![]() ![]() MONTE CONNER Even calling them “gothic metal” doesn’t do it service because it really is its own entity that sounds like nothing before and nothing after. THEY CAME FROM A CROSSOVER/HARDCORE BACKGROUND AND BLOODY KISSES IS THIS CRAZY GOTHIC-METAL RELEASE. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Bloody Kisses, we talked with Conner about the band’s ability to transcend genre, Steele’s perfectionism, the conflict between Type O and Seals and Crofts and how the prospect of major touring nearly broke up the band.īLOODY KISSES WAS SO DIFFERENT THAN ANYTHING TYPE O HAD DONE BEFORE. Striking a chord with fans of various genres, and assisted by the endorsement of strangely influential Nineties and early Aughts cartoon headbangers Beavis and Butt-Head, Bloody Kisses was the first Roadrunner album to go gold and platinum. The record is completely unique and it’s so cinematic between the sound effects and the way the music flows together with all these Beatles-like harmonies and little hidden messages. “Type O proved on that album that they’re geniuses. “Of all the albums I’ve worked, this is the one I’m the most proud of,” says Monte Conner, former VP of A&R at Roadrunner and current President of Nuclear Blast. Four were over seven minutes long, including the single “Christian Woman,” which was originally 8:58 before being edited down to a four-and-a-half–minute radio single. ![]() While the songs were catchy, they were also elliptical and multifaceted. Silver crafted four instrumental interludes, which gave the album a weird, unhinged vibe. Steele seductively crooned about sex, heartbreak and death in a deep, baritone voice, Hickey complemented the vocals with slow, chugging riffs, clean, oblong licks, crystalline arpeggios and melodic solos. While Bloody Kisses contained vestiges of the band’s past in the punky “Kill All the White People” and “We Hate Everyone,” most of the album features a strikingly innovative hybrid of Black Sabbath-style doom, early Sisters of Mercy-esque goth, hooky Beatles-inspired pop and experimental psychedelic rock across its bracing, gloomy epics. What they got was practically a different group. Many fans were expecting more abrasive punk-based songs when Type O Negative released what would prove to be their breakthrough album in 1993, Bloody Kisses. Type O followed a year later with the fake live album The Origin of the Feces (Not Live at Brighton Beach), which featured renamed and rearranged cuts from the debut. The band’s first album, 1991’s Slow, Deep and Hard, in many ways picked up where Carnivore had left off - indeed, most of the songs on the record were leftovers from Steele’s previous group. When New York crossover band Carnivore broke up in 1987, vocalist-bassist Peter Steele joined forces with childhood friend and keyboardist Josh Silver and formed the short-lived Fallout, then with the addition of guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Sal Abruscato, Repulsion, which changed their name to Type O Negative. ![]()
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