Despite questioned musical talent,
Gwar is gnar-even when you look
behind the blood and rubber
GWARL
They're metal's blackest messiahs-a musical death machine, a
hideous expanse of mutant flesh that spurts bright green semen and
the crimson old faithful. Their shows are notorious for showering the
audience with sundry disgusto-fluids and between-song game
show/slaughter rituals. It's KISS meets Cthulu, Alice Cooper and Evil
Dead, all rolled into one bloody mess. Welcome to the Gwarnival.
Leave your dress shirts at home.
The story goes that the members of GWAR were banished to the
pitiful mudball known as the planet Earth for their galaxy-wide crimes
of raping and pillaging. Imprisoned by the Master in an icy, Antarctic
tomb, the group was awakened by....
"A number of factors," seethes Pig Lord and lead singer Oderus
Unrungus. "There we were, asleep in our prison in Antarctica
dreaming of sweet, dead doggies when the cosmic
convergence took place. Normally, all the planets
of your pathetic solar system line up, a little
energy flashes between them and nothing.
really happens-a few earthquakes, tidal
waves, no biggie. This time, because
of all the poofy-haired rock stars
on Earth using all that god-
damn hair spray, there was
a hole in the ozone.
BY
The School of Overstimulation. The contribution of this
small but influential movement of mid-60s New York
filmmakers has been underestimated. Typified by extreme
cutting techniques and morbid fascinations like the corpse-
eye morgue trip of Stan Brackage's Art of Seeing with
One's Own Eye, the works of Kenneth Anger, Andy
Warhol and others so bombard the audiences with
MIKE images, gore, violence and obscenity that they would
either leave the theatre out of sheer revulsion or
GITTER plunge headlong into a new level of reality.
GWAR owes 'em everything.
GWAR-a mongrel horde of a dozen or so
characters spawned from the flatulence of the
Master of All Reality, bent on the destruction and
death of the entire human race. Collectively known
as "Scumdogs of the Universe," they sport names
like Oderus Unrungus, Gusher Jizmax, Beefcake
the Mighty, Flattus Maximus, the Sexicutioner and
Slymenstra Hymen. They are continually beset with arch-
enemies Techno Destructo, Bozo Destructo and Cardinal
Sin. They've also got an Eric-Roberts-as-Paul (Star '80)
Snyder-meets-George A. Romero-zombie manager named
Sleazy P. Martini-then again, who doesn't-and two
albums to their credit: Hell-o (Shimmy Disc) and Scumdogs
of the Universe (Metal Blade).
Photos by Mark Harvey
70 TASK MAGAZINE