Maps of Music

The Origin of the Feces (1992)

Where the lyrics of The Origin of the Feces take you, and where it was really made.

A 'live' album that was never played before an audience: the crowd noise, stage banter and even a bomb threat were added in the studio.

Key places

Systems Two Recording Studio, Brooklyn (1992)

Recording site Rough Customer — The album was recorded at Systems Two Recording Studio in Brooklyn, NY, the same studio the band used for all of its studio albums. Only the city-level location is available. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Second studio album by American gothic metal band Type O Negative, released in 1992
• Presented as a live album, but recorded in a studio
• Crowd noise, stage banter and fake audience interactions added to create the illusion of a live show
• Includes a supposed bomb threat that interrupts the set
• Mostly reworked, re-recorded versions of songs from the debut Slow, Deep and Hard
• Title is a play on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species
• Original cover: close-up of Peter Steele's anus with a feces-scented scratch-and-sniff square

Background

• Some songs from Slow, Deep and Hard were given new, alternate titles on the packaging and liner notes
• 'Gravitational Constant...' became 'Gravity'; 'Xero Tolerance' became 'Kill You Tonight'
• 'Are You Afraid' is a new original song, previously performed live as an introduction to 'Gravity'
• It foreshadowed the gothic sound the band adopted on the 1993 follow-up Bloody Kisses
• The album started the band's tradition of gothic metal covers, including 'Hey Joe' retitled 'Hey Pete'
• According to French Wikipedia, the record label wanted something between Slow, Deep and Hard and the next album

Recording

• Liner notes credited production to P.T. Barnum and a Halloween live recording at Brighton Beach; in fact it was produced by Silver/Steele
• Recorded at Systems Two Recording Studio in Brooklyn, NY, the same studio used for all of the band's studio albums
• The 'audience interactions' humorously reenact real events from the controversial European leg of the Slow, Deep and Hard tour
• The band often weaves this self-deprecating humor into its gloomy music

Cover

• The original cover's scratch-and-sniff square was replaced in the reissue by a green and black version of Michael Wolgemut's 1493 painting The Dance of Death

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Type O Negative was an American gothic/doom metal band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 1989.
• The band was formed by vocalist and bassist Peter Steele, guitarist Kenny Hickey, keyboardist Josh Silver, and drummer Sal Abruscato, who was later replaced by Johnny Kelly.
• The band initially named themselves Repulsion, then Sub-Zero, and finally Type O Negative.
• Steele's contract with Roadrunner Records from his time in Carnivore led to the band signing with the label in 1991.
• Their debut, Slow, Deep and Hard, was released shortly after signing.

Members

• Peter Steele: bass, lead vocals, keyboards, guitars (1989–2010; his death).
• Kenny Hickey: guitars, backing and additional co-lead vocals (1989–2010).
• Josh Silver: keyboards, piano, effects, synthesizers, programming, sampler, backing vocals (1989–2010).
• Johnny Kelly: drums, percussion, backing vocals (1993–2010).
• Sal Abruscato: drums, percussion (1989–1993).

Career

• Bloody Kisses (1993) went platinum and October Rust (1996) gold, and the band built a substantial cult following through seven studio albums, two best-of compilations, and concert DVDs.
• The band was nicknamed "the Drab Four" in homage to the Beatles' "Fab Four" moniker.
• Steele died on April 14, 2010; the cause was later reported as sepsis caused by diverticulitis.
• In November 2010, the surviving members confirmed the band had split up.
• In 2016, Loudwire ranked Type O Negative 32nd on its list of the Top 50 Best Metal Bands of All Time.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• French Wikipedia: the original cover caused a scandal
• The cover was later replaced with a danse macabre design in the reissue
• The album presents itself as a live recording, with the audience heckling the band
• The 'audience' whistles at every song and cheers when the last track is announced
• The crowd noise, bottle throwing and the bomb-threat pause all form part of the staged live effect

Reappraisal

• Metal Hammer included the original cover on its list of the 50 most hilariously ugly rock and metal album covers ever, in 2023
• The album is described as a self-deprecating humor reenactment, not a real live show
• French Wikipedia describes it as a fake live album recorded in a studio
• Keyboardist Josh Silver says the band had always wanted a second chance to redo the debut album
• The record re-records most songs from the debut Slow, Deep and Hard with new titles and parts

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• P.T. Barnum is credited as co-producer, despite the fact that he had been dead for over 100 years at the time the album was released
• The reprise of 'Kill You Tonight' includes a sample of the closing piano strike from The Beatles' 'A Day in the Life'
• 'Hey Pete' is a rework of Billy Roberts' 'Hey Joe', with lyrics revised to reference frontman Peter Steele
• The album's CD images include Albrecht Dürer's engraving The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, according to Spanish Wikipedia
• The band's fake live concept started from the record label's request for something between the debut and the next album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

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