Post by Hennessy Macklemore III on May 4, 2020 23:29:04 GMT
Kenneth Shaun Hickey (May 22, 1966 - )
Years active: 1989-present
Country of origin: United States of America
Recorded vocal range: F♯2-F♯5 (G♭2-G♭5) - 3 octaves
Band history:
- 1989-1990 - Repulsion (guitar, backing vocals)
- 1990-2010 - Type O Negative (guitar, vocals)
- 2003-2004 - Black Water Rising (guitar)
- 2003-2017 - Seventh Void (lead vocals, rhythm guitar)
- 2006-2007 - Danzig (lead guitar)
- 2017-present - Silvertomb (lead vocals, rhythm guitar)
- 2023-present - EYE AM (lead vocals, rhythm guitar)
Recorded high notes:
F♯5/G♭5: "Halloween in Heaven" live Philadelphia 2007
F5: "Halloween in Heaven" live Houston 2007
E5: "Back in the USSR" live at the Bizarre Festival 1999, "Fools and Dogs" live Eindhoven 2010, "Halloween in Heaven" live Starland Ballroom 2007, "Shadow on Me" live Nokia Theatre 2009
D♯5/E♭5: "Fools and Dogs" live Eindhoven 2010, "Halloween in Heaven" live Nokia Theater 2009, "Killing You Slow" live Oslo 2009, "Love You Without No Lies", "Right of Passage"
D5: "Fairies Wear Boots", "One of You", "Right of Passage", "Shadow on Me" live Nokia Theatre 2009, "The End of All Time" live Nokia Theatre 2009, "These Three Things"
C♯5/D♭5: "Anesthesia" live Wacken 2007, "An Ode to Locksmiths", "Cryptomnesia", "Dead Again", "Dreams Always Die with the Sun", "Epidemic", "Fools and Dogs" live Eindhoven 2010, "Kill You Tonight (reprise)", "One of You", "September Sun", "Shadow on Me", "The End of All Time" live Nokia Theatre 2009
C5: "Closing in", "Cryptomnesia", "Euology", "Heaven Is Gone", "Not Your Savior", "Right of Passage", "Slow Descent", "So True", "The End of All Time", "Waiting"
B4: "Bad Moon Rising" live Cleveland 2000, "Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)", "Broken Sky", "Cryptomnesia", "Dreams Always Die with the Sun", "Drown Inside", "Fairies Wear Boots" quarantine session 2020, "Hey Pete", "Highway Star", "Insomnia", "Killing You Slow", "Last Walk in the Light", "Love You Without No Lies", "One of You", "Santana Medley", "September Sun", "Shadow on Me", "Slow Descent", "So True", "The End of All Time", "Waiting", "We Hate Everyone"
A♯4/B♭4: "Bad Moon Rising" live Cleveland 2000, "Death of a Junkie", "Epidemic", "Fairies Wear Boots", "Halloween in Heaven", "Kill All the White People" live at the Bizarre Festival 1999, "Killing You Slow", "Life Is Killing Me", "Raining Blood" live at The Metal Injection 15th Anniversary Party 2020, "Slow Descent", "So True"
A4: "...A Dish Best Served Coldly", "Anesthesia" live at Wacken 2007, "Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)", "Broken Sky", "Closing in", "Day Tripper (Medley)", "Dreams Always Die With the Sun", "Fools and Dogs" live Eindhoven 2010, "Heaven Is Gone", "Hey Pete", "How Could She?", "Killing You Slow", "Kill You Tonight (reprise)", "Last Walk in the Light", "Love You Without No Lies", "Magical Mystery Tour" live Berlin 2007, "Not Your Savior", "One of You", "Sunrise", "The End of All Time", "The Profit of Doom", "Waiting"
G♯4/A♭4: "Angry Inch", "Bad Moon Rising" live Cleveland 2000, "Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)", "Christian Woman", "Dead Again", "Drown Inside", "Gravity" live at the Bizarre Festival 1999, "In Praise of Bacchus", "Kill All the White People" live at the Bizarre Festival 1999, "Pyretta Blaze", "Raining Blood" live at The Metal Injection 15th Anniversary Party 2020, "Shadow on Me", "Slow Descent", "Some Stupid Tomorrow" live Philadelphia 2008, "Them Bones" live at The Metal Injection 15th Anniversary Party 2020, "Tripping a Blind Man"
