The last time I saw long-running Brooklynites Type O Negative was at New Jersey‘s Starland Ballroom last year. They were headlining a Jagermeister show with a bunch of crappy bands opening; by the time they went on I had wished I?d stayed in my car to listen to the Yankees game. I sat in a chair on the side of the venue, up in the back by the bar, and watched the evening unfold, and when Type O finally took the stage, it looked like bassist/vocalist Peter Steele was just about on his last legs as far as the band was concerned. An on stage exchange between he and guitarist/vocalist Kenny Hickey concluded like this:

Kenny: ??Yeah but you got all the money.?
Peter: ?I put it all up my nose. I?ve snorted a mansion.?

Everyone laughed, but as the show wore on and Steele snarled and yelled unintelligible syllables instead of lyrics, it was clear from the faces on Hickey, keyboardist Josh Silver and drummer Johnny Kelly that the antics had worn thin. Of course, people have been counting Type O Negative out for a decade and the ?00s have produced some of the best songs of their career, but it wouldn?t surprise me at all if that show winds up being the last time I ever see them.

Whether or not that?s the case, Hickey and Kelly have formed Seventh Void with guitarist Matt Brown and bassist Hank Hell, and their first album, Heaven is Gone (released through Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul‘s Big Vin Records), is doom by default. That is, I doubt any of the members would call it a doom record, let alone stoner, but with a strong influence from the likes of Black Sabbath and Trouble, there?s really no getting around it. Even ?Descent,? which sounds more like Dirt-era Alice in Chains than anything else (at least as regards the music) is a doom song. That?s just the way it goes.

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