Extra-terrestrial rock band GWAR are returning to MacEwan Student Centre Oct. 8 to inflict misery on their worshippers with their unique blend of monster metal music while dressed in elaborate costumes and battling monstrous creatures on stage.
As the story goes, GWAR is a group of chaos warriors called the Scumdogs of the Universe who have been around for a few billion years reaping death and destruction on the galaxy until they were banished to the planet Earth. The band itself began in the ’80s and has grown massively in popularity with what the band describes as its enslaved worshippers, the human race.
Lead singer Oderus Urungus (David Brockie) says the band has a long-standing relationship with the University of Calgary. He wonders who among the university’s management could continually want GWAR to return to twist and pervert the university’s students so badly, but he says they return year after year and it’s almost at that point where GWAR should be considered part of the university’s curriculum.
“[Students] love their GWAR,” Oderus says. “They demand their GWAR as part of their educational curriculum.”
The concert in the MacEwan Ballroom is part of the band’s Madness at the Core of Time world tour promoting their new album, Battle Maximus, released last month. The album’s story revolves around the latest super villain to taken on the members of GWAR. This time it’s genetically altered Mr. Perfect who has traveled through time to steal GWAR’s immortality.
“He’s a complete dick,” Oderus says. “He’s the latest in a long line of ego-centric, self-obsessed, deluded self-made gods with delusions of grandeur. We all know that that’s what GWAR is. We don’t need any competition for that.”
GWAR concerts are as much live theatre as heavy metal music, with various monsters attacking the band on stage during the show and the band members fighting with swords and musical instruments to defeat them.
The tour kicked off in Columbus, Ohio on Oct. 2 where GWAR had their first run in with Mr. Perfect. Oderus talked to the Gauntlet the day after the show.
“We had our first run in with him and pretty much kicked his ass,” Oderus says. “He bled a lot and we ripped his arms off, tore his head off, ripped his chest out and he was still swinging. Not sure if I killed him. We’ll see.”
The band’s performances are violent, expletive-heavy and messy, with fake gore and blood sprayed around on stage and occasionally on the audience.
Explaining how Mr. Perfect would steal GWAR’s immortality, Oderus says that he’s going to steal GWAR’s spunk.
“I don’t have to get delicate here. We know what I’m talking about: my ball sack full of fucking GWAR cum,” Oderus says, who claims his testicles contain the largest concentration of “jizzmogwap” in the universe.
Their latest album, Battle Maximus, is GWAR’s 13th studio album and comes three years after their last album, Bloody Pit of Horror. The album features a new band member, guitarist Pustulus Maximus who took over for Flattus Maximus (Cory Smoot), who died in 2011.
The band was sorry to lose Flattus but say that Pustulus has proven an equally amazing guitar player though much more aggressive in battle. Oderus described Flattus as a gentle giant while Pustulus is “a completely obnoxious asshole.”
“He’ll charge right into battle, playing the lead,” Oderus says. “Whereas Flattus might stand back by his amp and let his guitar do the fighting for him, just blasting these creatures with sonic sound, Pustulus will just charge in there and lower his head, battering ram right into them.”
GWAR will be joined at MacEwan Ballroom by deathcore-band Whitechapel, Iron Reagan and A Band of Orcs.
They will be playing Union Hall in Edmonton on Oct. 9.
