Music / GWAR

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"It is I, ODERUS URUNGUS, lead singer of the sickest band in metal history, Earth's only openly extra-terrestrial rock band, and the destined destroyers of not only the human race but also reality itself. GWAR! Hulking, heaving, dribbling WAR-GODS who like nothing better than putting hordes of our sniveling fans to the sword while playing the marauding mutant metal that we are famous for! Stars of stage and screen, carvers of stem and spleen! GWAR LIVES!"

— Oderus Urungus, GWAR Mythos

What happens when you take the theatrical stage performances of Alice Cooper, the costumes and makeup of KISS, and the Audience Participation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and throw it in a meat grinder? You get the self-proclaimed overlords of all existence known as GWAR.

Originally hailing from Antarctica, then somewhere past Hell's Eighth Lock, yet somehow having a mailing address in Richmond, Virginia all the while, GWAR is a shock rock/Heavy Metal band whose on-stage antics spray their audiences with blood, drugs, toxic waste, and other fluids.

In 2011, Cory Smoot (Flattus Maximus) was found dead inside the band's tour bus. Original reports were that he had died from "a coronary artery thrombosis brought about by his pre-existing coronary artery disease", although a later report showed that "investigators found on Smoot a $5 bill with a white powder residue, a prescription bottle holding eight Oxycodone-Acetaminophen pills, a lighter and two empty syringes". His character was retired out of respect and replaced with Pustulus Maximus, played by Brent Purgason of Cannabis Corpse fame.

On March 23, 2014, Dave Brockie (Oderus Urungus) was found deceased at his home at the age of 50, with the cause of death revealed as a heroin overdose. Michael Bishop (Blothar, formerly the original Beefcake the Mighty) and Kim Dylla (Vulvatron) were announced as the new faces of GWAR later that year, but Dylla was fired sometime between the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 due to problems with excessive alcohol consumption. The Vulvatron character has not been shelved, but a replacement has yet to be announced.

On February 25th, 2019, Jamison Land (Beefcake The Mighty) announced his departure from the band on Facebook, citing family and career reasons. He was replaced by Casey Orr, making it the third time he reprised the role of Beefcake.

On November 6th, 2023, Brent Purgason (Pustulus Maximus) announced on Instagram his exit from the band. In early 2024, he was succeeded by Tommy Meehan of Cancer Christ and Squidpisser fame, with Pustulus Maximus replaced by Grodius Maximus.

But no matter what happens, GWAR will continue its mission of ravaging all of existence for shits and giggles.

Current core members (err, I mean Scumdogs)

• Michael Bishop ^note  Was also Beefcake the Mighty (bass) from 1987 - 1993 and 1998 - 1999. - Blothar the Berserker (Lead vocals) 2014 - present
• Mike Derks - Balsac the Jaws of Death (rhythm guitar) 1988 - present
• Brad Roberts - Jizmak da Gusha (drums) 1989 - present
• Casey Orr - Beefcake the Mighty (bass) 1994 - 1997, 1999 - 2002, 2008 - 2011, 2019 - present
• Tommy Meehan - Grodius Maximus (lead guitar) 2024 - present

View the full list of Gwar members here.

Studio albums:

• Hell-O! (1988)
• Scumdogs of the Universe (1990)
• America Must Be Destroyed (1992)
• This Toilet Earth (1994)
• Ragnarok (1995)
• Carnival of Chaos (1997)
• We Kill Everything (1999)
• Violence Has Arrived (2001)
• War Party (2004)
• Beyond Hell (2006)
• Lust in Space (2009)
• Bloody Pit of Horror (2010)
• Battle Maximus (2013)
• The Blood of Gods (2017)
• The New Dark Ages (2022)

Live albums:

• You're All Worthless and Weak (2000)
• Germany Must Be Destroyed (2000) ^note An unofficial bootleg, taped during the Gwarmageddon 2000 tour. Widely traded on torrent/P2P sites.
• Live from Mt. Fuji (2005)

