America Must Be Destroyed

Holy Crap.

I find it difficult to put into words the level of admiration and adoration I have for this album. Mix in a little nostalgia for a kick ass kid’s cartoon I love, plus my love for all things heavy metal and there’s no doubt that this album would’ve found its way into my stereo one day. My only regret was putting it off for a year after rediscovering it and initially brushing it off as “alright”. Well call me extreme if you’d like, but I should flog myself for ever describing this masterpiece as “alright”. GWAR, y’know, those motherfuckers who dick around and made some of the best damn thrash in the 90s that unfortunately teetered off from their popularity some years ago. ‘America Must Be Destroyed’ was their third full-length, released just a year after ‘Scumdogs’ and is not only the best GWAR album of all time, but probably the best thrash metal album of all time as well. Many may object to such a questionable favorite, but in all my thrash metal experiences, I have never heard something as so enduring, so creative, so kinetic as ‘America’. From start to finish, this album is a whirlwind of perfection, a chaotic rodeo of smut and a tornado of fun. What does any of that mean? Well let me lay it out for you bohabs. ‘America Must Be Destroyed’ is the height of GWAR. Holy. Crap.

Imagine GWAR and every aspect of their albums, on a spectrum. For every single time they’ve had an amazing sound and production, tightly written bouquet of songs, or skillful and passionate performance, they’ve also been guilty of the inverse. On one side, you have the obvious duds of ‘CoC’ and ‘WKE’, the middle ground consisting of ‘Toilet Earth’ or ‘Bloody Pit’, and the excellent other end, ‘Scumdogs’ and ‘Violence’. ‘America’ succeeds in every single aspect of not just being a great ‘GWAR’ album but being a perfect metal album. It transcends the spectrum in a way. To describe it as the stars aligning wouldn’t be fair to the blatant talent and skill put into its creation, and to call it an improvement over its predecessors isn’t fair to them either. ‘America Must Be Destroyed’ is that “one” album for me, that special album that sticks out for a multitude of reasons beyond technicality and is shrouded in an aura that connects to me. Because, if I’m being real, what’s the real reason that this album is so much better than what GWAR has to offer? What’s so peculiar about it that elevates above others? Personally, if you look at the line-up, you can tell immediately that something was up. This is the only GWAR album to have only 4 members on it, unlike the standard 5 (featuring Flattus or Pustulus or whomever) every other album has got. Maybe they had to be a bit more creative with only 4 members plodding around the booth. Though that doesn’t explain why every other facet of this album is incredible, it’s a start and one that I’d maintain at least as a thesis. Point being, you might not hear it on your first listen as I certainly didn’t, but this album collides so many neat little ideas and tricks under one bow.

To begin with, the structure of this album is a thing of mad genius. ‘Ham on the Bone’ is an odd bugger of an intro track. This song thrusts you into the album unapologetically with its blistering speed and sudden burst of off-the-rails enthusiasm. It’s not long into the song until you get a feel for what the rest of the album will be like, despite the track being faster than any other song. It’s a thrash overture while still being completely original and pulling bizarre vocal chorus twists out of its ass. It’s almost uncharacteristic for GWAR, as the song is a play on grindcore, spitting out the shortest song on the album with manic speed and attitude. And then, oh boy, and then the mini two-part saga of Gor-Gor. Imagine the catchiest riffs, the tightest solos, the most monstrous and unique vocal delivery and most tantalizing of rhythms, turn that shit up to 11, square it and multiply it by infinity and then you’ll come close to how much these two songs pack in the span of 8 minutes. ‘Crack in the Egg’ cracks the sound barrier with how ballistic the thrash is and ‘Gor-Gor’ might just be the greatest song GWAR has ever written. Building up the song with a fanfare of chaos and sirens, mixed with riling chants, Gor-Gor stomps, smashes and decimates any and all competition. Some of the best writing is channeled into this one song, operatic in how it operates and proceeds with reckless abandon. The band even flirts with some pseudo-death metal style riffing on the latter half of the song, cementing it as one of the most brutal songs GWAR has ever performed. You’d think after this, the rest of the album would try to hard or not live up to the first couple songs, but no! The rest of the album just does what it wants, when it wants and how it wants. After those first few songs, the album has in a way tricked you into seeing how it ends.

