GWAR - review added 3rd November 2010
Album Review: Bloody Pit Of Horror (2010)
For fans of: Alt Metal... and a hit of punk
Never come across GWAR before? Think of them as a gore-filled heavy metal version of Spinal Tap and you won't be too far off. They are, to an extent, a self-created joke...but they can actually play and they really do have the ability to make good music. And we at Rock Realms love 'em.
"Bloody Pit Of Horror" follows last year's "Lust In Space", and sees the band - Oderus Urungus on lead vocals, Beefcake the Mighty on bass and backing vocals, Flattus Maximus and Balsac the Jaws of Death on guitars and backing vocals, Jizmak Da Gusha on drums, and Sleazy P. Martini on occasional vocals - continuing their love of heavy overdriven guitars, biblical rhythms, over the top vocals, and comedic/mentalist lyrics.
The sound is madness put to music, taking thrash, death metal, punk and cartoon and mixing it in a pot with half a ton of rotten flesh and a few dozen gallons of evil infested blood. If you don't like sick, you won't like GWAR. If you take your music very seriously, you probably won't like them either.
Throughout the album they hint at some of the most amazing metal music you could possibly imagine, but they can't resist cocking about and breaking the flow at any given opportunity. It's what GWAR do, and it's both brilliant and frustrating. If the band could go all out to create a proper gnarly thrash/death metal album - even keeping the style of lyrics they're best known for - I don't doubt they could make something astonishing. This isn't it, not by a long way, but it's still a worthwhile purchase and a million times better than "We Kill Everything", their benchmark for cr*pness.
In summation...
"Bloody Pit Of Horror" is a bunch of great fun songs, every one of them boasting something aurally amazing...but none of the tracks manages to be outstanding as a whole. We like it, but we know this band is capable of so much more.
Check out... GWAR live, but don't wear your best clothes.
Track List:
01. The Bloody Pit Of Horror - Pt.1 - Zombies March!
02. The Bloody Pit Of Horror - Pt. 2 - Come The Carnivore
03. The Bloody Pit Of Horror - Pt.3 - A Gathering Of Ghouls
04. The Bloody Pit Of Horror - Pt.4 - Storm Is Coming
05. Tick-Tits
06. Beat You To Death
07. You Are My Meat
08. Hail, Genocide!
09. KZ Necromancer
10. The Litany Of The Slain
11. Sick And Twisted
Label: Label: AFM Records
Artist's website(s): GWAR , MySpace | Facebook
