Where Did Mary Go?
Episode 46: Kenny Hickey (Type O Negative, Silvertomb)
At the depths of his battle with alcohol and other bad habits, Kenny Hickey recalls isolating himself in his garage drinking with an acoustic guitar, developing the riffs and song ideas that would become Silvertomb’s second studio album, The Interpretation of Nightmares , due out November 13th through Steamhammer. Though he recalls this as a perhaps the darkest period of his life, he’s thankfully on the other side of it now some years later living a sober life. The results of his labor during that timeframe, however, give an up close look at the battle he was waging mentally during that time. In fact, the title of the album, a play of Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, is based on a nightmare Kenny had while going through all this in which he was on his knees and someone executed him with a bullet through the back of the head, which he claims to have felt before waking up in a cold sweat. While trauma and anxiety permeate the record lyrically, the compositions that accompany Kenny’s cathartic words alternates between doomed out riffs and beautiful, light acoustic passages that create a standout doom metal album that infuses Black Sabbath , Pink Floyd, and maybe even some latter-day Radiohead. Of course, Kenny is no stranger to the genre, as the riffs he and his bandmates created in Type O Negative for two decades always had a doom metal feel, mixed with the goth sound that departed frontman Peter Steele adored. In the years since the group ceased operations following Pete’s passing, Kenny has played in a number of other groups on the doom spectrum, including Sun Don’t Shine with Crowbar main man Kirk Windstein and Seventh Void alongside Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly, who also plays in Silvertomb. Ahead of the release of The Interpretation of Nightmares, I had a chance to catch up with Kenny to talk about the album, plus a number of other topics, including: the reason for the long break between records for Silvertomb , the depths of his alcohol addiction and how the record was written during this period of isolation, the nightmare that fueled the first song on the record, and why some of the song titles have two names. how the band came to choose Lido Beach for the location for the “Graves in the Sky” video, how the band’s sound has progressed since Edge of Existence into more adventurous territory, plans for Silvertomb to tour on the new record, and how Kenny was unexpectedly performing “Bury Me in Smoke” by Down on stage at Jones Beach recently. the working relationship and friendship between Kenny and Johnny Kelly , the dynamic in Type O Negative of making fun of each other to keep everyone grounded, an anecdote about how Peter Steele would make Kenny sing parts of songs Hickey deemed too lame, and how TikTok has given Type O new life on the internet. reflections on Peter Steele and his willingness to leave Brooklyn, what Kenny would want people to remember about Pete, the possibility of any Type O Negative tribute shows in the future, his feelings on being able to share the deeply personal The Interpretation of Nightmares with the world at large, and some local Brooklyn talk. Kenny was a pleasure to speak with and more than generous with his time and answers. On “No Way to Live,” the lead single from the new album, he wails, “I’ve looked for answers in places where no one returns” to open the song. And he would know, having seen the way things went for his dear friend and bandmate many years ago. Though the material he created for this record may conjure some negative headspaces, it serves as a reminder of that place that he’s worked so hard to avoid ever going back to, and is a testament to the cathartic power of channeling those emotions into a permanent, beautiful work of art.
