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#8 Type O Negative – Slow, Deep And Hard

For Brooklyn-born goth-metal contingent Type O Negative, their 1991 debut album showcased the sound of “jackhammerrape” – but that’s not the only controversial part about it. Recorded in 1989, featuring seven dark-humored and sexually-charged angst-ridden songs of relationship betrayal, the band’s sarcastic message was largely taken out of context by the public – and the cover did not help. Featuring an extreme close-up of actual sexual penetration, an image ripped right out of a porno mag, the band’s entrance into the music world started with a, uh, bang --and was met with a lot of resistance. But despite it’s sordid reception, Type O Negative laid the groundwork for their gloomy doom with raw, ubridled aggression, and later went on to channel it into worldwide success.

In the liner notes of the 2009 reissue of this album, keyboardist Josh Silver looks back on using this ‘found art’ saying, “It’s not an original photograph... But I’m kind of ashamed of taking it now – it’s kind of like downloading. But we didn’t know better at the time. And it probably would’ve been easy to get the rights to use it, actually.”

But despite the way it was obtained, there’s no denying the now-legendary image as our #8 album cover.

To give more insight into our selection, here’s Senior VP of A&R Monte Conner’s account:

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