Other notable releases:

• The Road Behind (EP) (1992)
• You Have the Right to Remain Silent... (1995): Sole album from the side-project X Cops.
  • Junkie (1996): Non-album single from X-Cops, released on Man's Ruin Records. Features "Beat You Down" and "Junkie".
• Slaves Going Single (compilation) (2000): Contains songs from the Slave Pit Singles.
• Let There Be GWAR (compilation) (2004): Contains demos originally recorded in 1986, pre Hell-O!.
• The Return of Gor Gor (EP) (2025)

This band provides examples of

• Abusive Precursors: They HATE mankind, their biggest mistake.
• Action Girl:
  • Slymenstra Hymen. During her tenure with the band she dished out as much punishment as any of the men.
  • Post-Oderus era GWAR has Vulvatron. Originally, Slymenstra was slated to rejoin the band, however for whatever reason known only to GWAR, they decided to hire on another female vocalist (whom more cynical GWAR fans dubbed "a cheap Slymenstra rip-off"). Most fans, however, are perfectly fine with her and Blothar being the new voices of GWAR.
  • Fittingly enough, this was also true for Kim Dylla in real life, as she is a trained wrestler.
• Alien Invasion:
  • Many tours have at some point featured aliens. Especially the Ragnarok tour.
  • An reversal of the trope takes place in most tours where one of the aliens is anally Impaled with Extreme Prejudice. Sleazy P. Martini refers to this as "Anal Probing, GWAR style."
  • The fact that the band themselves are portrayed as space barbarians seeking to destroy the planet counts towards this as well.
• Ancient Astronauts: The band are portrayed as space alien warriors who have been trapped on Earth for millions of years.
• Animated Adaptation: Parodied in Skulhedface. Happened for real thanks to Funny Or Die Cartoons.
• Anti-Love Song: "I hate love songs and I hate lovers / I hate everything that I can't have so I hate you".
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Many of the band's enemies attack them, not because of their murderous or sex-crazed acitivities, but for more petty reasons such as one of the band members stealing their romantic partner, drug-related things, their offensiveness, to get back at them for humiliating them in some manner, so that they can accomplish other goals, something related to their music, or a variety of other reasons.
• Avenging the Villain: Mr. Perfect states onstage that he killed Oderus, and the band kills Mr. Perfect as revenge.
• The Band Minus the Face: The band has continued to record and perform after the death of Oderus Urungus in 2014.
• Black Comedy: The live version of "Have You Seen Me" off the Road Behind single epitomizes this:
  Oderus: This kid is eighteen years old! Besides, I happen to know the law here in Cananananada, and I happen to know that it's not rape if it's dead! *baby crying sound effect*
  "I call out your God till before me he stands
  But don't send me Jesus
  He's only a man."
• Butt-Monkey: Jizmak DaGusha in The Animated Tales of Gwar. He gets hit by a bottle that was supposed to hit Oderus, has his eye impaled by Beefcake's shoulder spike, pickaxed by Balsac and Beefcake, who throws him to the summit of Antarctica's mountain, breaking an undead dinosaur free; holds on to the tail of said dinosaur... and stares at the doctors flashlight with a clearly dazed look.
• Calling Your Attacks: "WE! MUST! RISE! GWAR! MUST! DIE!" and "MAN! WILL! FALL! KILL! THEM! ALL! WHET! YOUR! KNIVES! TAKE! THEIR! LIVES!" from "War On GWAR".
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: "The Blood Of Gods" ends with Bonesnapper arriving too late to contribute to a song.
• The Cover Changes the Meaning:
  • X-Cops' cover of Deep Purple's "Highway Star" changed the lyrics to fit the Killer Cop motif. To wit:
  X-Sheriff "Tubb" Tucker:^note Casey Orr, a.k.a. Beefcake the Mighty Nobody's gonna take my gun, I'm gonna keep it till the end, yeah
  Nobody's gonna touch my gun, or I'll shoot you in the face!
  Yeah it's a killing machine, it's got everything
  Yeah, got that magnum power, license to kill everything!
