Life Is Killing Me

***Life Is Killing Me*** is the sixth album by Type O Negative, released on June 17, 2003. The album was leaked onto the Internet before release, upsetting keyboard player Josh Silver to the point that he released a message online complaining that the leak essentially took revenue from the band.

The title was originally going to be *The Dream Is Dead* (which is the name of the last track on the album), but due to Pete's concern about people thinking the title represents that it is the last album to be released by Type O, the proposed title was changed to *Life Is Killing Me* (it turned out of course that the band went on to release one more album after this one—*Dead Again*).

The inside spine under the CD tray has the message "Type O Negative is a non-prophet organization."

## Album content

This album contains a lot of melody in their songs and features a Black Sabbath-influenced guitar riffs, distorted bass, sitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards and even The Beatles-like orchestration. Like the previous albums, *Life Is Killing Me* has plenty of industrial sound effects, but unlike prior albums, there are no "soundscape" tracks on the album, but there is a brief instrumental track titled "Drunk in Paris" as well as a soundscape that, while being part of the track "I Don't Wanna Be Me" is musically different. Many say this album is the musical combination of *Bloody Kisses* and *October Rust*. The lyrics on this album is commonly described as dark, gloomy, and depressing (though lighter than their previous album *World Coming Down*), and Peter Steele sings in a variety of vocal range, from low to high.

The opening track of the album is "Thir13teen", which is a cover of the interstitial music from the television sitcom *The Munsters*. There are two tracks on the album about Steele's parents—"Nettie" is named after his mother while "Todd's Ship Gods (Above All Things)" is named after the shipyard his father Todd worked in. The song "How Could She?" makes a large number of pop culture references, in particular, female television characters. Track 11 of the album is titled "IYDKMIGTHTKY (Gimme That)", which the acronym IYDKMIGTHTKY stands for "If You Don't Kill Me I'm Going To Have To Kill You", which is the most repeated phrase in the song other than "Gimme That". The track "Angry Inch" is a cover of the off-Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. "Anesthesia" is a popular hit song.

## Tracklist

1. "Thir13teen" – 1:07
2. "I Don't Wanna Be Me" – 5:08
	* I. "I Don't Wanna Be Me" – 3:45 (0:00–3:45)
	* II. "I'm No More" – 1:23 (3:45–5:08)
3. "Less than Zero (<0)" – 5:25
	* I. "Negative Pleasure (Agony)" – 2:05 (0:00–2:05)
	* II. "Negative Sustenance (Secretions)" – 1:47 (2:05–3:52)
	* III. "Negative Pleasure (Agony) (reprise)" – 1:33 (3:52–5:25)
4. "Todd's Ship Gods (Above All Things)" – 4:10
5. "I Like Goils" (feat. former TON member Sal Abruscato) – 2:35
6. "...A Dish Best Served Coldly" – 7:13
7. "How Could She?" – 7:35
	* I. "How Could She?" – 2:45 (0:00–2:45)
	* II. "You're Not Real" – 2:09 (2:45–4:54)
	* III. "How Could She? (reprise)" – 2:41 (4:54–7:35)
8. "Life Is Killing Me" – 6:35
9. "Nettie" – 4:46
10. "(We Were) Electrocute" – 6:38
11. "IYDKMIGTHTKY (Gimme That)" – 6:20
12. "Angry Inch" – 3:39
13. "Anesthesia" – 6:41
14. "Drunk in Paris" – 1:27
15. "The Dream Is Dead" – 5:07

Bonus CD
In Europe, the album was released with a bonus CD. This bonus CD complements the compilation *The Least Worst Of*.

1. "Out of the Fire (Kane's theme)" – 3:24
2. "Christian Woman (Butt-Kissing Sell-Out version)" – 4:27
3. "Suspended in Dusk" – 8:39
4. "Blood & Fire (Out of the Ashes mix)" – 4:36
5. "Black Sabbath" – 7:47
6. "Cinnamon Girl (Extended Depression mix)" – 3:53
7. "Haunted (Per version)" – 11:47

## Trivia

* This is the only TON album to not have songs lasting 10 minutes or more.
* It is tied with *October Rust* for most tracks of any TON album.
* This is one of two TON albums to not have any songs split into cantos; the other is *October Rust*.
* It has the most non-intro/interlude tracks of any TON album.
* This is the first album since the faux-live album *The Origin of the Feces* in which there are proper music in every track.

## Reviews

* Quentin Kalis of *Chronicles of Chaos* (8/10) – "Essentially, this is an album that has taken the best aspects of past Type O Negative releases and builds upon them to create Type O's finest moment since *October Rust*."
* Metal1.info – "This Type O album offers the right soundtrack for both the more fortunate moments and dark moments in life and it sounds like a refreshing addition to many other acts from the gothic area."
* Jeff of *Metal Reviews* (90/100) – "Type O Negative have managed to put together a killing album!"

* Amazon.com
* *Creative Loafing*
* *Drowned In Sound* (6/10)
* Encyclopaedia Metallum
* *Exclaim!*
* GRYPHONMETAL (8/10)
* Heavymetal.dk (7/10)
* *Last Rites*
* laut.de
* metal.de (9/10)

* Metal Music Archives (4/5)
* METALNEWS.DE (6/7)
* *Metal Observer* (8.5/10)
* *Metal Storm* (7.5/10)
* *Rock and Metal in My Blood* (9/10)
* *savagehippie*
* *sax review* (7/10)
* Sputnikmusic (3/5)
* VOCÊ DEVIA OUVIR ISTO
* YouTube

## Personnel

**Group performers**

* Peter Steele – lead vocals, bass, additional guitar and keyboards
* Kenny Hickey – guitar, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "...A Dish Best Served Coldly", "How Could She?" and "Angry Inch"
* Josh Silver – keyboards, backing vocals
* Johnny Kelly – live drums

**Guest/session performers**

* Sal Abruscato – backing vocals on "I Like Goils"
* Paul Bento – lead guitar on "How Could She?", sitar on "Less than Zero (<0)", tambura and Riyaz box on "Less than Zero (<0)", "(We Were) Electrocute" and "Anesthesia"
* Pandit Kinnar K. Seen – tabla on "Less than Zero (<0)"

**Enginucers**

* Peter Steele – writing, mixing, production
* Josh Silver – engineering, effects, drum programming, mixing, production
* Mike Marciano – engineering, mixing
* George Marino – mastering