Metalobit: Peter Steele

Type O Negative's singer, Peter Steele, has died, his bandmates have confirmed.

The internet had killed him off before. In 2005, the band posted a mock tombstone with his name on it, which seems a bit a grim way of promoting a record when you have a sickly singer. Type O Negative had pulled their tour the year before after "anomalies" had been found during one of Steele's medicals.

Steele once suggested in an interview with MTV that music might have screwed him up:

On more than one occasion, he emphasized to me that he'd have been a much happier guy if he never picked up a bass or sang a note. He compared his relationship with music to an affliction he had to endure and pulled no punches when discussing his distaste for record labels and mainstream goth culture. He was a contrarian to the end and wrote lyrics that were perceived as anti-Semitic (even though his keyboardist, Josh Silver, was Jewish) and homophobic (which he may have been). In 2007, the last time we talked, Steele told me, "That which does not destroy me just makes me more irritable, which I plan to take out on the band the next tour."

Born in Brooklyn as Petrus T Ratajczyk, it's believed Steele died from heart failure. He was 48.