GWAR - The Blood of Gods: Album Review

 

This was never going to be easy…

I honestly can’t imagine how a GWAR album might sound to a newcomer at this point. How do I possibly explain the decades of bizarre costumes, genres, and subject matter the band has covered in as little as a paragraph? Suffice to say GWAR is the nonsensical thrash/punk band from the mind of late frontman Dave Brockie, whose entire mantra seemed to be “do whatever you want and we’ll see if it sticks”. So GWAR’s discography looks like a giant collaboration between Frank Zappa and Motorhead with a B-Movie theme. But while GWAR was enjoying a recent resurgence of good material, Dave Brockie passed away leaving GWAR’s fate up in the air, only to return with a past member now taking up vocal duties, and the band seeming to continue on in Brockie’s memory. So all that’s left to ask is… how is it?

The first thing that struck me about The Blood of Gods was the song titles. GWAR’s discography has been less obscene and more approachable over the last few years, but the group still wasn’t afraid to throw songs like “Raped At Birth” or “Fuckin’ An Animal” at you. Seeing that track listing for the first time and seeing nothing of that nature just didn’t sit right with me. “OK”, I thought, War Party and Beyond Hell didn’t have anything like that and they were fine, so maybe I’m just generalizing. Then I actually listened to the whole album and felt my fears were correct: the problem with The Blood of Gods is that it’s GWAR and their most safe for work. So much of the in your face attitude and obscene language is just plain missing. And when it’s not missing, it’s buried in the bland performances. “Viking Death Machine” for instance is about a viking death race, something that is right up GWAR’s alley, but the language in the lyrics is just plain boring. This song in particular even has what may be my favorite lyric ever (“hot dog of doom”) but Michael Bishop’s dry delivery gives no weight to what should be a goofy romp.

Speaking of Bishop (aka Blothar), I’ll actually give him some credit, he is a better vocalist than Brockie. But GWAR was never about objective quality, they’re about fun. My biggest problem with Bishop is his dry delivery of every line. He sounds like he’s really trying to nail these songs and make them sound perfect. I respect his gumption, but his vocals come nowhere near the unexpected shrieks and growls of Brockie. The Blood of Gods is at it’s best when the band lets loose and goes all out on the goofy nature of themselves. “El Presidente” is a fantastic example. It’s got a groovy/punky riff, a chorus that features vocals from every other member, and some horns to boot. But it’s Bishop’s delivery that makes these songs feel more flat and lifeless than they should be.  

The production meanwhile, seems to waver between strong and bland. The guitars have this overall weak sound compared to previous records, but then out of nowhere (see “El Presidente”, “Auroch”) the mixing will bring back that thick, heavy sound. The drums meanwhile, sound like they were recorded in the other room. You can barely hear them over anything else, and when I could hear them, I didn’t hear anything remarkable. The songs themselves meanwhile, have a really nice mix of classic heavy metal and punky thrash. GWAR’s recent discography was very thrash focused, so it was nice to see a bit more variety in the songs. That being said, much like Bishop’s vocals, there’s something very safe and clean about the music choices. The horns on “El Presidente” for instance, never make a return. Maybe I’m just nit picking, but I keep thinking back to albums such as “America Must Be Destroyed” which touched on punk, thrash, and lounge jazz within 4 songs, then back to Blood Of The Gods and wonder were all the bizarre variety is.

I’ve had a lot of bad things to say about The Blood of Gods, but in truth, as I sit here and listen to it for the 40th time, I can’t bring myself to hate it. Buried somewhere in the piss poor mixing and bland lyrics, there is a good GWAR album in here. I can tell so much effort was put in to make this album sound just right, but as I said before, GWAR is at their best when their attitude takes over. Without Brockie, it’s obvious something is missing, but with a little more effort, this new GWAR could make something really special.

5/10