G4: "All Hallows Eve", "Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)", "Cryptomnesia", "Dreams Always Die with the Sun", "Fairies Wear Boots", "Sleeping on Nails and Wine"
Recorded low notes:
E3: "Can't Lose You", "Children of the Sea" sung in Symphony for the Devil DVD commentary, "Drown Inside", "Highway Star", "Them Bones" live at The Metal Injection 15th Anniversary Party 2020
D♯3/E♭3: "Blue Christmas" Instagram video 2023, "Death of a Junkie"
D3: "Sleeping on Nails and Wine"
C♯3/D♭3: "Drown Inside", "Them Bones" live at The Metal Injection 15th Anniversary Party 2020
C3: "Sleeping on Nails and Wine"
B2: "Blue Christmas" Instagram video 2023, "Broken Sky", "Drown Inside", "Shadow on Me"
A♯2/B♭2: "Everything Fried" sung in Symphony for the Devil DVD commentary
A2: "Drown Inside" live Eindhoven 2010
G2: "Sleeping on Nails and Wine"
F♯2/G♭2: "Everything Fried" sung in Symphony for the Devil DVD commentary
{Questionable notes}
C2: "Sleeping on Nails and Wine" - spoken note with no musical context
C2: "Sleeping on Nails and Wine" - spoken note with no musical context
.......................................................
*Blue marks soft/clear falsetto notes.
*Italics mark spoken notes.
*Underlines marks notes in backing vocals or otherwise muffled/obscured in the mix.
{Detailed bio}Originally the guitarist and occasional co-lead vocalist of Type O Negative, Kenny Hickey has since gone on to become the frontman of the bands Seventh Void and Silvertomb, and has proved himself as quite a capable singer in his own right. As a vocalist, he is best known for his powerful, belty high register, which has been compared by some to Chris Cornell - something Kenny himself has said he considers a compliment. Though his music with Type O Negative was heavily characterized by doomy, gothic elements, some of Kenny's other projects have made it clear that he also comes from something of a grunge/stoner metal background - a style that his vocals can also be quite well-suited for.
Kenny co-founded Type O Negative (originally called Repulsion at the time of their formation) in 1989, with bassist/vocalist Peter Steele, keyboardist Josh Silver, and drummer Sal Abruscato (who was later replaced by Johnny Kelly in 1993). On the band's first release, 1991's Slow, Deep, and Hard, Kenny served only as a guitarist and backing vocalist, while Peter handled all lead vocals. It wasn't until the band released their "fake live" album, The Origin of the Feces, in 1992 that Kenny began his role as co-lead vocalist in the band, sharing vocal duties with Peter on their cover of "Hey Joe" (with the lyrics rewritten as "Hey Pete"). This role increased on the band's next and most successful album, 1993's Bloody Kisses, in which Kenny sang prominent lead vocal portions of the songs "Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)" and "We Hate Everyone". Though he temporarily stepped back to only serving as a backing vocalist again on their third album, 1996's October Rust, his role as co-lead vocalist continued on a number of songs on each of the band's following albums after that - 1999's World Coming Down, 2003's Life Is Killing Me, and most prominently 2007's Dead Again, for which he sang lead vocal portions on five out of ten songs on the album.
According to a recent interview, Kenny's vocal role in Type O Negative partly stemmed from certain song sections fitting his voice better than Peter's, but also stemmed from instances in which he would criticize Peter's songwriting - Peter's response to him complaining about the lyrics of certain passages would be "alright, well you get to sing it then".
