve” were not meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but rather true life reflections of the mindset Steele shared at the time. It was nowhere near as accessible as Bloody Kisses or October Rust, but despite its morbid subject matter, World Coming Down debuted at #39 on the Billboard Top 200 charts.

A 'best of' album followed in 2000, entitled The Least Worst of Type O Negative. Although most songs appear on previous albums, many are unreleased remixes or B-sides on previously-released singles. Along with these songs are some unreleased numbers from the World Coming Down sessions, the band's cover of "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath, and a cleaner version of "Hey Pete" (originally released on the mock live album The Origin of the Feces).

Type O Negative released their sixth studio album, Life Is Killing Me, in 2003. For this album, the band picked up the pace of their sound from the dirgeful slowness of World Coming Down. Songs such as "Todd's Ship Gods," "(We Were) Electrocute", and "I Don't Wanna Be Me" convey the band's classic elements of epic song lengths and melody. A humorous cover of the song "Angry Inch" from the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, detailing a sex change operation gone terribly wrong, marks Type O Negative 's return to its trademark humor that had been absent on their previous album.

After Roadrunner released the 2006 compilation The Best of Type O Negative (allegedly without notifying the band ), Type O split from the label upon a better offer from SPV Records and released Dead Again in March 2007. A video for "The Profits of Doom" (which referenced the album's cover with a depiction of Grigori Rasputin) was released the following month and saw freqeunt airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball through the summer . Dead Again saw a culmination of previous Type O styles, from the thrash inspired title track to the blues rock style "An Ode To Locksmiths". Female vocalist Tara Vanflower also appears on "Halloween In Heaven". The album debuted at #27 in the US; Type O Negative's highest chart debut to date. They also kicked off a summer-long tour that year which included a performance at the Rock am Ring festival in Nürburgring, Germany