The Origin of the Feces

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The Origin of the Feces
Studio album by Type O Negative
Released	May 12, 1992
Recorded	October 31, 1991
Studio	Systems Two, Brooklyn, New York
Genre	Gothic metal, doom metal
Length	43:28
Label	Roadrunner
Producer	P. T. Barnum, Peter Steele, Josh Silver
Type O Negative chronology
Slow, Deep and Hard (1991) The Origin of the Feces (1992) Bloody Kisses (1993)
Reissue cover

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Q	[2]

The Origin of the Feces is the second studio album by the Brooklyn band Type O Negative, which was released in 1992.

Recording and production[]

The album was recorded in a studio but produced to sound "live" by adding crowd noises, banter with the fictitious audience, and even a song stopping because the venue supposedly had received a bomb threat. This was done to simulate the controversy the band faced during the European leg of their Slow, Deep and Hard tour. The band is known among fans for weaving this type of humour into their often gloomy music.

Album content[]

The album is composed primarily of slightly altered, re-recorded versions of tracks that had appeared already on Slow, Deep and Hard. Four of the song's titles have been deliberately renamed:

- "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity" = "I Know You're Fucking Someone Else"

- "Gravitational Constant: G = 6.67 x 10-8 cm-3 gm-1 sec-2" = "Gravity"

- "Prelude to Agony" = "Pain"

- "Xero Tolerance" = "Kill You Tonight"

One song, "Are You Afraid?", is an original composition that the band played live as an introduction to "Gravity" but never included on an official studio album. It foreshadows the gothic sound the band would adopt on their next album, Bloody Kisses.

This album also started the tradition of Type O Negative including cover songs performed in their distinct gothic metal sound. The album includes covers of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" (which halfway through contains the main riff of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man"), and Billy Roberts' "Hey Joe", which has been re-titled "Hey Pete" for frontman Peter Steele. The reprise of "Kill You Tonight" has a sample of the closing piano strike from The Beatles' "A Day in the Life".

P. T. Barnum is credited as a producer for the record.

Packaging[]

The original cover of the album has a close-up of Steele's anal sphincter.^[3] This was changed for the re-issue two years later, to a green and black version of the 1493 painting by Michael Wolgemut, The Dance of Death. The album's title is an obvious pun and a reference to Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

In addition to the re-issue's cover, other artwork included in the album's sleeve/liner notes is the famous 1498 woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Track listing[]

All lyrics and music by Peter Steele, except where noted.

Credits[]

• Peter Steele – lead vocals, bass guitar
• Kenny Hickey – backing vocals, co-lead vocals (on "Hey Pete"), electric guitar
• Josh Silver – backing vocals, keyboards, sound effects
• Sal Abruscato – drums, percussion
• Johnny Kelly – drums, percussion (on "Paranoid")

Notes[]