Daily Jam - Love You to Death

There’s really nothing quite like the perennial autumnal tones of Type O Negative, heavy metal’s answer to goth, where everyday is seemingly Halloween. Things got a little bit colder with the release of the band’s 1996 album October Rust, a record full of stark and haunting moments that feel as if they should accompany scenes of dark, dirty, foreboding men in the snow, their breath visible in the gray light. But don’t let that coldness belie the album’s lush and gorgeous production, the sounds and tones and themes coming together right at the start to craft a highlight of Type O Negative’s entire discography, the BDSM-alluding “Love You to Death.”

I think I was in the tenth grade the first time I heard Type O Negative, a friend of mine playing the song “Christian Woman” for me from the album Bloody Kisses, and I was instantly enthralled by the pairing of the slow and low heaviness of the guitars with the dark lyrical imagery akin to some of the best psychosexual stuff you’d hear by Depeche Mode. Combined with the proto-industrial-metal tones, Peter Steele’s deep, guttural moan, and all the gothic themes and moods, the band’s music became a pretty integral part of my teenage years.

While I loved (and still love) Bloody Kisses, Type O Negative really jumped to the next level sonically and creatively when they released October Rust. Taking the moodiness from their prior album, the band upped the melancholia and bleeding hearts, making the record a kind of yearning open letter for the black dye set. Finally, someone was expressing a whole legion of horror nerds’ untapped feelings, and doing it with heavy, chugging guitars, cathedral level keyboards, and dark, beautiful melodies. “Love You to Death” encapsulates all of that, a gloomy, gothic masterpiece that ends on an almost romantic note.

“Am I good enough for you?”

This is probably as close to a love song as Type O Negative ever got.

Check it out below, our Daily Jam.