Testing Negative

One look at Type O Negative and you expect to hear some loud guitar solos and macho posturing a la Metallica or Alice in Chains. Each band member has very long hair and plenty of tattoos, and one of the group’s prime influences is that hard-rocking 1970s dinosaur Black Sabbath.

Certainly the last thing you’re ready for is a slow merger of lush orchestration, darkly romantic lyrics, melodic pop-psychedelia and self-deprecating humor.

So leave your preconceptions at the door. This New York-based quartet will showcase a lot of diverse components during its concert tonight at the Galaxy Concert Theatre.

“I’ve always liked really heavy rock music, like Black Sabbath and Iron Butterfly,” said lead singer-bassist Peter Steele, in a phone interview during a tour stop in St. Joseph, Minn. “Yet at the same time, who didn’t like the Beatles and Stones? Then as I got older, I was into the droning, dreamy sounds of bands like the Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and Dead Can Dance. . . .

“I guess you could say I like music that’s soft on the outside but with a strong, solid foundation. With Type O Negative, we like to sugarcoat our bricks.”

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What Steele dislikes, though, is to be pigeonholed.

“A goth image has been cast upon us by the media because they have to label us something, I guess,” he said. “People think we’re vampires. I mean, we may suck, but it’s not blood.

“Seriously, I don’t like being called goth because there are more elements to our music than that label suggests. If you’re gonna call us something, I prefer ‘junk rock’ or ‘gothadelic.’ I think we make music that dead hippies might like.”

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Another thing that apparently frustrates Steele is that some fans and critics have misunderstood their sincerely played covers of Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” and Seals and Crofts’ soft-rock hit “Summer Breeze.”

“We’re not into doing parodies,” asserted Steele in his deep, husky voice. “I’m just taking something I like; I chew it up and spit it out, and then I see how it looks and sounds.

“It’s not a challenge to me to replicate a song note-for-note. I’d much rather put our own style into it by taking a light song and turning it into something heavier.”

A heavy musical landscape dominates the band’s four releases, particularly last year’s “October Rust” (Roadrunner Records). The disc is a sprawling 15-song, 73-minute epic filled with layers of guitar, keyboard and synthesizer textures.

Heartbreaking, often brutal songs such as “Haunted,” “Love You to Death,” “Burnt Flowers Fallen” and “Die With Me” make you wonder if Steele, the group’s primary lyricist, is merely exercising his creative writing skills or is on the verge of something more self-destructive.

“I have gotten my heart broken so many times that I’ve lost count,” said Steele, who is joined in Type O Negative by keyboardist Josh Silver, guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly. “Any time I’ve been involved with someone I’ve cared about, I’ve suffocated them by caring too much. That’s probably why I lost them.”

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If sharing in his darker vision of romance seems like a depressing way to spend Valentine’s Day, it’s anything but that for Steele.

“It’s actually one of my favorite holidays, and playing live is like sonic therapy for me,” he said. “It’s always a special day for me. I dredge up many of these unpleasant memories, and I exorcise them on stage.

“I just want our fans to know that any time they feel pain inside, they’re not alone. I’ve been there. I think it’s true, misery does love company, and in this case, Type O Negative makes for great company.”

Type O Negative is hardly a household name beyond its solid fan base on the East Coast. In an admittedly calculated move in 1995, the 34-year-old, 6-foot-6 Steele seized an opportunity for more exposure by laying himself bare in the pages of Playgirl magazine.

“When I was offered the photo session, I got together with the guys in the band and asked ‘em, ‘What could this do for us?’ ” he said. “We figured it might gain us some new fans if they liked what they saw. I have no regrets. Ya know, no [guts] . . . no glory. . . .

“Only I hope that if I get asked to model again, I can keep my clothes on and get paid more money.”

* Type O Negative, Sister Machine Gun and Drain play tonight at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $15-$17. (714) 957-0600.