Though this may have been a rather silly origin story for how he began singing in the band, in the long run it made for a strong vocal dynamic that the two of them would maintain for the rest of their time playing together - with Peter's dark, booming bass voice serving in contrast with Kenny's intense, belty tenor. This vocal duality also lent itself well to live settings; most particularly at times when Peter was unable to hit the top notes in certain songs, and would in turn pass them over for Kenny to sing (who would usually be able to sing perform them quite reliably in his stead). Examples of this can be heard in certain performances of "Anesthesia", where Kenny sings the bridge A4s and ending C♯5s, and "Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)", where Kenny would sometimes sing the sustained B4 at the beginning.
In 2006, Kenny also temporarily joined Danzig as a guitarist, alongside Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly, who has continued to drum for them ever since. Though Kenny's tenure in this band only lasted about a year, he also began to work in other side projects around this time - most notably in his own side band Seventh Void (which also featured Johnny on drums). This band technically was formed as far back as 2003, but did not come into the spotlight much until 2009, when they released their debut (and only) album Heaven Is Gone, and then proceeded to play as a support act for some shows on Type O Negative's tour later that year - meaning that Kenny and Johnny were playing double sets on those nights! On Heaven Is Gone, Kenny handled all vocal duties by himself, and fully proved just how capable he was of living up to that role - delivering some very impressive vocals with constant belting in the A4-C♯5 area throughout the album. He also let us properly hear his low range for the first time on the songs "Broken Sky", "Shadow on Me" and "Drown Inside", revealing that he could sing down to some very solid upper second octave notes when he wanted to, despite never doing so in Type O!
In 2010, Peter Steele died from heart failure, thus ending Type O Negative. Kenny continued to tour with Seventh Void in a limited capacity from 2010-2011, but beyond that became inactive for a number of years afterward. Rumors of a followup album by Seventh Void began to circulate as early as 2013, but the band ended up breaking up in 2017. This did not necessarily mark the end of anything, however, Kenny took the new songs that Seventh Void had been working on and formed a new band to record and play them, called Silvertomb. This band once again featured Johnny Kelly on drums and Seventh Void bassist Hank Hell, as well new guitarist Joseph James and keyboardist Aaron Joos. The band did some limited touring in 2018, and then recorded their first album, Edge of Existence, which was released in late 2019. In my opinion, this album features some of Kenny's best vocals to date - you can really hear him push his limits on it more than he has in the past (perhaps most prominently heard on the song "Right of Passage"), sometimes to the point where it can sound quite raw, but also pretty emotionally powerful in its own way. I would also say that Edge of Existence showcases a wider dimension of artistic and emotional range from Kenny than we had heard before, which is another thing I really appreciate about it. I hope Silvertomb continues to release material, and that we'll continue to get more excellent vocals from the man!
Kenny co-founded Type O Negative (originally called Repulsion at the time of their formation) in 1989, with bassist/vocalist Peter Steele, keyboardist Josh Silver, and drummer Sal Abruscato (who was later replaced by Johnny Kelly in 1993). On the band's first release, 1991's Slow, Deep, and Hard, Kenny served only as a guitarist and backing vocalist, while Peter handled all lead vocals. It wasn't until the band released their "fake live" album, The Origin of the Feces, in 1992 that Kenny began his role as co-lead vocalist in the band, sharing vocal duties with Peter on their cover of "Hey Joe" (with the lyrics rewritten as "Hey Pete"). This role increased on the band's next and most successful album, 1993's Bloody Kisses, in which Kenny sang prominent lead vocal portions of the songs "Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)" and "We Hate Everyone". Though he temporarily stepped back to only serving as a backing vocalist again on their third album, 1996's October Rust, his role as co-lead vocalist continued on a number of songs on each of the band's following albums after that - 1999's World Coming Down, 2003's Life Is Killing Me, and most prominently 2007's Dead Again, for which he sang lead vocal portions on five out of ten songs on the album.
According to a recent interview, Kenny's vocal role in Type O Negative partly stemmed from certain song sections fitting his voice better than Peter's, but also stemmed from instances in which he would criticize Peter's songwriting - Peter's response to him complaining about the lyrics of certain passages would be "alright, well you get to sing it then".
