It was 1993, I was in 7th grade and an avid Headbangers Ball viewer. My friends and I would each make three-way calls to each other until we basically had a party line going – then we’d tune in and chat in between Morbid Angel and Deicide videos. We’d bitch when “our show” was invaded by crap like new Metallica or grunge. I had no idea what a goth was, I just knew I liked songs about Satan and killing people and guys with long, long hair.

One night, all the boys I was friends with were staying over at one kid’s house and they called me for our weekly Headbangers Ball phone conference. We were having our usual banter about Slayer and Cannibal Corpse when a video called Black No. 1 by a band called Type O Negative came on. We fell silent.

The singer’s appearance was shocking – 6’8″ with long black hair, and exaggerated facial features – I was captivated. His voice was otherworldly, I suppose like that of someone nearly seven feet tall. The video was budget as hell, the song slow and almost electronic, not like any of the thrash or death metal I’d filled my CD tower with. (Remember those?) But there was something dirty and creepy about the whole thing and when it was over, my friends and I let out a collective “woah, dude…”

I picked up Bloody Kisses at our local record store, Crow’s Nest, as soon as I was able to get a ride there. I proceeded to collect their back catalog, including releases by Steele’s previous project, Carnivore. For years, Type O’s rendition of Summer Breeze was in my top 5 and I really only stopped listening regularly when I got my first iPod and the shuffle function forced me to start listening to everything I owned and not obsessing over one or two songs.

Now, I’m the first to admit that Peter Steele was a problematic fave – and I won’t make excuses for some of the things he said, even though I do believe he was suffering from poor mental health in his later years. But to die at 48 years old is still a tragedy and I think the 7th and 8th grade girl inside a lot of us cried a little last week when we heard the news.

So in memory of His Darkness, I give you Black No. 1 Brownies.

RIP

Peter Steele

Loving you was like loving the dead.

Black No. 1 Brownies

By BakeandDestroy Published: April 19, 2010

    It was 1993, I was in 7th grade and an avid Headbangers Ball viewer. My friends and I would each make three-way calls to each …

    Ingredients

    Instructions

    1. Put on your (faux) wolf skin boots, smoke a clove cigarette. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9x9 pan. (I "flour" with cocoa powder.)
    2. In a large bowl, mix together the cocoa powders, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, salt & flour. The black cocoa is what makes it black, black, black, black number one.
    3. In a smaller bowl, whisk the yogurt or blended tofu, vegetable oil and brewed coffee together. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. It might be lumpy, that's OK.
    4. When he calls you evil, you'll just laugh. Bake for anywhere between 25-35 minutes - this really depends on your oven. The sides should slightly shrink away from the pan and the middle will still be a little gooey. As the brownies cool, the middle will firm up, leaving you with a fudge-like, black brownie.

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