Type O Negative fans might be getting one more hit of that deep, gothic groove.
Drummer Johnny Kelly has confirmed he’s uncovered an unreleased track from the band’s ‘October Rust’ sessions, buried for decades on old cassette demos (per Loudwire).
Lost in the tape archives
Speaking in a recent interview, Kelly explained how the discovery came from digging through a stash of reference tapes from the ‘90s.
“I dug up a whole bunch of cassettes recently and I found a lot of stuff — demos. I actually found a song that we never used,” Kelly said.
Back then, demo culture meant walking out of the studio with rough cassette copies rather than polished digital files, it’s that same analogue clutter that’s now coughing up forgotten material.
“I would go to [keyboardist] Josh’s [Silver] house when we were working on the records… So I have a bunch of ref cassettes from demos that we did and stuff.”
A full track, not just scraps
This isn’t just a fragment either, according to Kelly, the song exists as a complete piece, even if parts of it were repurposed elsewhere.
“Part of it wound up getting cannibalized. Parts of the song wound up on other songs, on ‘Life Is Killing Me’ and stuff like that. But it’s a complete song.”
Guitarist Kenny Hickey backed that up, adding, “I like the song.”
Still, he wasn’t about to rewrite history, Hickey admitted the track didn’t meet the standard for ‘October Rust’ at the time, and likely wouldn’t now either.
“And if we were releasing ‘October Rust’ today, it still wouldn’t make the record.”
A future release isn’t off the table
That doesn’t mean it’ll stay buried, Kelly is keen to get the track cleaned up and potentially released, especially if it can be restored properly from cassette.
“But 30 years later, to release it as a bonus track on something, it’s worth it — it’s worth it for that,” he said.
There’s already chatter about a possible 30th anniversary box set for ‘October Rust’ in 2026, though nothing is locked in, for now Kelly’s focused on sorting through what’s left in the vault.
The bigger picture
Type O Negative have always carried a kind of mythos, tied as much to what’s missing as what’s been released, unearthing a lost track doesn’t rewrite their legacy, but it does add another layer to it.
If this song sees the light of day, expect it to land less like a polished comeback and more like a time capsule, rough edges, tape hiss and all.
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