  • Just about every cover GWAR has done falls into this category. "School's Out" replaced a couple of lines and essentially made the dissatisfaction with the school from the original song even more apparent; "Carry On Wayward Son" became an ode to an "unemployed son" who needs to "get [his] ass off the couch and get a goddamn job"; and "People Who Died" became a tribute to several musicians and friends of GWAR who died. The only covers that were (usually) played remotely straight were the ones performed on tour — including "Golden Shower" by the Mentors and the Billy Ocean/Who mashup from the Fall 2013 tour.
• Creation Myth:
  • GWAR created the human race by having sex with apes. The Master was not happy about this, so He froze GWAR in antarctic ice.
  • "Approximately 40 billion years ago, the Master of all Reality took a shit, and thus the universe was born. But that was not enough. He had to wipe. And what better way to wipe than with war? So he created the Scumdogs of the Universe."
• Crowd Song: "Sick Of You" and "Saddam a-Go-Go". Also, when it's done live, the audience shouts out the answers to the questions in "Slaughterama".
• David vs. Goliath: The band often takes on enemies larger than themselves.
• Department of Redundancy Department; From "Saddam a-Go-Go":
  "AND HE DIED AND HE DIED AND HE DIED AND HE DIED AND HE DIED AND HE DIED AND HE DIED!"
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu??:
  • The entire premise of "Beyond Hell". GWAR is sent to Hell, and to escape they must defeat Jewcifer.
  • Before "Beyond Hell" was released, GWAR wrote Anti-Anti-Christ:
  "I choose to be a blasphemer
  To bring your kind to heel
  Bring forth the beast and cleave him with my steel."
  • Before that, from their "Scumdogs of the Universe" album, was the song "The Horror of Yig," about an elder from Cthulhu lore. They dismembered the creature on stage for a few tours.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While GWAR would cross lines most people felt shouldn't be crossed (such as portraying Seung-Hui Cho "going for the record" six months after the Virginia Tech massacre or having Oderus molesting JonBenet Ramsey), Dave Brockie was against using racist language as part of GWAR's act. Additionally, while Edna P. Granbo of the Morality Squad was all for chopping off somebody's genitals to prove a point, she was STRONGLY against GWAR's antics.
• Fictional Political Party: Their album War Party centers around a political party (named "The War Party") that supports policies dedicated especially to the eradication of the human race through global war and hatred. The party's symbol is said to be the "Krosstika," a combination of the Christian cross and the Nazi swastika, representing "two great hates that hate great together." According to GWAR lore, the political party has since disbanded.
• Godzilla Threshold: During the Beyond Hell tours, GWAR has been beaten down and sodomized by Jewcifer. There seems to be no hope, except for when Gor-Gor comes and eats Satan. Gor-Gor then tries to eat GWAR, but is killed by Oderus.
• Hardcore Punk: Their first album had more punk leanings.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Played straight in "Parting Shot", where Oderous says "Never trust your parents, especially when they're older", but then subverts this trope with the next line: "always use a beer koozie, it keeps it that much colder".
• He Was Right There All Along: GWAR's new leader, Blothar, had been watching GWAR since day one.
• Human Popsicle: The band spent thousands of years frozen in ice until the arrival of Sleazy P. Martini in 1984.
• Hypocritical Humor: They often kill people accused of murder, rape, child sexual abuse, or any combination of those things, when they themselves have committed acts of murder, rape, child sexual abuse, and every combination of those things.
• Initialism Title: Averted. Despite the bands mention of the below in fan club newsletters and interviews, some fans still vehemently proclaim the band name is an acronym. One of the more popular ones accepted is God What A Racket.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet:
  • The Master banished GWAR to the worst place in the universe he could find: Earth.
  • As Oderus called it in many instances, "This stinking mudball planet", among others.
• Intentionally Awkward Title: A main staple of the band from their songs, to their albums, to their videos, to their tours, to their et al...