Though this may have been a rather silly origin story for how he began singing in the band, in the long run it made for a strong vocal dynamic that the two of them would maintain for the rest of their time playing together - with Peter's dark, booming bass voice serving in contrast with Kenny's intense, belty tenor. This vocal duality also lent itself well to live settings; most particularly at times when Peter was unable to hit the top notes in certain songs, and would in turn pass them over for Kenny to sing (who would usually be able to sing perform them quite reliably in his stead). Examples of this can be heard in certain performances of "Anesthesia", where Kenny sings the bridge A4s and ending C♯5s, and "Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)", where Kenny would sometimes sing the sustained B4 at the beginning.In 2006, Kenny also temporarily joined Danzig as a guitarist, alongside Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly, who has continued to drum for them ever since. Though Kenny's tenure in this band only lasted about a year, he also began to work in other side projects around this time - most notably in his own side band Seventh Void (which also featured Johnny on drums). This band technically was formed as far back as 2003, but did not come into the spotlight much until 2009, when they released their debut (and only) album Heaven Is Gone, and then proceeded to play as a support act for some shows on Type O Negative's tour later that year - meaning that Kenny and Johnny were playing double sets on those nights! On Heaven Is Gone, Kenny handled all vocal duties by himself, and fully proved just how capable he was of living up to that role - delivering some very impressive vocals with constant belting in the A4-C♯5 area throughout the album. He also let us properly hear his low range for the first time on the songs "Broken Sky", "Shadow on Me" and "Drown Inside", revealing that he could sing down to some very solid upper second octave notes when he wanted to, despite never doing so in Type O!
In 2010, Peter Steele died from heart failure, thus ending Type O Negative. Kenny continued to tour with Seventh Void in a limited capacity from 2010-2011, but beyond that became inactive for a number of years afterward. Rumors of a followup album by Seventh Void began to circulate as early as 2013, but the band ended up breaking up in 2017. This did not necessarily mark the end of anything, however, Kenny took the new songs that Seventh Void had been working on and formed a new band to record and play them, called Silvertomb. This band once again featured Johnny Kelly on drums and Seventh Void bassist Hank Hell, as well new guitarist Joseph James and keyboardist Aaron Joos. The band did some limited touring in 2018, and then recorded their first album, Edge of Existence, which was released in late 2019. In my opinion, this album features some of Kenny's best vocals to date - you can really hear him push his limits on it more than he has in the past (perhaps most prominently heard on the song "Right of Passage"), sometimes to the point where it can sound quite raw, but also pretty emotionally powerful in its own way. I would also say that Edge of Existence showcases a wider dimension of artistic and emotional range from Kenny than we had heard before, which is another thing I really appreciate about it. I hope Silvertomb continues to release material, and that we'll continue to get more excellent vocals from the man!
{Album ranges}Type O Negative:
Seventh Void:
Silvertomb:
- The Origin of the Feces (1992) - F♯3-B4
- Bloody Kisses (1993) - E3-B3-B4
- World Coming Down (1999) - B3-A4
- Symphony for the Devil (recorded 1999; released 2006) - A3-B♭4
- Life Is Killing Me (2003) - C♯4-A♯4
- Dead Again (2007) - B3-D5
Seventh Void:
- Heaven Is Gone (2009) - B2-C♯5
Silvertomb:
- Edge of Existence (2019) - G2-E♭5
{Best displays of vocal range}"Shadow on Me" live Nokia Theatre 2009 (B2-E5)
"Drown Inside" live Eindhoven 2010 (A2-B4)
"Broken Sky" (B2-B4)
"Sleeping on Nails and Wine" (G2-G4)
"Drown Inside" live Eindhoven 2010 (A2-B4)
"Broken Sky" (B2-B4)
"Sleeping on Nails and Wine" (G2-G4)
Thanks to Sandblasted for making the original version of this thread, and some of the help with the research on this version.