The remaining nine tracks are each worthy of their own discussion, but to keep it short, they change up the style, tempo and speed while staying true to the album’s sound and spirit. Every deviation makes sense and doesn’t come out of left field. GWAR doing lounge Jazz? Sure. Doom metal? Of course! Rock and Roll, Glam, Ballads and Grunge? What the hell else do you expect? It’s far beyond parody, instead it’s GWAR’s cartoonish and genuine take on all those genres while taking the piss out of them. Special mention must go to the slower conclusion of ‘The Road Behind’ and ‘Pussy Planet’. Not only are they hilarious (Alien Warlords need to cry too y’know) but they also allow Beefcake (Mike Bishop) to once again stun the listeners with his amazing vocal performance. These are the songs that really help ‘America’ stand out. Mature yet still immature, making fun of other genres yet still being amazing examples of them, and totally one of a kind. ‘The Road Behind’ of course makes a ton of jokes yet feels sincere, as if it’s a sneaky attempt to write something that isn’t just “Die, you human filth”. Every track begs for an album dedicated to fully exploring the genre it pulls influence from, all with that creamy GWAR twist.

And that glorious sound I’ve been alluding to so far? Fucking butter. How GWAR in 1991, sandwiched between two admittedly dated sounding albums, created an album that encapsulates the time period while sounding infinitely timeless eludes me. It’s thick like a meaty sandwich, savory and crunchy like a marrow filled bone and monstrous in its scale. The guitars, much like Gor-Gor, sound like their ready to snap and nip at you with how sharp and coarse they sound. They alternate between virulent aggression and a playful mugging, never relenting in how much they punctuate the mix. The bass as before, is also amazing, slithering with all its bassy goodness, like a warm blanket (or trenchcoat) coating the songs. Each smash of the cymbals, crash of the toms, and beating of the bass drum is like an exclamation mark in your face, always in time, always bad ass. Oderus has also never sounded this great, perfectly in line with all the instruments, the range of his vocal performance given the perfect podium to amaze and glaze. Everything is deliciously warm and thick, so much so you can almost take a bite out of the production. To sing everyone’s job on the album would also be an honor of mine. Everyone kills it, especially Brockie and Derks. Derks does an amazing job handling nearly all the guitar work, only handing off two solos to guest musicians whilst raving and rending out some of the most viscous, catchy and belligerent thrash riffs I have ever heard. Brockie, holy shit, pulls out all the stops and keeps things supernaturally dynamic. Changing from a young and lively rocker, to a devilish barker, to cartoon villain, nothing is off limits and they all hit with an animated amount of energy.

Lyrically, GWAR sticks to their usual shenanigans of Alien rampages and drug-induced sexcapades with the same usual hilarity. However, the genesis of this album and some its lyrics were inspired by an important topic and events: censorship. The album doesn’t beat you over the head with a heavy-handed message (ok maybe the title track) and touches on America’s passion for violence and apprehension of most things sexual. These topics were expanded upon more clearly in the companion film ‘Phallus in Wonderland’. Though I couldn’t experience it firsthand heavy metal censorship in the 90s was something a lot of people were rightfully upset over, and GWAR’s response to it here and to some extent, the rest of the career, is endlessly entertaining. On a bit of a side note, the 2009 deluxe reissue came with a bonus DVD containing ‘Phallus in Wonderland’ and the concert ‘Tour De Scum’. I’ve covered ‘Phallus’ already, just know that it’s a trip and the tour video is another awesome bonus. It’d be cool if they reissued other albums with their respective movies, like ‘Toilet Earth’ and ‘Skulhedface’ being bundled together.

While I’ve sung the most blatant praises of this album, there is still so much more that can be said. Hunter Jackson’s song is an amazing villain/guest track jabbing at monster truck style rock and roll, Slymenstra’s sort of duet with Beefcake, the amazing songwriting and riffs filling this album to the crack-soaked brim. Some tracks took a while to sink their dinosaur like teeth into me, especially the songs ‘Blimey’ and ‘Gilded Lily’. This album has been in the constant rotation of my playlists ever since 2016 and will continue to be so. To call this GWAR’s peak, while in my opinion technically accurate does a disservice to albums of GWAR’s future. It cannot be helped that I never enjoyed a GWAR album as much as ‘America Must Be Destroyed’. Everything about it is as close to perfection as you can humanly get. Though not my favorite album of all time, being a close runner up is damn worth my time. ‘America Must Be Destroyed’. Holy. Crap.

