Gwar

Gwar is a satirical heavy metal and thrash metal group from Richmond, Virginia, active since 1985. It forms at Virginia Commonwealth University, where artists and musicians develop the project in the mid-1980s. The band also uses the genre labels comedy rock and hardcore punk.

Style and live performance

Gwar becomes known for elaborate science fiction and horror-inspired costumes, raunchy lyrics, and theatrical stage shows. Their performances include mock executions, mutilations, fake pagan rituals, fire dancing, and shock elements involving scatology, sadomasochism, necrophilia, and related controversial themes. The group also stages attacks on public figures and current events, while drawing on political, historical, fantasy, and mythological references.

The costumes are made from foam latex, styrofoam, and hardened rubber, with makeup used to complete the look. On stage, the band uses imitation blood, semen, gore, and other fluids made from water and dye. Fans are known as Bohabs or Scumdogs.

Formation and identity

Gwar begins as a collaboration between Hunter Jackson and Dave Brockie, who is then the singer in the punk group Death Piggy. Jackson is working on a film titled Scumdogs of the Universe, and the project’s intergalactic barbarian concept becomes part of the band’s identity. The group takes the name Gwar and continues as a group of ghoulish intergalactic warriors.

The meaning of the name is deliberately left unclear by the band, and several explanations circulate, including the false claim that it is an acronym for “God What an Awful Racket!”

Public profile and restrictions

Gwar appears in character and in full costume on Jerry Springer during the mid-1990s and later gains wider attention around the time of its second album, Scumdogs of the Universe, with some of that visibility linked to Beavis and Butt-head. The band is later featured on VH1’s Where Are They Now and is invited to play the Sounds of the Underground tour.

The group is at one time banned from performing in Richmond because of its stage shows and performs there under the name Rawg without costumes. It is also banned earlier in North Carolina for obscenity reasons, after Brockie is arrested while wearing the “Cuttlefish of Cthulu” prosthetic penis. That incident inspires the album America Must Be Destroyed.

Recordings and references

Gwar’s songs and albums include references to Tolkien, Norse mythology, and other literary or cultural material. “Whargoul” refers to Minas Morgul from The Lord of the Rings, and the title Ragnarok comes from Norse mythology. The video for “Saddam a Go-Go” from This Toilet Earth appears in the film Empire Records.

Personnel and legacy

The band is a long-running collective with many members and character personas over time, including Oderus Urungus, Techno Destructo, Flattus Maximus, Beefcake the Mighty, Jizmak da Gusha, Slymenstra Hymen, BalSac the Jaws of Death, Sexecutioner, The Temptress, GWAR Woman, Cornelius Carnage, Todd Evans, Casey Orr, Kim Dylla, Müsel, Spewie Slaves, Mr. Magico, Johnny Slutman, Hans Sphincter, Joey Slutman, Steven Sphincter, Hans Orifice, Tim Harriss, and Nippleus Erectus. After Dave Brockie’s death in 2014, the character Oderus Urungus receives a Viking funeral at the Gwar-B-Q, and Michael Bishop returns to the group as Blöthar the Berserker on lead vocals. The band then continues touring and releases The Blood Of Gods without founding members.

Community

Band members and associates hold cookouts called Gwar-B-Qs.