 |
|
July 20, 2008 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's hard to believe that it has been a twenty year ride-on-the-giant-man-eating-rubber-worm for Ragnarok's (by way of Richmond, Virginia) GWAR. Part Grand Guignol, part Troma Film Festival, part garage Thrash mayhem, GWAR has made these last two decades just a little bit messier, acting as a macabre piss-take on every kind of human (or inhuman) monstrosity imaginable, be it nuclear annihilation or bestiality porn.
Some of the less-seen highlights of documented on their new DVD "Blood Bath And Beyond!". Your hosts are frontman Oderus Urungus and manager Sleazy P. Martini, and for the next 90 minutes they will be parking a dump trunk full of radioactive waste just over the heads of all who stand before them. The film itself takes the look of a low rent late-night public access nightmare, which only adds to the greasy charm of the always entertaining GWAR.
The strongest part of the DVD is of course the archival live footage. There are no specific notifications as to when these shows took place. They more or less are giant compilation pieces that highlight some of the bloodier moments of a GWAR show. There's a grotesque Pro-Wrestling parody that bares a greater resemblance to Peter Jackson's "Meet The Feebles" than anything that ever came from the (no-less-warped) mind of Vince McMahon. Lactating Styrofoam breasts are chopped off, mother’s milk still spraying from the cavernous wounds. Hitler comes out black wrestling tights wearing a belt with a giant Swastika on it, only to be raped and violently decapitated. Assorted pop-culture effigies are abused and assaulted; skinned, stabbed, beaten and raped by big plastic swords. There's even the onstage birth/abortion of dancer Slymenstra Hymen's demon spawn, which looks like what would happen if Mia Farrow was impregnated by one of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space instead of Satan. The baby is of course than kicked in the head and torn to pieces, its privates mangled in Oderus Urungus' mouth.
Oh, but then there's the music. It's easy for many to dismiss GWAR as absurd shock Rock, and indeed this disc does more to celebrate the paper-mache carnage rather than their music itself. But really, all one has to do is listen and find that GWAR has created a pretty distinguishable brand of Punk-Metal that draws from the more bizarre Punk Rock acts like THE PLASMATICS and THE MISFITS while incorporating the over the top metallic Opera of ALICE COOPER and MERCYFUL FATE. Listen to the song "Sick Of You", which scores the highlight reel of GWAR baddies. It sounds like Crossover music orchestrated around a George Romero directed zombie onslaught.
The whole affair does wear a little thin around the one hour mark. If they had more insight to their creative process (both the music itself and the characters they play), maybe even split time between their real selves and the Slapstick Gorehounds they portray. Without all that, "Bood Bath And Beyond!" comes off a unfinished, almost as if it was just the bonus features of a more expansive volume. Despite that, it's still a bloody good time, recommended not only to GWAR fans, but fans of Trash Cinema and Underground Films. Just don't expect them to take off the make-up.
|
|
|
|
