War Party

‘War Party’ is quite a difficult album to pin down in my opinion. I find this ironic considering GWAR is at their most consistent style of playing, with the whole album made up of pure and simple thrash metal. The best way I can describe this album is “plain”, GWAR with little to no spice or pizazz. Now, unlike the disastrous duo of late 90s GWAR albums which were too wacky to the point of irritation, GWAR playing standard thrash isn’t as detrimental as those albums were. For one, this is a great gateway album for people not used to GWAR’s musical shenanigans or for fans of classic sounding thrash. And the album isn’t without it’s worth, shredding out some decent tracks here and there. However, there is a glaring flaw that does work against the album, one that is rare in GWAR canon sad to say. Now that I think about it, this is the latter day ‘This Toilet Earth’ of GWAR’s career. Weird.

What do I mean by “latter day Toilet-Earth”? Let me lay it out: it’s an album following what could be considered the high point of GWAR’s career (America Must be Destroyed or Violence has Arrived, take your pick), is a downgrade in almost every way, only has a handful of memorable and crowd-pleasing tracks with the rest being lost to irrelevancy, and worst of all, has a dreadful sounding production. Now, GWAR typically nails the production on the head to varying degrees of success. Hell, the best aspect of their worst albums are the production and sound! ‘War Party’ is a very flat sounding album and doesn’t go out its way to pop out to the listener. It’s hard to qualify, but it’s the very definition of uninspired, early 2000s, grab-bag thrash in a sea of soundalikes with no distinguishing characteristics other than the fact it’s GWAR playing. At best, it’s… fine, but after being spoiled with the warm and welcoming ‘Violence has Arrived’, it’s a step down to hear something so unremarkable. A good way to describe it would be that it lacks character or gallant. Alien warlords hellbent on doing every drug imaginable and committing countless crimes against humanity deserve an elevated level of sound dammit. At its worst I’d fear to say it’s dated, like the vocal layering and effects on ‘Decay of Grandeur’, almost amateurish. People tend to say that GWAR is “no-nonsense” on this album, and I agree, with the sound reflecting this heavily. However, I’d argue that this denigrates this album to the likes of other thrash bands, and GWAR isn’t supposed to be or sound like any other band.

The songs in this situation aren’t much help either. I’m starting to think having two newcomers in the band at the same time might have been a contributing factor to this. Both Beefcake and Flattus characters were filled by new members Todd Evans and Cory Smoot respectively. Maybe they wanted to play something safe just in case? It certainly seems that way because the songs don’t go out of their way to innovate or amaze. Of course, there are some killer tracks here for all to be bombarded with. ‘Bring Back the Bomb’ is an excellent album opener and instant classic, drumming up worship for the horrors of bombs and cleverly incorporating raid alarms into the music is a nice touch. ‘Womb With a View’ is fun, dirty, and ever-so-slightly calls back to ‘King Queen’ with a particular vocal pattern. ‘The Bonus Plan’ is erratic, sporadic, puts the thrash in ‘thrash’ and has the new Beefcake on vocal duty. And ‘Krosstika’ is great as well, despite ripping off ‘Holy Wars’ by Megadeth pretty hard with the opening riff. The songwriting shines in certain situations but struggles to piece together whole songs that I wish to revisit. Out of the 11 tracks, I’d only bother going back to about 3. I can’t imagine myself ever wanting to listen to ‘Lost God’ or ‘Fistful of Teeth’ again, just because they’re so basic thrash that I find them uninteresting.

As for the performances, everyone does a bang-up job! Just as the sound is no-nonsense, so is the tone and mood of everyone. Brockie cracks a few jokes here and there in his lyrics, but is focused on being the war-loving, violent alien he portrays. The first track does a great job at signposting what to expect with the rest of the album. Brockie is ferocious and mean-spirited, the guitars are technical and calculated, the drums are precise and tactical, and the bass is… there. In all seriousness, Todd Evans does a good enough job on bass, but I yearn for the days of Bishop. Contrasting with this is Cory Smoot’s performance on lead guitar and he does a great job of proving his worth to the band. Though I’m not a fan of straight-faced thrash, it’s obvious he can play very well and fast. He adds a very tasteful amount of melodic thrash to GWARs formula. If only they had better material to work with.

