Gwar Descend Into Hell On New Album

For those of you unfamiliar with Gwar's story, they're warriors from another planet on a never-ending mission to kill all of mankind or make them sex slaves — all while trying to get off the Antarctic wasteland they've been stranded on. In their latest adventure, Gwar once again try to leave Earth, but this time by going to hell.

Gwar have recently completed their latest opus, Beyond Hell, a concept album inspired by Dante's Inferno. However, unlike Sepultura's recent verbatim rehashing of the story, bassist Beefcake The Mighty says that classic piece of literature gets Gwar's ridiculous twist.

"It's Gwar's journey to hell. We've been trying to get off the planet for so long, looking out to get off the planet, so this time we look within. We're getting real deep. We're looking within. What better way to look within than to go completely in the slave pit and then descend down into ice and eventually into hell? It's really fucking good, man. It's really heavy. Since albums Violence Has Arrived and War Party, shit's just been really heavy. We're trying to bring back the mean."

Who could possibly be crazy enough to help Gwar with this hellacious project? How about Canadian madman Devin Townsend, a sought-after producer and the brains behind Strapping Young Lad.

"We toured with him on the Sounds Of The Underground Tour last summer, and he's just a fucking really cool guy," Beefcake says of the first meeting with Townsend. "He was professing that he was a Gwar fan and he said, 'I'd really love to work with you guys.'

"He's one of the metal gurus these days. A lot of people are going after him. He's like, 'I never approach people about working with them,' and he actually did approach us. He's been a Gwar fan for a really long time, so he's been pretty excited about the opportunity."

The team of Gwar and "Heavy Devy" is a definite match made in hell. But if you know Gwar, and you're at all familiar with Townsend, you realize that it's really a coming together of similar minds.

"He's fucking wacky, so he's really easy to relate to," Beefcake says. "He's not afraid to express himself.

"He's totally tripped out, like really artsy. And since we're all basically art fags, it's a level we can relate on."

Gwar are one of only two bands to return for the second annual Sounds Of The Underground tour, and there's been some talk of having them return as the halftime show every year. However, the band would still like to play Ozzfest and tried to get on this year's edition of the traveling festival.

"We would've loved to have done Ozzfest," Beefcake admits. "But fucking they come back to us that it costs $75,000 for a 20-minute slot and you go on at 10 a.m. or whatever.

"We were like, 'Come on, we want to headline second stage.' And they're like, 'Zakk Wylde is headlining the second stage.' Well, how do you compete with that? Zakk Wylde is the most smoking guitar demon on the planet."

Here are Gwar's Canadian dates on the Sounds Of The Underground tour:

Aug. 6 Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Convention Centre
Aug. 7 Saskatoon, SK @ Saskatchewan Credit Union Centre
Aug. 8 Edmonton, AB @ Northlands Agricom
Aug. 10 Vancouver, BC @ P.N.E. Forum