Trent Reznor and his band screamed, sang and pummelled their way through industrial rock

Musician Trent Reznor has been at the forefront of industrial rock for 20 years and has enjoyed critical and global mass adulation. But success has not softened him and the man has lost none of his rage on stage.

Playing his first Singapore gig with his band, Nine Inch Nails, at Fort Canning on Monday night, the Grammy-winning American screamed, sang and pummelled his way through an abrasive and intense 100-minute-long set.

For the 5,000 fans mostly in their 20s and 30s, the performance was a long time coming.
And not a moment too soon either, as this global tour is touted as the band's last before they take an indefinite hiatus.

The gig also attracted an unexpectedly starry guest. Kiss rocker Gene Simmons, in town to publicise his new stage venture, was spotted in the heaving crowd.

Sober and drug-free after years of excess and rehab stints, Reznor was strikingly buff. With bulging biceps and a body worthy of a wrestler, the 44year-old seemed twice as large compared to the slim frame he used to sport in the band's earlier days.

With his close-cropped hair, black leather pants and sweat literally pouring from his body on a sweltering August night, the man changed his soaked T-shirt three times.

Though lauded by critics for bringing a formerly niche genre into the mainstream and hailed by loyal legions of fans worldwide, he still had plenty of personal demons to purge through his dark and torment-filled tunes.

Opening the set with Somewhat Damaged from 1999 album The Fragile at 8.30pm, he railed: 'Broken bruised forgotten sore, too ****ed up to care any more, poisoned to my rotten core.'

When not stabbing away at synthesizers or riffing on discordant guitars, Reznor gripped the microphone intently with both hands, the veins on his neck taut as he shouted and screamed himself hoarse.

The stage strobe lights flashed in time with machine-like live drums as synthesizers and guitars clashed and a smoke machine incessantly kept the stage covered in a thick fog.

Reznor is not one for onstage banter, but neither is he aloof.

During the slow-drone blues of Piggy from 1994 album The Downward Spiral, he went down from the stage to climb into the crowd at the front of the barrier and even handed the microphone to them to repeat the 'No1pxg can stop me now' refrain.

His backing band were no slouches, either. Guitarist Robin Finck, bass player and occasional guitarist Justin MeldalJohnsen and drummer Ilan Rubin showed off musical dexterity by taking turns on keyboards, backing vocals, an electric piano and even a double bass.

The band saved the best for last. The last two songs triggered the loudest singalongs from the audience.

They chanted along to the repeated chorus for an extended version of Head Like A Hole, one of NIN's (as the band are commonly known) earliest popular singles from debut album Pretty Hate Machine.

Show closer Hurt got an even more fervent response as fans threatened to drown Reznor out as they sang along to every word.

The slow-burning and doom-laden ballad, famously covered by the late country legend Johnny Cash, climaxed with the promise that despite this being their last tour, fans have not heard the last of NIN.