Maybe this was to be a sensitive metal guy's departure from the savagery and stupidity of Carnivore, but the first Type O album has little to do with the throngs of swooning black-clad goth girls who would eventually develop humongous crushes on singer/bassist Peter Steele. In fact, it's hard to pitch woo to the sounds of "Unsuccessfully Coping With the Natural Beauty of Infidelity (I Know You're Fucking Someone Else)" (which, incidentally, is a well-constructed and totally hilarious song...and the only really memorable one on the album). Still entrenched in Carnivorisms, most of the album tries to split between hardcore rage and Mr. Teary-Eyed Sensitive Guy.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 08/1997

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Considering where the band originated, Bloody Kisses was certainly a departure for Type O Negative's primal, ugly origins. The band that appears on this CD is a far cry from the ugly rumblings of Peter Steele's previous outfit Carnivore and a football field's length away from the antagonized hardcore-ish stylings of their debut, Slow Deep and Hard. Apparently Steele had gotten much of his nihilistic anger out and could focus more on causing nubile young girls to entirely lose their senses at his deep mournful, proto-gothy voice. Rather than display a barrage of focused anger, Type O Negative explored the realms of painful meetings with vampire girls who broke his heart, regular girls who broke his heart, girls into God who broke his heart (but only after a serious lay) and other girls who simply set him on fire (but reportedly broke his heart later on).

To be honest, there's actually much more depth than a flippant paragraph such as the previous one suggests. Bloody Kisses reflects the maturation of the band as well as some reminders of their roots. There are plenty of between song sound collages as well as old school rants such as "Kill All the White People" or the outstanding "We Hate Everyone". But these scant reminders of the band's origin are overshadowed by the band's take on goth rock mixed with a much more metallic influence. Rather than shouting and yelling, Steele finds his deep goth voice that has been known to ignite the loins of women worldwide. One could nearly suggest that Steele is metal's equivalent to Barry White. Despite the band's grainy, morose image, careful listens suggest that a considerable amount of the music here has a tongue-in-cheek element that both sensualizes as well as caricaturizes certain stereotypes of subculture types. "Black No. 1" can definitely be experienced on both levels.

On the whole, Bloody Kisses is a masterpiece that carefully laid down the blueprint for many goth-metal acts to come but avoids wallowing in the excesses that pollute the subgenre. The strong songwriting throughout helps Type O Negative veer away from pandering to the mere elements of goth music. Rather, the music is much more vital and alive. There also happens to be a digipack version of this album that eliminates quite a bit of the between song pieces and a couple of the harder numbers. Unfortunately this completely ruins the broad picture that the original issue of the CD offered. So avoid that and look for the full version. Even for those who despise the feigned despondency of goth metal, Bloody Kisses is a great album which may very well provide all your blackclad, vampires'n'candles needs.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 06/2002

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The release that proves Steele's Mr. Sensitivity schtick was getting old and repetitive (remember, this sensitive man had a picture of his rectum grace an album cover). As a joke, they start out the album with a track of pure harsh noise, then a spoken statement from the band, before actually playing a real song. Yeah, real funny. It just forces the listener to skip to track 3 before hearing anything worthwhile. Sadly, it's the only song on the album you'll need to hear again. Lacking serious quality, the entire album merely rehashes their goth-metal-sob-sexual-fantasy trip from the previous album with much lesser results. Who really wants to hear about Steele's fantasies of "His Girlfriend's Girlfriend"? (Wherein he tells us "Wow"...deep, man, deep.) Soon after this album came out, I had the misfortune of seeing them live where they were terrible. They are very much a mediocre studio band with just enough technical skill to pretend their music is worth the sticker price. There's much better stuff out there...do yourself a favor and find it.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 08/1997

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