Arguably the most controversial group on this site, GWAR is a lavish musical paradox. On one hand, they have the instrumental chops of a chart-topping 80’s metal band and a knack for lyrical subtlety betraying key influences like Frank Zappa and the Mothers and Spinal Tap. But on the other, in spite of this obvious education and underlying refinement, the band use their powers to craft lowbrow, filthy anthems devoted to sex, gore, and beyond-the-pale perversity while investing the brunt of their creative faculties towards developing an impressive stage show solely for the purpose of amplifying their core depravity to degrees yet unattained in the musical world. For this, they are loved throughout the universe, to the point where their album entitled America Must Be Destroyed (a reprisal for a certain infamous touring incident) charted on the US Top 200.

And from the quality of some of the material enclosed, you can hardly wonder as to why. The opening trio of tracks are some of the best ever penned by the band and great examples of their trademark style. “Ham on the Bone” is intense and goofy, while the Gor Gor mini-saga of “Crack in the Egg” and “Gor-Gor” deliver the monster mid-paced mastery anyone familiar with the band should come to expect. Say what you will about the band’s lack of tact, their lyrical essence is surprisingly lofty. Take this line from “Gor-Gor:”

“Gor Gor comes and sirens wail, mournful drone of babbling fail
Thundrous gnashing firestorm, flames illuminate his form.
Gor Gor comes and you must die, swats F-16s from the sky
Admit you crave the gift he brings you, fall and worship tyrant king, you!”

Has quite the tantalizing rhythm, does it not? Most intriguing from a band that would later deliver “Suckle my bloated love knuckle just like Fatty Arbuckle, I’m gay and I’m proud” and rhyme ‘tits’ with ‘quadriplegic.’ Supple musical knowledge used in the pursuit of the perverse, GWAR continuously satisfies, so long as they’re keeping it heavy.

Unfortunately after this, the album begins to devolve into parody, by which I mean the intentional parody of a variety of musical styles mostly alien from the band’s scum-metal norm. The results are pretty uneven, generally relying on the individual listener’s tolerance for the various genres represented. From where I stand, “Have You Seen Me?” is the only one that gets it right, bizarrely integrating lounge-style verses into the mix with some of GWAR’s most outrageous lyrics yet. Oderus cements his place in metal vocalist history on this one: no one in the universe has a delivery as diverse as he does. Later on in GWAR’s career, he’d focus too much on his growling vocals, but here he’s all over the place (“Poor Ole Tom” is nearly as bizarre in this department). The band is rocking their A-game here too, no wonder this one’s a live classic.

The rest of these attempted humorous diversions are less spectacular. “The Morality Squad” is a stab at rock ‘n’ roll, with what sounds like a squeaky Les Claypool clone handling vocal duties, while “Rock ‘n’ Roll Never Felt So Good” mocks the glam anthems. “Poor Ole Tom” is something of a doom parody while “Gilded Lily” is essentially self-parody: I liked this song better when it was called “The Salaminizer” and wasn’t retarded. The title track seems like it’s trying to make some legitimate anti-authority stance (the album’s theme revolving around anti-censorship and all), but the vocal track is entirely sampled quotes…combined with the uninteresting background riffs and it sounds like a parody of hardcore bands, namely something in the Biohazard vein. Like I said, very diverse but just as inconsistent.

“Blimey” provides a final dose of speed before the dramatic conclusion, the one-two sucker punch of “The Road Behind” and “Pussy Planet.” The first one’s poking fun at power ballads, at times sounding like a few of the Guns and Roses hits that were big at the time (remember “Patience”? you’ll need it). “Pussy Planet” is an appropriate title for a grunge take, but doesn’t listen too much better than most of that shit did or does, one of the pitfalls that come with imitating shitty genres of music. Canadian version gets a few bonus tracks to spite the states with, but “Krak Down” and “Bad Bad Men” would get re-recorded for the next album anyway, so it’s kind of moot.

