SILVERTOMB

former Type O man kenny hickey makes a suitably glum return

The spectre Of loss looms large on Silvertomb’s debut record – but then, what would you expect from a band masterminded by ex-type O Negative riffsman Kenny Hickey?

“I’ve been laying low,” he chuckles. “I tried to sever music from myself like a bad limb. Peter [Steele, former Type O frontman] was my friend for more than 25 years, so losing him and this whole identity we had built together was like hitting a wall; I decided I had to find something else to do with my life… but I couldn’t stay away.”

Starting out as noodling in his garage “on an acoustic guitar with a few brews”, the seeds were set for Kenny’s return to music. “I was writing Right Of Passage and there’s this chorus break where I could hear something that took me right back to the Type O days,” he explains. “It was something I had missed very much. As I started writing lyrics I realised I was still dealing with a lot of loss and change in my life – this record is an effort to deal with that.”

Sombre as its themes are, there is an undeniable sense of life and vitality to the music of Silvertomb. This is also a record for reconnecting with the things that make life worth living – although Kenny’s return hasn’t gone entirely smoothly… “We opened up for Life of Agony. We’re standing there about to go on and this chant starts – ‘YOU SUCK! YOU SUCK!’ It was right back to those Type O days, everybody chanting in unison… it was a real welcome back!”

EDGE OF EXISTENCE IS OUT NOW VIA SPV/LONG BRANCH