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spotlight! GWAR travels through hell and Beyond Hellacious
By Megan Carneal
mcarneal@mscd.edu

GWAR Beyond Hell (DRT Entertainment, 2006)

In a shocking announcement from the Republican Party today, the new 2008 presidential candidate has been chosen. The decision came as part of the party’s new platform of honesty. Republicans across the nation have decided to come clean and embrace their love for war, rape, misogyny and hard drugs, and the perfect presidential candidates to encompass their new platform are the masters of shock rock: GWAR.

Okay, so maybe they aren’t the new Republican presidential candidates; in fact, the Republicans probably wouldn’t touch GWAR with a 10-foot-Catholic priest. But from the blood-soaked album cover to lyrics about sodomizing Jesus, GWAR is back and taking audiences on a journey Beyond Hell.

The album actually does follow GWAR on an unholy crusade. The individual tracks loosely interlace to create an archetype of the anti-hero’s travels, and the liner notes between each track thoroughly explain, in gruesome detail, GWAR’s mission to defile Satan’s throne.

Beyond Hell opens with a short demonic intro and then goes into Bush’s and Cheney’s theme song, “War Is All We Know.” Dual drum pedals and bone-shredding riffs take over from the start of this journey and continue on through the album. The traditional guttural metal vocals also never cease through the album, whether from singer Oderus Urungus or from guest the Prince of Darkness, who is none too pleased with GWAR’s motives.

Track five finds Urungus professing his love for the boys in blue in “I Love the Pigs.” This isn’t merely because of the tastiness of pork products, but rather because in GWAR’s travels they have found the gates of hell fiercely guarded by the damned souls of crooked cops, whose degeneracy and depravity are only matched by Urungus himself.

As with most metal bands, GWAR is not for those lacking in humor. The lyrics are offensive even to the sickest mindset, and the instrumentation is only for those who like to bash their craniums on random objects. But for those who love a good dirty laugh, Beyond Hell should make their savage souls smile.