‘War Party’ is an album that had potential to work very well, and in some areas, it does. The lyrical content is brilliant, and the performances and energy exude the GWAR way of violence. It’s frustrating though to pair it with derivative songwriting and a bland sound. It’s also very short, one of the shortest GWAR albums only beating ‘Bloody Pit of Horror’ by a minute of runtime. Speaking of which, I’d say it’s a tossup between this album and ‘Bloody Pit’ for worst latter day GWAR album. And I’d like to make it abundantly clear that this album isn’t bad, or anywhere near those other two albums we don’t talk about. I have a bit of negative bias towards thrash and hardly anything off the album does anything to neutralize it. Vote for the War Party or don’t, I’m sure they’ll kill us all anyway.

Originally written for Antichrist Magazine

War Party follows in the immediate wake of the path blazed by Violence Has Arrived, but taken to the next level of intensity. If that album was a startling transition back towards the battle-hardened heavy metal the band crafted best, than this is the end result realized to its full potential, with all the guitar heroics, monster riffs, and metal bravado that one might expect. Quite ironic, considering that this was the first GWAR album not to be released on Metal Blade in over a decade.

Nearly every song falls into the thrash or speed metal category now, with a few moments that almost encroach into death metal territory. The instrumental force of the band has been heightened, while their delightfully odious front-man has provided the same over-the-top performance as always. The drumming is ever more destructive (quite a feat considering the mastery shown on Violence Has Arrived), the lead guitar is pushed even further to the fore, the production is modern but intense, and the band doesn’t miss a beat. Perhaps the resurgence of metal to the Virginia area, particularly the influence of future tour mates Municipal Waste, has given GWAR the impetus to take their unique songwriting and clever metal-craft to its furthest extremity.

Unfortunately, the new approach is not entirely without its kinks. The band seems relatively green to the heavier conventions and many songs fail to really stand out after a listening session has ended. It must have been easy to make unique songs when you could switch up the genre every few tracks. Now, perfectly good tracks like “Decay of Grandeur,” “Fistful of Teeth,” and “Lost God” that are fairly entertaining during their runtime escape from memory immediately after concluding, a fact that’s held true for me after several listens.

But this is forgivable by the fact that GWAR was always a single-oriented band, so there will invariably be a handful of absolute classics that overshadow the remaining material. Here we have the GWAR neo-classic “Bring Back the Bomb” standing as one of their bests ever, featuring gnarly Cannibal Corpse-style chromatics, a versatile arrangement, and delightfully explosive lyrics that peak with a line about nuking the whales. “Krosstika” is derivative but pure fun, as are its delightfully deplorable lyrics. “Two great hates that hate great together!” indeed. “You Can’t Kill Terror” is politically savvy speed metal, “Womb with a View” is efficiently quotable (“your womb is a sewer, your womb is manure!”), and “Bonesnapper” is a ballsy but ultimately successful attempt at recapturing the dramatic flair of traditional heavy metal. Really, though a few tracks do kind of fall on deaf ears and “The Bonus Plan” feels disposable, War Party is pretty solid right across the board.

In a lot of ways, this is the GWAR I imagined could exist when I first heard of the group. Disappointed by their crude and silly perversity (shocking, I know), I had initially wished that they’d just cut out all the bullshit and just be a badass heavy metal band. And now that’s precisely what they’ve done, but now something… something is missing. I guess you could say I’d grown accustomed to their feces… er... faces. Where once they were metal’s most peculiar band, now they’re merely another modern thrash machine. But GWAR playing modern thrash still beats a lot of other bands playing a similar style and they still manage to cut a few classics per disc, so I’m not leaping off the newly turbo-charged bandwagon anytime soon.

On a side note, the video made for the title track is pretty disappointing. Mostly just featuring footage of the band playing in Times Square, the only chuckle I got was from Beefcake the Mighty randomly socking a slave off the stage.

