CRITIC'S CHOICE

Type O Negative, with Queensryche, Tuesday, May 9, at McNichols Arena, looks like your average hard-rock band--its members sport hair as long as Crystal Gayle's, the requisite tattoos and puckered sneers that say to young, alienated sorts, "We still remember how terrible our lives were before floozies began throwing themselves at our feet." But the music is something else altogether; it's as tuneful and hook-filled as it is heavy and doom-laden. And while you can't call numbers such as "Christian Woman" laugh riots, the Brooklyn-based quartet does display a sense of irony far healthier than is usual in this genre: For instance, the nasty "Black No. 1" comes complete with a punning subtitle ("Little Miss Scare-All"), while a cover version of--believe it or don't--"Summer Breeze" suggests the sound Seals and Crofts would make while being stretched on a rack. Which, come to think of it, might not be such a bad idea.