Glenn Danzig, the barrel-chested lead singer and founder of the doom-metal band called Danzig, stepped to center stage and kicked off the show with his bellowing baritone on "Brand New God."
Guitarist John Christ, bassist Eerie Von and a new session drummer then slid into the low, dynamic refrain of "Little Whip" as the audience swayed to the silky guitars.Though the mix was peppered with feedback and became muddy at times, the band members slung their instruments down low and strutted across the stage, pulling out grinding chords and dancible rhythms.
With a blinding flash, Christ jotted out the opening chords to "The Violet Fire" as Danzig paced back and forth like a panther waiting to strike. During this and every song, Danzig connected with the audience of about 2,500 by kneeling down and screaming his songs to the faces in the front row. The kids answered him by body surfing, mosh-ing and bouncing.
The mellow dirge of "How Gods Kill" settled the audience down long enough to catch its breath before jumping and slamming to the next song - the band's trademark "Mother." Mixing the vocal lines of Jim Morrison and Howlin' Wolf, Danzig screamed, shook and headbanged to the heavy distorted beats the drummer batted out. The anti-war anthem "Bringer of Death" closed the set.
Christ highlighted each song with intricate guitar solos. Some seemed to scream in joyful agony while the others sang melodically. At any rate, his solos were clean, precise and directional.
The encore featured Christ again on the guitar as he ground out the introduction to the more-blues-than-metal "Trouble." Like Henry Rollins of the Rollins Band, Glenn Danzig is a "reformed" punk, but even then, his punklike stance and endless energy surged during his metallic-leaning on the industrial grind. A showman to the end.
The gothic hardcore of Type O Negative primed the audience and prepared it for the stinging Danzig set. But rather than just appearing as an opening act, Type O Negative pushed the energy level to the top and scored megapoints with the Salt Lake audience.
Opening with "Too Late: Frozen," the band combined gothic industrial with doom-laden heavy metal to bring an eerie, vampirish cloud into Saltair. Though the mix muddled a bit, Peter Steele's lamenting baritone and lowly basslines completed the sound that featured keyboardist Josh Silver, guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly.
"She's in Love with Herself" and "Loving You Is Like Loving the Dead" were also among the wonderfully dreary offerings, but it was the familiarity of the remakes that drew most of the attention.
Seals and Croft's "Summer Breeze" grew a sinister angle as Steele roared about "jasmine" and "curtains hanging by the window." The band also performed a Black Sabbath tribute. The hyperactive "Paranoid" became a slow, dynamic death march and featured the grinding "Iron Man" trademark lick. Metal and gothic fans swayed side by side and traded body slams to the tune.
"If you don't like us," quipped Steele at the set's end. "Die."
Godflesh played a 30-minute, punk-inspired show comprised mostly of songs taken from the recent release "Selfless." The band played fast, loud and hard, preparing the audience for the other two bands.