If you’re a GWAR-head and variety’s your thing, this album will be right up your alley. I still think it’s neat and stuff, but short on bang for the proverbial buck. Unfortunately, parody would begin to play heavily into GWAR albums of the 90’s and this is probably the reason no one listened to them. Still, there’s some diamonds in the rough, and America Must Be Destroyed has enough of ‘em to warrant a time investment. Really, the worst thing about it is that it begs comparison to the mighty Scumdogs of the Universe, which it will forever fall short of matching.

America’s destroyed. Next stop, This Toilet Earth.

Despite the retarded title, this is by far GWAR's best effort to date. While not their heaviest, its one of their better Thrash efforts. This is also more in the line with the bands original mythos of GWAR history/conquest where as their later material seems to be just random songs.

The production is pretty good given the time period and band. The guitars are pretty thick and heavy. The songs are incredibly original and fluid throughout. The bands trademarked leads and distortion are some of the more familiar sounds linking this with the prior release. One thing many people don't realize about this is that Balsac wrote and played practically all the guitar parts on this, this is truly his finest hour.

The bass is good, but follows the guitars for the most part. The drums are bombastic moderately fast. One thing the bands drummer has never been able to achieve is the truly fast "Speed Metal" speeds of their contemporaries.

The vocals are once again what you would expect from band that sings about nonsense. Dave's voice is coming more into its own on this release however. The lyrics are about drugs, war, sex, meat, etc...

This album and the following straight to video movie 'Phallus in Wonderland' are very entertaining to say the least. This recording has some of the bands most memorable tracks in: "Ham on the bone, Crack in the Egg, Gor-Gor, Have you seen me? and (the albums Thrashiest track) Gilded Lily'.

This is something that every Metalhead should own because despite the lame title it’s a very fun album that will have you giggling and then feeling horrible for it at the same time.

This album was inspired by an incident in which GWAR frontman Oderus was forced to hand his Prosthetic fish-like penile attachment over to authorities. The greatest thing I can say for this album is that there are not too many songs about that incident (1, last time I checked),. The next great thing I will say is that this is an entirely enjoyable album, with few weak points, and plenty of catchy segments.

The first song begins with a driving blastbeat, and is about the aforementioned incident. Ham On the Bone is just long enough to not get on your nerves, but unfortunately, it's not the most standout song. Because of this song, it was hard for me to get into this album, but when I pressed on to track 2 I was immediately impressed. Crack in the Egg includes some hilarious lyrics, relating to a short-lived storyline present on the album, involving growing a dinosaur inside an egg and injecting it with crack to speed the incubation process. The music is very enjoyable, with a nice interlude of almost moshy proportions.

The next song wraps up the Gor-Gor storyline. Not 'greatest hits' material, but certainly a good enough song. 'Have You Seen Me' has been one of my favorite songs of all time since I first heard it. If you hear this song without knowing the GWAR mood, it will certainly puzzle, and possibly horrify, you. Including a lounge jazz-parody at the beginning, and a strange song structure, it's a definite highlight of the album. The lyrics are ridiculous enough to be considered offensive by many, but tame compared to what was to come on future GWAR albums (although musicially superior).

Another stand out track is 'Poor Ole Tom,' which follows the musical precedent set by the first half of the album. This is almost as much a mid-tempo release as it is a thrash-tempo release, and this song definitely creeps below the line of mid-tempo. The delivery by Oderus on this song is one of the saving graces, adding to the sheer atmospheric idiocy that makes this album so loveable.

'Rock N Roll Never Felt So Good' is another one of those straight-up offensive GWAR songs, but definitely worth a listen. 'The Road Behind' is a nice ballad-parody, but somewhat hard to stomach on the first few listens. The final track is almost like a grunge song gone GWAR. Funny enough, but not a musical strong-point of the album.

Musically inticing and lyrically amusing, this will seem at first like a mediocre release. But once you've really given this album a chance, you're assured to be a fan.

As the title I gave pretty well sums up this review.

Firstly, 'America Must Be Destroyed' is quite an interesting little album GWAR put together. While it holds true half way on being true to their more beginning works, it has a touch of the modern GWAR Thrash, as well as a lot of half-way works not really anything.

Now, I WOULD grade the lyrics to these songs, but I don't see much point in it. Most lyrics GWAR has done either involve sex, death, stupidity, insanity, or something that has to do with their 'history'. I'm just going to go ahead and say the reason this album got a score of 75% is because of the lyrics often being... typical of GWAR's work.

