Product Description

Type O Negative has delivered either death-metal's first prog-rock concept album, or its "Good Vibrations"...or maybe both. Either way BLOODY KISSES is one of the most alluringly weird albums in the history of the genre--an hour-long ode to break-ups and suicide that mixes acoustic guitars and synthesizers with metallic power chords, and lush choral harmonies with a lead vocalist who sounds like he died sometime before the recording process began. That last bit is meant as acompliment; if you're going to attempt an eleven-minute suicide dirge like the title track, you better be either Leonard Cohen or dead, and Type O's Peter Steele has a bit of bothin him.
For most of BLOODY KISSES, though, Steele and crew come alive as pop studio experimentalists in a field dominated by anti-pop, anti-studio shredders. "Christian Woman" is a three-part epic that ebbs and flows with a slow metal groove, pretty background vocals, synthesized strings, and a morose lead voice that spells out a story of sex, death and Jesus. "Too Late: Frozen" places a bright pop chorus over chord changes that echo Bruce Springsteen's "Tunnel Of Love". There's a surf-y organ line buried in "Blood & Fire". The best pop joke of them all, if that's what it is, is a heavily psychedelic cover of Seals & Crofts' "Summer Breeze"; try listening to the song (which is done straight) while reading the lyric sheet (which is not).

Track Listing

1. Machine Screw
2. Christian Woman (Corpus Christi)
3. Black No 1 (Little Miss Scare All)
4. Fay Wray Come To Play
5. Summer Breeze
6. Set Me On Fire
7. Dark Side Of The Womb
8. We Hate Everyone
9. Bloody Kisses (A Death In The Family)
10. Three OIF
11. Too Late/Frozen
12. Blood And Fire
13. Can't Lose You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26490 in Music
• Released on: 1993-12-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

From Amazon.com
Fronted by eternal cynic Peter Steele (ex-Carnivore), Type O Negative have evolved from an atmospheric punk band to a melodic gothic metal outfit. The band's breakthrough disc Bloody Kisses blends gothic keyboards, dense guitars, and mournful vocals reminiscent of Sisters of Mercy with metal riffs and surging rhythms that sound like a cross between Black Sabbath and The Cult. The combination is compelling, and on "Christian Woman" and "Black No. 1" (which features the chorus "Loving you was like loving the dead"), Type O Negative's negativity shines through in a way that makes depressed teenage girls dressed in black swoon. --Jon Wiederhorn

Customer Reviews

Jesus Christ Looks Like Me
Type O Negative- Brooklyn's favourite sons, coke head vampires and generally the only reason I'd listen to `gothic' music. Rather than say Paradise Lost or any other gothic metal band Type O Negative have a sense of humour about the whole thing and still have an incredible knack of delivering hilarious songs about sex and death, sexy deaths and "Hey, I'm walking here!".

Peter Steele does achieve something rather astounding here; metal songs that are repeatedly funny as well as having actual musical quality. Not to say he didn't also achieve this with Carnivore but it goes without saying that Carnivore was a completely different kettle of Cthulhu to the more sombre, self-depreciating tones of Type O Negative. Take `Christian Woman' for example, this is how more bands should do blasphemy, with a sense of fun rather than simply going "aggrh I wee on the cross". But the song writing here is consistently clever and witty, take the `Corpus Christi' bit, marvellous, taking the old Latin and turning it into something amusing. Being genuinely funny in metal is a bit of a rarity in itself...but gothic metal? crikey!