• Large Ham: While the biggest is always the lead singer (did you read the page quote?), the get-ups make clear everyone in the band is a ham.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Averted. GWAR trash talks and re-kills the deceased (Laci Peterson, Michael Jackson and El Duce, to name a few) on stage.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Most times Gor-Gor, their pet Tyrannosaurus rex, is resurrected as a cyborg-zombie dinosaur. Who was force-fed crack as a baby. Who might be Oderus' bastard son.
• Officially Shortened Title: When in its infancy as a mere joke opening for Death Piggy, the original name was "GWAAARRRGGHHLLLGH." It was later shortened after they noticed people would come to see the joke band and leave before the headlining Death Piggy played.
• Promoted Fanboy: Tommy Meehan was a huge GWAR fan who grew up listening to them long before he joined.
• Puny Humans: Oderus constantly referred to Earthlings as "human filth."
• Robot or Spaceman Alter Ego: They claim to be alien warriors who came to Earth to terrorise humanity millions of years ago.
• Running Gag: Among GWAR fans: "So... How do you hide money from a hippie?" "PUT IT UNDER THE SOAP!"
• Sealed Evil in a Can: After the creation of the human race was discovered by the Master, he had the band frozen in ice and locked away in a temple in Antarctica, where they remained until 1984, when Sleazy P. Martini accidentally freed them upon entering said temple and decided to turn them into a heavy metal band after winning them over with crack cocaine.
• Self-Deprecation: When not taking pot shots at Earthlings, celebrities, American culture, etc, they take shots at themselves for being less-than-stellar musicians (at least in the early days), making fun of their cheesy props, etc. Not to mention they portray their characters as rather dim and bufoonish.
• "Sesame Street" Cred: They played a few of their songs on Codename: Kids Next Door.
• Shout-Out:
  • "The Salaminizer". Sung to the rhythm of "Gangsta Gangsta" by rap group N.W.A. Dave Brockie enjoyed NWA's work and decided to put his own spin on it.
  • "Think You Outta Know This" is basically "Give It Away" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers with a Badass Boast (or rather, a series of them) by Sleazy P. Martini.
  • Urungus's penis is named after Cthulhu. The band also fought Yig regularly early on.
  • The Lust In Space cover art is an homage to Love Gun by KISS - where Love Gun has Kiss stepping into a gateway to a throng of scantily-clad women in white face paint, Lust In Space has Gwar stepping into a gateway to a throng of apparently nude hot-pink-skinned alien space babes.
• The Show Must Go On: During Tour De Scum GWAR had protesters on stage who blocked the show from happening. After asking if they are in show business (No? Well, then get the fuck off the stage!) Sleazy P. Martini declares the show must go on.
• Step Up to the Microphone: On several of their albums, Beefcake will sing lead vocals on one song instead of Oderus, such as in "Cool Place to Park" from Scumdogs of the Universe. "Release the Flies" from Lust in Space was sung by Flattus Maximus ^note Cory Smoot said in an interview that he also played all of the instruments on the song, as it was originally conceived for a solo project. They also have several songs where Sleazy P. Martini, Sexecutioner, Slymenstra Hymen, Pustulus Maximus, Balsac the Jaws of Death, or any of the band's enemies (including Techno Destructo or one of his brothers) will sing lead.
• Take That!: They bring effigies of celebrities, politicians, and other noteworthy people on stage for ritualistic public execution. A short list of victims includes Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Snooki, El Duce from the Mentors, JonBenet Ramsey, and every President of the United States (and during election years, those running for President) since Reagan. Oddly enough, Oderus considered being killed by GWAR to be flattering - and judging by the amount of people who flock to the merch booth asking to be sacrificed to the World Maggot or the meatgrinder^note A giant maggot and a mess of spinning gears under the drum riser, respectively., so do the fans.
• World of Ham: As summed up by the opening paragraph up there, GWAR is basically a summation of a lot of hammy acts together.