Gwar To Live On Forever

Gwar lead singer Oderous Urungus is pissed. Well, it’s actually the man behind the mask — Dave Brockie — who’s steaming. The grizzly crooner has been dealing with naysayers for far too long. After nearly two decades of slugging it out in a big rubber suit as a "giant mutant marauder from outer space" playing heavy metal to worthless humans, he’s sick of his theatrical rock band’s blood, sweat and tears getting relegated to the status of mere "gimmick."

Gwar

"Gwar is funny but it’s a gimmick that gets old? Fuck off," he grunts. "Every band has a gimmick whether you’re pretending you’re outer space mutants or you’re dudes with long hair and bullet belts. Our shtick is way more versatile because while the dudes with bullet belts and long hair are going bald and getting fat, I’m climbing into my air conditioned Oderous Urungus murder suit. And quite honestly, the fatter I get, the more the fans like it! We have as much to do with Cats [the musical] as we do with Black Sabbath. It’s a theatrical production — way-off Broadway theatre brought to you in a punk rock/metal venue."

Currently on tour in support of War Party, their latest slab of guitar-laden thunder, Gwar have taken this opportunity not to change their overall aesthetic or goal, but to incorporate new elements. Seeing their popularity wane during the late '90s with misguided, cartoonish albums, the band stepped back into form with 2002’s Violence Has Arrived, an album that dove headfirst back into a darker place with threatening metallic grunts and imposing lyrics.

Only now becoming comfortable with separating image from reality (in previous years, the band’s true identities were kept a strict secret), Brockie speaks candidly about this reality of Gwar. He admits that they were worried about it being too little, too late. But Violence Has Arrived was welcomed with open arms by the metal community, resulting in one of the band’s most successful tours to date. That said, it’s no wonder that Gwar have rightfully reclaimed the throne of Shock Rock, sticking with the formula for War Party.

"We almost went down," Brockie admits candidly. "The Carnival Of Chaos and We Kill Everything era, we were really floundering because we were going through a lot of personnel changes (and) schism in the art department because people were doing this for 15 years and not making any money. The guys were getting older and wanted to move to New York and make props for 30 bucks an hour. We couldn’t get it straight, people were quitting in the middle of tours, people we started Gwar with were quitting. We said we’d either do it right or stop altogether. Obviously no one wanted to stop so we refocused and I think we got a lot of people back on Gwar who were over it."

Deconstructing such an intricate beast was no small feat for Slave Pit Inc., Gwar’s parent company. Conscious that their image had drastically overtaken solid musical output — the backbone of the band — Brockie and crew turned an extremely critical eye on Carnival/We Kill Everything to fix the problem.

"The albums represent that (inner turmoil) because while there are some gems, the albums aren’t cohesive. We had to get smarter about it and focus on traditional things that make bands great — like great shows, production and sound. We’re so busy making giant rubber monsters that we neglected those elements. We wrote Violence, toured it and we got a really big thumbs up from the fans that we carried to over. We’ve been given another chance. We’re teeming with this new life and aggression."

Strangely enough, only now does Brockie see a true future for Gwar. He never expected that what started out as a gag would see him doused in blood and singing about dead babies nightly for the rest of his life, but thanks to the vitality of War Party, he has even more grandiose plans.

"We will hand Gwar down. I’m dead fuckin’ serious… either to other performers or people that we breed ourselves in great vats underneath the Slave Pit. Gwar will be a band that lasts forever thanks to this Second Coming, if you will. The biggest days of Gwar are in front of us and we have no intention of stopping our assault until we’ve brought the human race to its knees."