GWAR is known by many a metalhead, and even quite a few non brothers of metal. Punks, bored and angry housewives, unborn children, and Jesus himself. To sum up, GWAR is very well known pretty much everywhere. Be it because people are offended by their lyrical content, their ridiculously over-the-top stage shows (by the way, the biggest regret of my life so far was choosing a week long vacation in Jamaica over a GWAR concert), or grotesque costumes, these Virginian rock/punk/thrashers are known for virtually everything except their music, which is a dirty shame. 2004's War Party, their ninth full length, showcases songwriting ability previously unseen by the alien warlords.

Here, GWAR amps up the intensity here more so than ever before. Violence Has Arrived showed a brief glimpse of what kind of intensity the band was capable of, War Party fully unleashes this energy in what I may consider to be the band's best effort. There are substantial thrash elements at work, particularly in Bonesnapper and Bring Back the Bomb. Maybe not so coincidentally, those are also the strongest tracks. Bring Back the Bomb is a rip roaring war cry in using the nuke once more, featuring some of the most fun lyrics to shout along to that have ever been penned. And by frickin' GWAR no less! I guess the one thing that most newcomers need to understand is that the style showcased on War Party is somewhat out of left field. The band has gone through many progressions as a band, from punk, to hard rock, to metal, back to punk, probably some polka, and yet again metal. As previously stated, 2001's Violence Has Arrived was a hint at the intensity that they could show if they focused their energy enough, and War Party is the explosive money shot to all that buildup. The goofy lyrics finally take a back seat to strong songwriting, one of the problems that have been plaguing this band since their punk inception.

That's right, War Party features strong songwriting. I didn't think GWAR was capable of it either, but they pretty much backhanded me with a fist made of pure metal here. Bonesnapper follows a similar progression to Immortal Corruptor from the previous album, but I actually find this one to be even better. The riffs are trashy, the solos rip, the drums are fast interesting, it's quite possibly their best song. Hell, Womb With a View is chock full of impressive little leads. Bring Back the Bomb and the title track feature a couple of well done breakdowns from the thrash camp.

Unfortunately, there are still problems here. The latter half of the record falls apart quite quickly. The short and punky The Bonus Plan is a hell of a lot of fun, but the rest is rather bland and/or unmemorable. Lost God plods too much, despite the couple of well done thrashy parts, but for the most part it is a midpaced chugger that end up boring one in the end. Even after the hundreds of spins this record has gotten from me, I STILL cannot remember how parts of You Can't Kill Terror or Fistful of Teeth. They're not bad, just unmemorable. It's kind of like a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, it's tasty and satisfies your hunger, but you won't give a damn about it near the end of the day. Decay of Grandeur is okay, but alas, boring. And I feel it deserves mention, that no matter how fun Krosstika is, you cannot convince me that the opening riff isn't a direct rip off of Holy Wars.

In all, I believe that this stands as GWAR's finest hour. It's offensive, it's dirty, it's fast, humorous, retarded, and most importantly, more fun than playing kitten football. Those of you who wrote off GWAR as a silly novelty joke band should take heed, War Party is a thrash-tastic ride into GWAR's domain. It's not straight thrash, obviously, but it's easily their thrashiest up to this point. The songwriting is solid, the guy playing Flattus actually has some chops this time around and rips out some simple-yet-enjoyable pentatonic thrash solos, the riffs are strong, the voice is just as good as before, and the band as a whole is cohesive and distinguishable amongst the current crowd of faceless metal bands. I find this album hard not to enjoy, thus, I recommend it to all. Everybody has their favorite period of the band's career, this latest one EASILY slays all to me. Check out War Party, and the two bookending it.

"...The stench of death was all that remained"…along with this little gem! GWAR is one of those acts that many know of, but few in the underground metal community are willing to touch. Their distinctive, endearingly tasteless sense of humour has served to set them apart from the faceless pack of crossover/thrash acts, and this has been something of a blessing and a curse. While their elaborate live shows, enthusiastic showmanship and dedicated gimmick have brought them scores of less discriminating fans, their slapstick humour and levity have gotten them a rather frosty treatment from the more selective ranks of metal’s “elite”. Add to this the sheer number of styles they’ve gone through, from punk to hard rock to thrash, and you’ll understand just why this band is so hated by your average kvlt kiddie.

