Another Tuesday means yet another dark, dismal offering from yours truly in the form of an MP3 download (this is where you can grab the song), but that MP3 is a shorter version of the epic 11:11 minute original from the album Bloody Kisses which is what I truly recommend. I touched upon dark before, but Type O Negative’s a different twist as I’ll explain in the assumption that some of you may never have heard of the band.

Basically, it goes like this: Type O Negative formed in the 90’s (more or less) and they’ve made a real name for themselves among the darker shades of metal. Then it gets tricky. Sometimes they call ‘em ‘doom metal‘, ‘gloom metal‘, ‘goth metal‘, ‘death rock‘, ‘dark alternative‘ and who the hell knows what all other genres and made up categories they get shoved into. Bottom line ends up being that Type O Negative made gloomy, depressing music with tongue-in-cheek lyrics that you’d have to be a corpse not to laugh at. Black No. 1, in particular, exemplifies the morbid comedy in its lyrics. They’ve got a very unique style that reminds me of what would happen if Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds took a turn towards black metal.

I actually did not encounter Type O Negative until the very tail end of the 90’s when a brooding, gothic friend of mine introduced me to them. He had very particular opinions regarding the group and pronounced ‘Black No. 1′ to be the theme song of ignorant posers of the goth scene. Well, fuck him, cause I like it anyways. He’s right though, in a way, many people don’t realize the song’s somewhat mocking (while still paying tribute to) the stereotypical ‘goth girl’ (which has mutated into today’s ‘emo girl’). Black No. 1 being the hair dye she uses, forgetting her roots don’t lie in the goth scene, etc etc. Enough philosophizing, though, we’ve got a few more details to cover before I hit you with the music video.

 

Peter Steele, the man, the myth, the legend. Steele’s booming bass voice and iconic appearance (he tended to play an upright bass in the style many people play guitar, using a chain for a strap) pretty much gave the band a look, if you will. Standing a whopping 6′6" tall he pretty much embodies what the Gods of Metal are supposed to look like. In fact, I bet the lead singer of Metalocalypse’s Dethlok (Nathan Explosion) was modeled after Steele even if the creators don’t feel like mentioning that.

Oh, and did I mention the video for Black No. 1 actually got reviewed by Beavis & Butthead? Yep, and the little weirdos LIKED it.

Beyond downloading the MP3 above, you might want to visit the band’s official site or perhaps friend them on MySpace, so here’s their profile in case you’re like me and add famous people.

Here’s an ‘official’ 4:41 minute version of the video:

Finally, because I love you, Merry Readers, I show you Type O Negative covering Light My Fire by The Doors

Until next time, this is GlowStormLion encouraging you to dye not only your hair, but every goddamned thing you own BLACK NO. 1!!

-- by GlowStormLion of http://www.happyhorror.com

Tags: Dark Music, goth, terror track

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 2:53 am and is filed under Dark Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.