Musically, this album impresses me! A lot! The sounds, like previously stated, is much like their more recent works on 'Violence Has Arrived' and 'Beyond Hell'. The song 'Ham On The Bone' is quite a straightforward Thrash song with quite an excellent vocal area for Dave Brockie (oops, sorry, I mean Oderus Urungus). It incorporates great riffage, pounding drums, excellent grunts, yells and expected mild-voice singing.

'Crack In The Egg' and 'Gor-Gor', to the best of my knowledge (like most of the album, I guess) tells a interesting little tale, but fuck the tale, I'm going for the music since GWAR obviously can't make up a serious story. 'Crack In The Egg' is a bit less in your face than 'Ham' was, because it's slower and seems a bit Sludge-incorporated because of the slowness. 'Gor-Gor' amazes me. It's got some bland vocal works by Dave, but some amazing guitar work.

'Have You Seen Me?', while often a fan favorite, is NOT a favorite of mine. Honestly, I actually hate this song-- up until nearly halfway into the song, it's got a bland, jazzy bit of work with what seems like a bit of reggae in it. Overall, that drug the song down. After the near-halfway mark, it was OKAY. Nothing special, really. It's really monotonous in their works afterwards. Towards the end, it gets boring like the beginning, but in a different form. The randomness, stop-and-go action and all that shit just got under my skin. I could barely tolerate it. As it is now, when I listen to the album, I don't actually listen to THIS song, as I've got it deleted off there.

'The Morality Squad' is such an interesting number. It's a return to what more classic GWAR fans are used to-- more obvious, out there humor with that Punk driven sound so often featured on 'Hell-O!' and 'Scumdogs Of The Universe'. The guitars are enjoyable, drums keep the rhythm going, bass... well, bass isn't noticeable, but it's good. During the 'chorus' (which is just basically sped up drums and rhythm guitar) is quite... interesting and breaks away from a monotonous feel. Of course, that monotonous rhythm is broken anyway by an awesome guitar solo which starts at 1:55 that goes on until 2:42.

'America Must Be Destroyed' isn't anything special. It features some Alternative elements, a bit of Punk driven speed, Thrash rhythm and some kind of fucked up faded vocals thing which goes through most of the song. Kind of boring, but good for a break. 'Gilded Lily' is some more Punk influenced, mild-Metal which is good. In fact, this is my second favorite song on the album next to 'Ham On The Bone'. There's nothing really SPECIAL about it, but it's just got a good feel to it. It's more of a comfortable feel, like their original stuff I guess is the best way to describe it.

'Poor Old Tom' is kind of boring because of the lack of speed when compared to the rest of the album, but this is something that becomes often seen on GWAR's records-- one song that just really gets drawn out and doesn't have a great musical feel like the rest of the album (seen later on songs like 'Sammy' and 'We Kill Everything' in later releases).

'Rock N Roll Never Felt So Good' is actually more of a look into their works that are seen on 'Carnival Of Chaos' and 'We Kill Everything'-- mild Hard Rock with that enthusiastic guitar solo which borders on the line of true shred towards the end of the song, which is about the ONLY thing that saves it. Dave gets pretty annoying with his vocals at a few points during the song, giving off that weird bellowing which gets kind of creepy.

'Blimey' is a faux return to the more fast-paced Thrash that was at the beginning of the album. The basic works again with the vocals. It SEEMS like a return, but it isn't. About halfway into the song, it gets slow again... the thing special here is the guitar work and caveman-esque drum style with an unusual rhythm. Now, I've been just a bit confused with this song. At the end, fast-paced return and ends unexpectedly.

'The Road Behind' is nothing special. In fact, it too is not one of the songs I listen to. Funny thing is, this is quite often one of the most raved about songs for some GWAR fans (as well as their live stage-dummy which usually appears and gets mauled, saying 'I knew you bastards wouldn't play 'The Road Behind'! You never do!'). Finally, we come to 'Pussy Planet'. Not too special. It's got Slymenstra on vocals, but it's not special. It's got some good guitar work, a nice rhythm and overall decent vocal works. Song ends unusually and the albums over.

OVERALL, this album isn't for everyone. It can get pretty boring if you're wanting modern GWAR, and rather lack-luster if you're a fan of their previous work. You have to be willing to meet half-way on this album to ever enjoy it...