Gwar - ‘you are all worthless and weak’
December 8th 2010 08:46
I don’t know how to best describe Gwar. The band that claim to be from outer space who landed on Earth and are happy to kill everyone and everything while playing some a mix of punk, rock n’ roll and heavy metal. Their stage show is renown with characters, story lines and the band in full costume and buckets of blood used each and every night. They’ve made guest appearances in the movie ‘Empire Records’, featured on the soundtrack to ‘Beavis & Butthead’ and the movie ‘SFW’ and appeared over the years on Jerry Springer and Joan Collins daytime talk shows. They are rude and crude and have been making a mess of everything for over twenty years.
To silly to be taken seriously, often the musicality of the band is disregarded as the press focuses on the silly foam costumes and gratuitous violence of their show and videos. But what Gwar can do real well is rock. Accomplished and talented musicians, they can write surprising great songs across a number of genres. Yes, the lyrics take away from the music when they sing about rape, killing, drugs, violence and necrophilia, but the riffs are some of the best in metal and there is a certain degree of funk, jazz, punk and blues that comes through.
Sadly this is not what they are known for. This album, a live recording from a halloween show back around the election of 2000. The band kill some aliens, get attacked by penguins and rig the election so manager Sleazy P Martini wins and becomes President. Coming off the back of albums “Carnival Of Chaos” and “We Kill Everything”, the band focus their songs off these albums to help tell the story of the live show. Tracks like ‘I’m In Love With A Dead Dog’, ‘Nitro Burning Funny Bong’, ‘Jagermonsta’ and the classic game show themed ‘Slaughterama’ are great for the story, but not their best musical work.
What this album does give is a good indication what to expect when they make their first trip to Australia for the No Sleep Til festival. Splatter inspired metal with a great visual stage show and the knowledge that those in the pit will walk out blood and (fake) urine splattered. I wonder what the Bon Jovi fans next door will think when they run into Gwar fans after the respective shows?
To silly to be taken seriously, often the musicality of the band is disregarded as the press focuses on the silly foam costumes and gratuitous violence of their show and videos. But what Gwar can do real well is rock. Accomplished and talented musicians, they can write surprising great songs across a number of genres. Yes, the lyrics take away from the music when they sing about rape, killing, drugs, violence and necrophilia, but the riffs are some of the best in metal and there is a certain degree of funk, jazz, punk and blues that comes through.
Sadly this is not what they are known for. This album, a live recording from a halloween show back around the election of 2000. The band kill some aliens, get attacked by penguins and rig the election so manager Sleazy P Martini wins and becomes President. Coming off the back of albums “Carnival Of Chaos” and “We Kill Everything”, the band focus their songs off these albums to help tell the story of the live show. Tracks like ‘I’m In Love With A Dead Dog’, ‘Nitro Burning Funny Bong’, ‘Jagermonsta’ and the classic game show themed ‘Slaughterama’ are great for the story, but not their best musical work.
What this album does give is a good indication what to expect when they make their first trip to Australia for the No Sleep Til festival. Splatter inspired metal with a great visual stage show and the knowledge that those in the pit will walk out blood and (fake) urine splattered. I wonder what the Bon Jovi fans next door will think when they run into Gwar fans after the respective shows?
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