Ten Years Gone: Remembering Peter Steele of Type O Negative…
In the metal community, Peter Steele was a titan, both literally and figuratively. At six feet eight inches tall, the frontman of Type O Negative created gigantic gothic metal songs that gave the impression of his height being doubled. Sadly, on April 14, 2010, at the young age of 48, he passed away from this life.
Brooklyn, New York native Steele began his metal career in 1979 when he and future Type O Negative keyboardist Josh Silver joined the band Fallout. After Fallout disbanded a few years later, Steele started the thrash metal group Carnivore, who put out two albums in the 1980s. Steele also contributed songwriting to multiple tracks on Agnostic Front’s 1986 album Cause for Alarm at that period.
After Carnivore disbanded, Steele founded Type O Negative, a gothic metal group that fused the eerie overtones of Bauhaus with the strength of Black Sabbath. Steele rose to legendary status with Type O Negative.
Following the success of their first two albums, Slow, Deep, and Hard (1991) and Origin of the Feces (1992), Type O Negative achieved breakthrough success with their third album, Bloody Kisses (1993), which included the noteworthy track “Black No. 1” and went on to become platinum. Up until Peter’s passing in 2010, the band would continue to gain enormous fan bases and put out seven studio albums in their 20-year history.
Longtime Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly remembered a different side of Steele in the 1990s book Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal (written by Greg Prato, who also wrote for Heavy Consequence), despite Steele’s menacing and ominous appearance. In honoring his fellow musician, Kelly expressed the following opinions about Steele:
