Before Peter Steele became the towering, deep-voiced frontman of Type O Negative, he was making music that sounded like it wanted to punch you in the face.
That was Carnivore.
Released in September 1987 through Roadrunner Records “Retaliation” was the band second and final studio album and one of the rawest snapshots of New York crossover thrash at its most pissed-off.
It’s fast, it’s filthy, it’s sarcastic, it’s aggressive.
And sometimes it’s deliberately offensive.
But underneath all the chaos “Retaliation” also contains something much more interesting: the early DNA of the sound Peter Steele would later develop into Type O Negative.
Carnivore Ditches the Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy
Carnivore self-titled debut had a strong post-apocalyptic identity. Nuclear war, mutant warriors, cannibalism and Mad Max-style survival scenarios were everywhere.
“Retaliation” feels much closer to the streets.
The sci-fi costume comes off and the music moves deeper into New York hardcore territory, combining fast thrash riffs, pounding drums and ugly, heavy breakdowns.
Production isn’t polished and that’s part of the appeal.
This isn’t metal designed to sound perfect. It’s supposed to sound dangerous.
Peter Steele vocals are almost unrecognizable compared with the gothic baritone he would later become famous for. Here, he barks, screams and spits the lyrics with raw mid-range aggression.
This is Peter Steele before the goth, before the keyboards, before the 1990s doom, before “Black No. 1.”
“S.M.D.”: No Subtlety Required
If “Retaliation” has a mission statement, “S.M.D.” might be it.
The title stands for exactly what you think it does, and the song is a short, furious blast of New York hardcore attitude.
There is no elaborate introduction. No atmospheric build-up.
Just riffs, speed and Peter Steele basically telling the world exactly where it can go.
It’s crude, it’s funny in that very dark Carnivore way.
And it’s completely unapologetic.
The Humor Has Aged Differently
This is where “Retaliation” becomes complicated for modern listeners.
Steele lyrics are packed with satire, cynicism, black humor and deliberately outrageous ideas. Religion, politics, society, sexuality and ethnic stereotypes all become targets.
Songs such as “Jesus Hitler,” “Race War” and “Angry Neurotic Catholics” deliberately push into shock territory.
For fans, that outrageousness is part of Carnivore identity.
For others, some of the humor hasn’t aged particularly well and can come across as cheap provocation rather than clever satire.
Both reactions are understandable.
The important thing is that “Retaliation” was never trying to be politically polite. It was trying to provoke.
And Peter Steele was very good at that.
“Ground Zero Brooklyn” Brings the Darkness Home
One of the album most interesting tracks is “Ground Zero Brooklyn”.
Instead of another fantasy about nuclear wastelands or mutant warriors, Steele turns his attention toward urban decay and personal misery.
The song moves through heavier, slower passages and hardcore-driven sections, creating a much darker atmosphere than the band earlier material.
And this is where you can start hearing something important developing.
Carnivore world is becoming less about fictional destruction and more about internal destruction.
That shift would become crucial to Peter Steele future songwriting.
“Inner Conflict” Sounds Like a Warning
If there is one song that points directly toward Type O Negative, it’s “Inner Conflict”.
The track throws fast thrash passages against slower, heavier sections, creating a musical representation of psychological chaos.
The subject matter is no longer simply nuclear war or post-apocalyptic survival, the war is happening inside the person.
That is a huge clue about where Steele songwriting was heading.
The crushing melancholy, self-destructive humor and darker personal themes that would become central to Type O Negative are already starting to emerge.
Then Comes “Jesus Hitler”
And because this is Carnivore, subtlety doesn’t last long.
“Jesus Hitler” takes shock value to an absurd extreme, combining blasphemous dark humor with some seriously effective crossover thrash.
Whatever you think of the lyrics, musically the track demonstrates why Carnivore became such a cult favorite.
Riffs are vicious, the energy is chaotic.
And the whole thing feels like it could fall apart at any second but somehow never does.
“Race War” Turns the Mosh Pit Into a Riot
“Race War” takes another controversial subject and builds it around massive mid-tempo riffs.
Compared with the fastest material on the album, the groove makes the track feel heavier rather than slower.
It’s the kind of riff designed for a room full of people losing their minds.
Again, the lyrics are deliberately provocative, and modern listeners may react very differently to them than listeners did in 1987.
But as a piece of crossover thrash songwriting, the track shows Steele ability to make ugly subject matter equally ugly musically.
“Technophobia” Looks Toward the Future
Not all of the album targets are political or religious.
“Technophobia” attacks something that would become increasingly relevant: humanity growing dependence on computers and machines.
Music matches the subject with a faster, more frantic approach.
Looking back from today’s world, where smartphones and algorithms are practically attached to our hands, the theme feels surprisingly relevant.
Maybe Peter was onto something.
The Final Blow: “Sex and Violence”
And then there’s “Sex and Violence”.
Forget the progressive complexity of Carnivore debut.
This is straight-ahead punk-fueled rock ‘n’ roll.
Four minutes of driving riffs, primal energy and a chant that practically demands to be screamed back by a crowd.
It’s simple, it’s catchy, it’s nasty. And it works.
The Most Important Thing About Retaliation
For all its controversy and aggression “Retaliation” becomes much more interesting when you listen to it as a piece of Peter Steele evolution.
Because this wasn’t the end of the story. It was the beginning of something else.
After Carnivore broke up, Steele started developing a new project that went through names including Repulsion and Subzero before eventually becoming Type O Negative.
And here’s the really important connection:
A huge amount of the material that became Type O Negative 1991 debut “Slow, Deep and Hard” came from songs Steele had originally written for the next Carnivore album.
Suddenly, “Retaliation” doesn’t sound like a dead end.
It sounds like a bridge.
From Carnivore to Type O Negative
You can even trace the musical transformation back to Carnivore first album.
Take “Male Supremacy”.
Song moves from brutal thrash into a surprisingly beautiful, melodic and gothic passage.
That contrast crushing heaviness suddenly colliding with dark, melancholic beauty would become one of the defining tricks of Type O Negative.
The seeds were already there.
“Retaliation” simply pushed the darkness further inward.
Post-apocalyptic warriors were disappearing.
Peter Steele personal demons were taking their place.
And eventually, those demons would become the enormous, slow-moving sound of Type O Negative.
The Cult Classic That Wasn’t Supposed to Be Pretty
“Retaliation” isn’t a comfortable album. It wasn’t meant to be.
The production is raw. The lyrics are provocative. The music jumps between hardcore punk, thrash and slower doom-inflected passages.
But that’s precisely why it still matters.
This is underground metal before everything had to be polished.
Before Peter Steele became an icon of gothic metal, before Type O Negative massive sound, before the deep vocals and green-tinted darkness
This is Steele with something to prove and absolutely no interest in being polite about it.
“Retaliation” remains a cult classic of the 1980s crossover scene because it captures a musician in transition.
The hardcore aggression is still there.
The thrash is still there.
But something darker is beginning to crawl out from underneath.
And if you listen closely enough, you can already hear Type O Negative coming.
Essential tracks: “S.M.D.”, “Ground Zero Brooklyn”, “Inner Conflict”, “Jesus Hitler”, “Race War” and “Sex and Violence”.
Forget the polished gothic era for a moment.
Go back to where Peter Steele was still screaming.
This is Carnivore.
Carnivore
Peter Steele – bass, lead vocals
Marc Piovanetti – guitars, backing vocals
Louie Beato – drums
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