Fourteen tracks and one hour and a quarter seems a bit daunting...well I have a short attention span. Fret not you poor Ritalinless child, four of these are pointless noise tracks and the other ten are either brilliant or rather nice. `Christian Woman' had already endeared it's self to me through it's droll lyrics, but the song itself is Type O's masterpiece- a monument of slow burning ,epic, gothic doom with a difference...the sense of humour. This really is an exemplary example of long songs done well, basically, you need lots of good ideas that fit. The `Jesus Christ looks like me' in addition to being more hilarious blasphemy is a lovely volume piece of `Vol. 4' era Sabbath worship. `Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)' is a wonderful tongue in cheek homage to Goth girls (they eat shadow sandwiches!). It's the band's biggest hit and chock-a-block full of kooky keyboards and some nice overly dramatic vocals from Kenny. Again, the
`Lovin' You...' section is a moment of sing along brilliance. `Kill All the White People' harkens back to the Carnivore days both in terms of lyrical content and musical direction. The mid section reminds me quite a bit of Saint Vitus and the accented vocals are pure comedy gold and strangely reminiscent of Max Cavalera. `We Hate Everyone' is another more hardcore styled track, dealing with the "Type O Negative are Jewish Nazi's" thing that happened in Holland, I do believe...well I don't think so people would take too kindly to `Jesus Hitler', but ferk `em. Type O Negative's blending together of hardcore, doom and kooky gothic pop is both seamless and effective...take note Opeth you can stick styles together and write songs, did I mention I don't like Opeth?

`Blood & Fire' is somewhat of a black sheep here (how appropriately goth!) as it's a more straight ahead rock song for the most part, it's actually one of my favourite songs here and Peter's in typical melancholic romantic mode. The acoustic middle section is also rather superb with some near Gregorian vocal work, which I suppose is pretty much expected of a self styled modern day Rasputin. `Bloody Kisses (A Death in the Family)' is the most straight-forward doom song here and it's pretty downbeat for a man singing about his dead pet...hardly `Romeo and Juliet' but then again no one said Peter Steele was Billy Shakespeare...hey I'd rather listen to Carnivore than sit through a three hour play with only one intermission in a sweaty room...traumatic memories! `Summer Breeze' and `Set Me On Fire' are the weakest songs here and in all fairness they're still quite good, just the latter in particular is a touch uneventful.

Type O Negative have a fairly unique sound and although unorthodox it works rather nicely here. Peter Steele sings in an incredible baritone- his vocals are both emotional as well as self parody (see `It's too Gay!') and overall it gives a unique melodic quality. The keyboards too are worthy of note, Josh Silver provides interesting textures throughout and gives the album that lush quality. But, as well as this we also get some brilliantly kitsch moments like the solo in `Christian Woman' or the Adam's Family quotes in `Black No. 1...' . Kenny Hickey may not be a great technician or even a great guitarist, but here it's a not really a problem as the riffs are memorable and the lead and acoustic lines provide some interesting qualities. Both he and Peter win bonus points for pick sliding at every given opportunity. The production here is weird, the same type of sound the band go for on every album, yet still I find it unusual, still I suppose that's the point.

So although the band may have had vampiric fangs, their tongues remained firmly in cheek and of course their kisses bloody...not that I'd know, but omg Peter Steele what a dream boat! Er, sorry don't know what happened their things went a bit 1996, anyway, this is the best Type O Negative album and essential for people who wear milky lenses, inhabit Whitby and drink snakebites.

Not my cup of tea...
OK I'll be honest...
I don't like this album and I'm sorry I bought it.
I'm not a huge fan of goth music but I do like some Sisters of Mercy stuff, so I thought I'd like this too.

My fault.

My advice? Only get this album if you are a real goth fan. It is very well produced from the inlay card to the sound, but the music isn't for me. I'll stick to 'Soundgarden' and 'Metallica'!!! Sorry guys!

NOT a four-star album!
My main motivation for writing a review is to bump the star count up!
I fell in love with this record as a teenager, and it's certainly their most complete album, incorporating some of their most epic songs, as well as blending the band's hardcore beginnings and the deapan, un-PC sarcasm Type O are (in)famous for. "Christian Woman", "Bloody Kisses" and the immensely popular "Black No. 1" are the essential cuts, but to these ears, there really isn't a bad track on the record. Some may be annoyed by the montages such as "30IF" and "Machine Screw", which break the album up and set the scene for certain songs, but you can skip them.
The only criticism I can make of this record is that if your CD or MP3 player doesn't support seamless playback, you're going to have annoying breaks between tracks, and the individual tracks all overrun the breaks by half a second, adding extra annoyance. This irritation is only slightly relieved when you realise that this is probably another of the band's little "jokes".