Life Is Killing Me is the sixth studio album by gothic metal band Type O Negative. It was released on June 17, 2003, and was their final studio album released through record label Roadrunner Records. The album's title and content refers primarily to frontman Peter Steele's dissatisfied life outlook and experiences with mental illness at the time of writing and production, with lyrics concerning relationship problems and the illness and death of his parents. The album reached No. 39 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 27,000 copies in its first week, and received positive reviews from music critics, who noted a more melodic sound in comparison to previous records. "I Don't Wanna Be Me" was released as a promotional single, for which a music video was produced. Recording Life Is Killing Me was recorded at Systems Two Recording Studio in Brooklyn, New York. Vocalist and bassist Peter Steele used a custom Fernandes Tremor bass guitar for the recording of the album, an instrument which was built to his exact specifications under his sponsorship with the company. This is the last album by the band to make use of programmed drums, which had previously been used on October Rust and World Coming Down; the band's next and final studio album, Dead Again, would feature only studio drums. Content Describing the inspiration behind the title and theme of the record, Steele responded in an interview: "I guess I am going through some sort of midlife crisis being 41 years old now. And all the things I took for granted, my health, my life, people I love dying, people I loved walking away. I was with a girlfriend for 10 years but she left. It is like my dreams are dead." The album's title was originally going to be The Dream Is Dead. The album contains a cover of the song "Angry Inch" from the off-Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The track "Thir13teen" is a cover of music featured in the TV show The Munsters. Lyrical themes Billboard described the record's lyrical themes as "infidelity, death and depression". "Todd's Ship Gods (Above All Things)" was written by Steele about his father. "I Like Goils" is described by Steele as "poking fun at PC" (political correctness), with lyrics centred on Steele's frustration with having homosexual men make sexual advances towards him following his 1995 Playgirl photoshoot, which, at the time, Steele