Indeed, no one was ever sure if Steele was joking when he created a false, quasi-Nordic nation Republic of Vinnland, including a flag. Upon moving record labels in 2005, the band released a tombstone image on its Web site faking Steele's death. Steele took nothing and everything seriously. It was this nihilistic sense of humor that got Steele and the band in plenty of trouble. Metallica wrote songs based on Hemmingway books, Type O Negative did interstitial tracks of tribal chanting and a woman screaming called "Fay Wray Come Out and Play." While Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor was referencing Nietzsche on The Downward Spiral, Steele's philosophical experience involved writing songs about the weight of the world titled "Gravitational Constant: G = 6.67 x 10-8 cm-3 gm-1 sec-2" and consequently singing, "suicide is self-expression." As Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan relayed experiences of sexual abuse and childhood pain, Steele wrote a song about his breakup entitled "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity" (the song featured Steele screaming expletives toward his ex). Steele's lyrics had similarly teenage feeling, as he sang mostly of one-sided heartbreak, depression, and sex. Steele was not uncomfortable with his nudity, as he would later pose nude for Playgirl magazine. Type O Negative's first studio album, 1993's Slow, Deep and Hard, featured a cover depicting the point of sexual penetration, slightly pixilated out. The label was not pleased at this adolescent prank and changed the cover. Not surprisingly, they named the record The Origin of the Feces and took a photo Steele's behind as the album cover. When asked by their label to put together a live record, Type O Negative simply recorded an album and overlaid crowd noise. Steele was, in many ways, this concept personified. Heavy metal in all its forms, more than any other type of popular rock, conjures a state of perpetual adolescence. Steele eventually steered Type O Negative as its singer, bass player, and main songwriter through its six albums. Ratajczyk in New York in 1962, Steele found himself in metal and thrash bands in New York's seminal 1980s metal scene.
Steele died this week of apparent heart failure at age 48. If only for style's sake, without Steele, there is no Hatebreed, AFI, or probably My Chemical Romance. Steele was Twilight Metal before Twilight Metal even existed. The band sold scores of records, including 1993's platinum-selling Bloody Kisses, all while speaking solely to the makeup-streaked, black-hair-dye-and-angst set. He may not have appealed to you, but he-and his band Type O Negative-serviced his mostly teenage male audience as few others have. His band was named after a blood type and he wrote mostly about death and destruction. He had tattoos coloring his shoulders and covered most of his 6'7" frame in black denim or cloth. He was a mess of long hair, muscle, and baritone. If you are like so many music fans, you probably haven't heard of Peter Steele.
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