Yesterday was day two of the virtual Slay at Home festival, a remote metal festival that featured performances by Khemmis, Allegaeon, Suicide Silence, Gavin Rossdale of Bush, TesseracT and more. One of the special treats from day one of the festival was a four song covers set by PanaMama, a Van Halen covers band consisting of Gwarsenio Hall of Two Minutes to Late Night, Shawna Potter of War on Women and Des Kensel of High on Fire. Yesterday Hall made another appearance on the festival stream, this time offering up a collaborative cover of the classic Danzig track “Dirty Black Summer.”
Hall, who usually plays guitar and provides backing vocals on these collaborative covers, took over the mic by himself for this one. He was joined by Johnny Kelly of Silvertomb and Type O Negative on drums, Tiziano Volante of Zeal & Ardor on guitar and on bass, Steve Zing – a man who played bass in Danzig’s self-titled band and Samhain, the band he formed right after leaving the Misfits. Kelly and his Silvertomb bandmates have been popping up throughout Slay at Home, participating in a few of the collaborative covers.
It’s a fairly faithful cover, with Hall mimicking Danzig’s full-bellied croon perfectly, bobbing along with the crushing rhythm of the plodding metal anthem, weaving along with the grooving guitar and its squealing pinched harmonic from Volante (who also participated in a cover of System of a Down’s hit song “Toxicity” for the festival). Hall sings and Volante plays guitar from what look like small at-home studios, while Kelly is playing the drums in his garage and Zing looks to be in a more professional studio setting.
Two Minutes to Late Night has been very busy during the quarantine, gathering a who’s-who of metal and punk artists to cover songs like “Rocket Queen” by Guns N’ Roses with Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells, White Zombie’s “Super Charger Heaven,” AC/DC’s “Riff Raff” with Neil Fallon of Clutch, another Danzig cover of “Snakes of Christ” Boston’s “Foreplay / Long Time”, Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” with Chelsea Wolfe, Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ In the Years” with Marissa Nadler, and kicking it all off, Weird Al’s “Dare To Be Stupid.”
In addition to the collaborative cover of “Toxicity” and “Dirty Black Summer,” the festival also featured a collaborative cover of Cannibal Corpse’s “Pick Axe Murders” with GWAR’s Pustulus Maximus, members of The Black Dahlia Murder, Suicidal Tendencies and Cadaver/Megadeth, a cover of The Police’s “So Lonely,” Sepultura’s “Dead Embryonic Cells,” Motorhead’s “Built For Speed” and more.”
Slay at Home wasn’t just a great way for metal fans to connect with some of their favorite heavy music artists, it raised funds for MusiCares and Global Giving. It was put on by Frank Godla of Metal Injection.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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