By Jason Fierstein
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Magnificent overtures of warlords and gothic mysticism flowed into the Buena Vista Theater last Sunday night. Thrashers united under the eerie haze of hellfire and marijuana smoke for an evening of demonic delights.
Godflesh, the opening act for Danzig and Type O Negative, not only put the passive crowd into a deeper sleep, but left fans with anxiety for the next act. The Godfleshsters alienated themselves from the crowd with their weak attempt through their thrash metal/industrial set.
Not only did the next band, Brooklyn's own Type O Negative, play one of the spookiest and most grandiose sets to be seen this side of Transylvania, but it seemed to eclipse headlining-act Danzig in crowd response. Playing a short set of five songs, frontman and lead vampire Peter Steele orchestrated a purely mesmerizing performance from the band.
"With a face like this, everyday is like Halloween," Steele remarked to the crowd after he had warned those in attendance that seeing Type O Negative was their "punishment for coming to see Danzig early." Towering a mighty 6 feet 6 inches with jet black hair and exaltant eyes, looking into the eyes of Steele was like gazing at the human embodiment of Lucifer himself.
Straight from their red-hot release, "Bloody Kisses," the clincher for Type O was "Black No. 1," a track in which Steele's Dracula-like possession made for convincing lyrics. Type O Negative's morbid routines were summarized with lyrics such as "Loving you is like loving the dead." The band's short-but-sweet set swept moshers away in true Bram Stoker fashion.
Glenn Danzig knew he couldn't let Type O Negative out-perform his own band of hellraisers, so for over an hour and 45 minutes, Danzig rocked the house down.
John Christ's soothing and aggressive guitar performance complemented the burly and tattooed Danzig. With songs like "Godless" and "How the Gods Kill" (off of their third release also named How the Gods Kill), Danzig took the driver's seat and seemed to peak directly in the middle of its set. "Mother" was the climax of the event; rockers took to their alter egos as if they had been possessed and moshed harder than in any other Danzig track performed that night.