My Top 5 Type-O Negative Songs

Welcome back to part 3 of my Type-O Negative mini-festival, fellow Otaku & Metal Heads! We started it off with my second Metal Overview article, and a week ago I put up my memorial to Pete Steele, so today I figured I’d got for something a little different, and perhaps a little more lighthearted. My top 5 favorite Type-O Negative songs, perhaps? With that said, here they are!

5) Creepy Green Light (Link)
- An anomaly within an anomaly, Creepy Green Light is perhaps the only song off of the bleak World Coming Down to possibly have a shred of positivity to it. Coming from the 3rd person perspective, the song tells the story of a spell cast on Halloween Night. The spell wanders through a graveyard, until it comes across the grave of a woman that the spellcaster loved. It then worked it’s magic, and the two were reunited. A very sweet tale. Bittersweet, but sweet regardless.

4) Stay Out Of My Dreams (Link)
- If this song had any fault, it would be that it wasn’t included on World Coming Down (The album it was it intended for), along with it’s compatriots It’s Never Enough & 12 Black Rainbows. I’m actually a little depressed that this song didn’t get on the album: it’s grim, bleak, haunting, yet there is an odd beauty to it. All of Type-O Negative’s music is beautiful in some way, but World Coming Down seems to have more of this weird beauty than any other album. Stay Out Of My Dreams is a great, albeit obscurer, entry in the band’s song library.

3) These Three Things (Link)
- Had to include one track from the band’s final release. Like I said in my Metal Overview article, picking a great track off of Dead Again was difficult, but when These Three Things came on, I knew what choice I had to make. Listening to These Three Things is almost like going on a journey: it starts in the bowels of Hell, but you’re lifted out of that place, and are placed in the desert during a holy pilgrimage. I would continue with the story, but to say even a single word would ruin the entire experience. You just have to go out and listen to it for yourself.

2) Paranoid (Link)
- Simply stunning. Those are the only words I can use to describe the band’s rendition of Paranoid. Okay, maybe they aren’t the only words. Here is a song, that was already a classic track, and Type-O Negative transformed it into a gothic masterpiece. From a near 3-minute track, the band morphed it into a 7 minute (7 minute & 20 seconds, to be specific) opus. The emotions that this song conjured up are incredibly immense, enough to the point where I fight back tears once in a while when I listen to it. It only missed by the number 1 post by inches. If it got any closer, I would have been tempted to tie the two tracks together. Ultimately I didn’t want to do that, as you’ll soon see.

Before we get to my number 1 song, I wanted to talk about some of my honorable mentions. Make no mistake, these are just as great as everything on the main list, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to put them with the others. Maybe it’s a weird feeling I get, I’m not sure. Anyways, here they are:

HM1) How Could She? (Link) & Red Water (Christmas Mourning) (Link)
- Two oddball tracks, that’s for sure. One deals with women (Real & fake) on TV & relations with said women, and the other is perhaps the darkest Christmas song I’ve ever listened to! These songs really stand out on their respective albums (Life is Killing Me & October Rust), but not for completely good reasons. How Could She? seems a little too peppy. Perhaps sickeningly so. With Red Water (Christmas Mourning), it was a great song, but it didn’t really fit with October Rust’s mood & feel. Despite my grievances, these tracks are still fun, and shouldn’t be ignored.

HM2) Highway Star (Link)
- Really the only bad point about this song was that it was released on that horrendous The Best Of Type-O Negative compilation album. That’s it! Their rendition of Highway Star is a great song. Maybe a little uneven in terms of pacing (There’s a fast/slow thing going on), but overall a good track. The band really managed to capture the spirit of Deep Purple’s original version, add some gothic spices, and even a little bit of Carnivore grade Speed Metal. This song should be the only reason you’d even consider getting The Best Of Type-O Negative. Again, the only reason!

1) My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend (Link)
- You all knew this was coming. Like I said in my review of October Rust and in my Metal Overview of the article, it was the first song I’ve listened to when I first discovered Type-O Negative. I loved the dry humor that was laced throughout the entire track. I love the 60s sound & vibe that the instrumentation was producing, and Pete’s vocal work was at it’s A game across the entire song. Really can’t say anything else, other than if you want to turn people on to Type-O Negative, send them this song!

Well, these were my favorite Type-O Negative songs. These are the classics that I keep coming back to over & over, and anyone who is a fan of the band should come back to these songs as often as possible. Even casual fans, or metal heads in general, might want to give these tunes a casual listen to. Anyways, hope to see all of you in May, when I’ll finally have a 3rd top ten list up. It’s sure to be a great double feature!