Such was the case at the Anaheim House of Blues Sunday night (4/23), when Steele, Silver, guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly offered a 90-minute foray into their Beatles-meets-Black Sabbath world of the sick-and-twisted musically malcontent. Sick and twisted, yes (anything featuring the aforementioned characters would need to be), yet so deceptively brilliant in its delivery, it was scary.

Not campy, cartoon scary, but full-metal-racket scary, a bludgeoning behemoth of dirge-drenched riffs, satirical rips and melancholic melodies crashing with an offsetting sense of lyrical wit that had their tongues planted firmly in cheek, and their other cheeks aimed high in the air. The results were a sonic discord that delivered doom via the warmth of musicality unbeknownst to modern metal.

In a nod to their Disneyland host (the Anaheim HOB is part of the Downtown Disney complex), the set opened with a 15-minute loop of "It's a Small World." What started as comical approached maddening heights before the children's classic was stopped mid-song (about the sixth time through) and the band took the stage to the death-grind of a Russian military march before dredging a cover of The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" through the murky Type O waters.

With "It's a Small World" still echoing through the sold-out crowd, "We Hate Everyone" re-routed the vessel on its rightfully wrong course. Kelly's drums drove the metallic battering ram into "Profits of Doom," where Hickey's guitars ground into the sonic web like Tony Iommi feasting on a diet of dirge. The guitarist's bulletproof play, coupled with his classic-rock-minded vocals, proved the perfect counterbalance to Steele's vocal bottom end.

While hits "Love You to Death," "Christian Woman" and "Black No. 1" proved obvious crowd favorites, the lush tapestry of new track "These Three Kings" was just as well received, Hickey and Silver injecting throbbing color into the epic, 15-minute orchestra of the undead, prisms of light spinning atop the stage as Kelly forged a pocket for Steele to wallow within.

Dedicated to fallen Pantera guitarist and friend Dimebag Darrell, "Halloween in Heaven" was one of the late night's more visceral offerings, a molten slab of searing guitars, sizzling keyboards and slamming drums. It was the coupling of such spastic moments with the set's more subdued and downtrodden manifests where Type O Negative shined, whether it be under black light, white light, or any such other-worldly glow.

Pre-recorded themes from "The Addams Family," "The Munsters" and "Oompa Loompa" from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" segued the sets, only furthering the night-and-day dichotomy of a band who might be accused of taking themselves too seriously, but are doing everything they can to assure that such claims are no fault of their own. Instead, they use morose overtures and a wry, dare-me-to-care attitude to color metal mechanics that are rivaled by few on the live circuit.

How ironic, then, that for Southern California on this rainy Sunday night, heavy metal salvation truly did arrive in the form of being "Dead Again."

Setlist:
"Magical Mystery Tour"
"We Hate Everyone"
"Profits of Doom"
"Anesthesia"
"These Three Things"
"Kill You Tonight"

"Halloween in Heaven"
"Love You to Death"
"Christian Woman"

Encore:
"Waste of Life" intro
"Black No. 1"
"We Ain't Going Home"