[It turns out our most recent guest writer, Danimal or Buffalo, is a fan GWAR. The American band is often termed "shock rock" and if you're among the few people to not know them, you'll soon find out why. Not only do they do cheesy gruesome stuff though, they also manage to play quite a piece of Metal. Let DoB take you through their most recent album, The Bloody Pit of Horror, released in 2010.]

Band: GWAR (United States) Album: The Bloody Pit of Horror (2010) Genre: Heavy Metal As some of you may know already Cory Smoot a.k.a Flattus Maximus from GWAR has recently passed away in the middle of their tour. To me it only seems fitting to write this piece in honor of him. If you don’t know, Cory was a very big part of GWAR. He was a man among men.

The recent album The Bloody Pit of Horror was so quick to fly out of the studio as Cory had about four albums worth of material ready for recording, so really all they had to do was get Beefcake to slap some bass lines down and Jizmak to do some drums and they were laughing their way out of the studio. The album is definitely a different sound compared to earlier material, as Cory had recently completed his design of the Schecter, known as The Maximus guitar. It has eight strings. Yes, eight strings. A single EMG 81 pick up on the bridge and great decals / inlays on the neck. To a lot of GWAR fans this passing of Cory Smoot is a big thing. And with Casey Orr leaving recently GWAR has taken a double shot right to the heart.

I can see The Baboon has no GWAR coverage as of yet, so I’m here to change that. To start a little intro for those who aren’t familiar with GWAR, they are space aliens here to destroy mankind and our planet earth. With shocking lyrics and one of the most brutal live shows known to man, this band is for all those crazy people out there who don’t mind lyrics about dead babies and wombs being compared to sewers and such other offensive stuff. If you are sitting there trying to compare GWAR to the likes of Slipknot: STOP! Stop right now, because GWAR are the original masked masters. Having been around since the 80’s, GWAR have twelve albums and many cheaply made movies, which are full of fake blood and guts. There is no other band in the world that can compare to the epicness of this fucked up lot of people that call themselves a band. With all this being said, let’s get into the latest album The Bloody Pit of Horror.

To start the album off Oderus (lead singer) welcomes you to The Bloody Pit of Horror and Cory (Flattus) kicks you off with one of the most brutal intros I have heard for a while on his custom Schecter. To me the song Zombies March is a great song to open the CD with. It gives you a very quick indication of the CDs content and a nice showing of the sound GWAR has chosen to use for this album. The eight-string guitar is made for a much deeper and crunching sound and proves to be a great choice. During this song Oderus manages to take the piss out of vampires and other such monsters / undead things as he explains how he feels being the king of zombies and watching dead things rise from the ground. The song contains some great drums too and is an epic intro to the new album.

Another track I really want to throw out there as well is Beat You to Death. Casey Orr takes the lead on this one with a nice Deep sounding bass line to the most insane lyrics which are just self explanatory really. It sounds as if Casey had a really bad day and wanted to beat the living shit out of somebody and managed to put all that onto paper. With its fast pumping guitar riffs and its breakdowns, this is definitely one of the greats on the album. Nice production and a great sound. GWAR in its purest form.

You should also not go past a track called You Are My Meat. This track almost reminds me of This Love by Pantera. From its nice slow, almost melodic feel during the verses to its madness during the chorus this song manages to capture me in a big way. Oderus pulls out some great metaphors and puts this picture in your head of what he would be like to his spouse. It seems either he wants her inside him or he just plain wants to eat her. This song really made me go back and listen over and over again to the point where I had to pull out my guitar and work out the tabs.

With all this being said, GWAR have been through a lot this year so far and right now is when they need fan support the most. The Bloody Pit of Horror is well worth buying and right now is the time to get it. From its brutal eight-string lead guitar to its talented bass lines and its gruesome / shocking lyrics; anybody out there who has been a GWAR fan or is just interested in catching the GWAR virus, you will not regret adding this album to your collection. If you are an old-school fan or a new young person looking for some music to scare ya mum with, this is for you. No-remorse ass-kicking album of just pure genius. Again we thank you Slavepit and all the people that have worked with GWAR now and in the past. The fans will forever love you guys. The passing of Cory Smoot is unfortunate and the timing is shitty but our hearts are with you guys.

My Grade: 9.0/10
Buy this when:

Tags: American, heavy, review, shock

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.