Bloody Kisses

by Type O Negative

Overview

Bloody Kisses was Type O Negative's major step forward, maintaining the long, repetitive song structures of albums past, but adding more atmospheric synths and left-field Beatlesque pop melodies. The quantum leap in songwriting is what really drives the album, but it also coincides with a newfound sense of subtlety. Aside from a couple of smart-aleck rants, Peter Steele's dark, melodramatic songs address heartbreak and loneliness in what sounds at first like deadly serious overkill. But not far beneath the surface, he's also satirizing his own emotional excesses, and those of goth rock in general. Steele's lyrics gleefully wallow in goth cliches -- sex, death, Christianity, vampires, more sex, and death -- and he even sings most of the album in an intentionally vampiric croon straight from the depths of an ancient crypt. Among other things, that delivery lends hilarious irony to a glum cover of Seals & Crofts' soft rock hit "Summer Breeze"; it's also perfect for the deadpan mockery of the goth-girl character sketch "Black No. 1." Hardly any of the songs need to be as long as they are, but that ridiculous excess is all part of Type O Negative's sly, twistedly affectionate send-up of goth rock conventions. Though it sounds like a funeral, Bloody Kisses' airy melodicism and '90s-style irony actually breathed new life into the flagging goth metal genre, and the album is an often overlooked forerunner to alternative metal's limited appropriation of goth style. ~ Steve Huey

Product Details

Release Date:	08/17/1993
Label:	Roadrunner Records
UPC:	0016861910020

Tracks

1. Christian Woman
2. Bloody Kisses (A Death in the Family)
3. Too Late: Frozen
4. Blood & Fire
5. Can't Lose You
6. Summer Breeze
7. Set Me on Fire
8. Suspended in Dusk
9. Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Type O Negative   Primary Artist
Josh Silver   Keyboards,Vocals (Background)
Keith Caputo   Vocals (Background)
Alan Robert   Vocals
Paul Bento   Sitar,Tambura,Tamboura
Kenny Hickey   Lead Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Sal Abruscato   Drums,Percussion
Pete Steele   Vocals
Bensonhoist Lesbian Choir   Vocals,Choir/Chorus
Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra   Orchestra
Mike Palmeri   Vocals
Debbie Alter   Vocals
Verdigris Phlogiston   Conductor
Philharmonia Orchestra   Orchestra
Bonnie Weiss   Vocals
Karen Rose   Vocals
Chris Zamp   Vocals
Erasmus High School Boys Special Ed   Vocals,Ensemble,Vocals (Background)
Peter Steele   Lead Vocals,Guitar (Bass)
Joey Z.   Vocals

Technical Credits

Josh Silver   Programming,Mixing,Composer,Producer
George Marino   Mastering
Steele   Art Direction
Jim Seals   Composer,Lyricist
Seals & Crofts   Composer,Lyricist
Pete Steele   Composer,Producer
Mike Marciano   Mixing
Dash Crofts   Composer,Lyricist
Jeff Kitts   Photography
John Wadsworth   Photography
Patty   Art Executor,Art Direction
Silver   Producer
Peter Steele   Mixing,Composer,Lyricist,Producer
Pete Shelley   Lyricist