Peter Steele, the ultimate goth metal figurehead, never saw Type O Negative as a goth metal band. “The ‘goth’ term was thrust upon us by the media,” he told The Aquarian in 1996. “People, in general, need to know where to put product. It’s like trying to hammer a semi-circular piece of wood into a circular hole. We kind of fit, but kind of don’t.”
That opinion was contrarian then and it’s contrarian now. Type O Negative remain the goth metal band by which all other goth metal bands are judged. And their fourth album, October Rust, is the perfect encapsulation of their dark majesty – a record that married the black-hole density of Black Sabbath to the gloom of The Sisters Of Mercy and the atmospheric sweep of prime Pink Floyd, all shot through with their frontman’s unique mix of obsidian-black humour and doomed romance.
