| |
Richmond, Virginia USA-based GWAR is a collective of five guys who wear
masks and armour and play violent Thrash-Metal really fast, the band's
moniker is an acronym for “God What an Awful Racket!”.
The first incarnation of the band was rounded out by fellow Commonwealth
University students, vocalist David Brockie who began as Oderus Urungus,
guitarist Steve Douglas who adopted the pseudonym of Balsac The Jaws Of
Death and bass player Michael Bishop best known as Beefcake The Mighty.
In 1988 they recorded their first album, " Hell-O", in just
one week-end with guitarist Dewey Rowell, who assumed the character name
Flattus Maximus and drummer Nippleus Erectus, real name Rob Mosby.
Two years later appeared the band's sophomore album, "Scumdogs Of
The Universe", this release featured the debut of new drummer Jizmak
The Gusher, born Brad Roberts, who joined after the departure of Mosby.
"America Must Be Destroyed", released in September 1991, retained
the same formula as their previous two albums: brutally aggressive guitars,
abrasive vocals, perverted lyrics; the disc vaulted GWAR, for the first
time, into the The Billboard 200 and peaked at #6 on the Top Heatseekers
chart; but problems for the Richmond collective began to arise, when the
band was banned from playing in North Carolina for a year, fined for “disseminating
obscenity”, Rowell left to be replaced by Peter Lee who assumed the
role of Flattus Maximus and in 1993 police in Athens, Georgia shut down
a concert, resulting in a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Athens settled out of court and GWAR, in typical good-natured form, donated
the winnings to charity.
That fall Bishop left the fold and was soon replaced by bassist Casey
Orr.
1994 saw the release of "This Toilet Earth", this album wasn't
as successful as its predecessor even though it contained the song "Saddam
A Go-Go" that was made famous by the popular animated series "Beavis
And Butthead".
The bizarre outfit returned a year later with their fifth full-length
album, "Ragnarök" and they quickly hit the road to promote
it.
In March 1997 GWAR released "Carnival Of Chaos" which reached
#24 on The Billboard Top Heatseekers list but Pete Lee decided to quit.
Tim Harris joined temporarily as Flattus and in April 1999 the band put
out its seventh album, "We Kill Everything", again reaching
the top 30 of the Billboard's Heatseekers chart.
After guitarist Zack Blair was pulled in assuming the role of Flattus
Maximus, the mighty GWAR began writing new material and finally resurfaced
during the end of 2001 with their eighth LP, the sonic sex-and-splatter-fest
"The Violence Has Arrived" which peaked at #33 on the U.S. Top
Independent Albums chart.
Three years later the group emerged with their DRT Entertainment debut,
"War Party".
In mid-2006 GWAR has covered Alice Cooper's
"School's Out"; the track is the first single on the band's
upcoming, full-length studio release, "Beyond Hell", due out
in late summer.
GWAR biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
|
