Today, 15.April 2010, it was announced that Pete Steele, vocalist of Type O Negative, died of heart failure.

I’m still in some kind of shock- I remember when I’ve last seen Type O playing live at Wacken Open Air 2007 where I was taking pics for Metal Hammer… and back then, I also was shocked to witness how old he looked like. I mean, he was 45 already back then, but I had seen gigs in past years where he delivered a good show (and hell, 45 isn’t 80…)- but well, Wacken was really disappointing. Pete seemed to be drunk, he didn’t sing all vocals lines and obviously wasn’t very motivated. I even had the feeling that the rest of the band was ashamed of his performance there. He even fell to the floor and wasn’t able to stand back up, so two guys had to help him. Man, it was depressing to see this. But still, I thought he’d only go through hard times, that he’s currently having a problem with drugs, but a stay at Betty Ford clinic (or wherever) would bring him back to his feet again. I would never have expected to read about his death not even three years later…

When I uploaded the first version of the Agathodaimon website in 1999, I had a page where I listed my favourite albums of all time, and since then, Type O’s SLOW, DEEP AND HARD still belongs to the albums that I’ve listened to hundreds of times and it’s still listed there. I also loved Carnivore, but this album is really special to me. I remember when I bought it because of the review of Frank Albrecht in Rock Hard in 1990 (9.5 out of 10 points if I remember correctly, and hell, I’d give it a 10)…
Pete often talked/sung about suicide, but I think he enjoyed live as well- and he made my live more enjoyable in times when his music & lyrics (yes, there’s few artists who could compete with his lyrics) gave comfort and something to think about.
So Pete, thank you for the music.

Rest in Peace
Petrus T. Ratajczyk

January 4, 1962 – April 14, 2010