Still, an image and a gimmick will only go so far. So the question is: does GWAR’s 2004 offering deliver anything of musical worth? Damn straight. War Party is an incredibly fun album, a delightful concoction of tongue-in-cheek satire, crushing riffs and corrosive vocals, all wrapped up and delivered in a polished package.

Perhaps the most obvious thing about this album is the radical increase in the musicianship on display here. GWAR have never been anything approaching the most technical band out there, but with War Party they really do kick it up a notch. Far from the simplistic efforts of yesteryear, here you get the things you would expect from an experienced heavy metal band: crunchy rhythms, blistering solos, solid drumming, some actual audible bass lines, and a singer with a capable range and distinctive voice to bind it all together.

The lyrics are typical GWAR fare: war, rape, blowing shit up, infanticide, perverted love songs, vaginal dentistry… it’s all here really and delivered in the band’s typical over-the-top manner. What really makes it fly though is Dave Brockie’s voice. His distinctive, intense vocal delivery is here in full force and used to much greater effect than in any of their previous works. All the songs here are genuine headbangers, and sometimes the band even throws a couple of curveballs as in “Bonesnapper”: starting off as a quiet ballad, before a galloping bass line drags it into a full on headbang inducing verse, ultimately concluding with one of Brockie’s best vocal performances. It’s songs like these that show that the band actually has a few tricks up their sleeve, and offers up far more variety than ever seen in the band’s previous outings.

Ultimately, what we have here is a solid slice of balls-to-the-wall, heavy fucking metal. Sure, it’s juvenile, tasteless and is of no great artistic merit. One of the most charming aspects of it is the fact that it doesn’t pretend to be any of these things. While there are some bands that opt for the most ostentatious route, vaunting their artistic value (often far beyond their actual worth) and adopting an inflated sense of self-importance, GWAR don’t. In fact they piss on it. When you want a slice of good, thrashy fun, dust this one off. You won’t be disappointed.

GWAR, what an interesting concept this was, created as a college project evolving into what may be one of the coolest, most hilarious acts in the history of metal! Their live shows are awesome and this can only be accounted for by their audacity and great showmanship! Anyway, onto this album; War Party is another album in the growing discography of GWAR, they've been around for a while and they sure know how to make some damn good metal with humor!

War Party comes back to GWAR's older heavier style, which I must say is what they should be doing! They're good at it and a lot of heavier tracks appear, noticably Bring Back the Bomb, Womb With a View, You Can't Kill Terror, and the Reaganator.

Each song is memorable in it's own right, Womb With A View, my favorite off the album starts off with a nice lead solo that leads into some of the funniest lyrics in GWAR's discography! Nice thrashing headbanging song, which is also fun to sing along too.

Another noticable highlight, Bring Back the Bomb, which relates to the nuclear bomb, has some nice crunchy riffs with a damn fine chorus, another great sing-a-long! GWAR sure can do it man! It's a heavy number which will make you wish it didn't end.

I especially love the shortest song on the album, The Bonus Plan. Sung in French by the drummer, it is quick, furious, and a great headbanger. I know no French yet I find myself yelling along everytime. I state again, GWAR will make you sing along!

The musicianship on this album is quite good, all members play their part almost perfectly, the bassist sure is talented, as well as the guitarist, it's hard to take GWAR seriously, but fuck man, they are talented musicians who need to be taken seriously! The production is also fairly clear and done well which adds to the talent displayed from the members.

In the end, this is a great addition to GWAR's catelogue and as a GWAR fan, I'm pleased with this release. If you're a newcomer to GWAR I would recommend this to you before other albums probably to the more accessible sound and easier listen for the noobies. If you're a longtime veteran of these guys, you'll love it too. GWAR does it again!

Everyone knows Gwar, or should by now. You should be familiar with their sense of humor, and their lack of technical proficiency. In the past, they have had agressive moments, but nothing that makes you think "now thats fucking metal!" That day has finally arrived. Advice to new listeners, your better off drunk, stoned, or otherwise altered when you throw Gwar in your cd player. Trust me. This is my first review for the Metal Archives, which is great, because this is the first album review for War Party. Lets look at the tracks, with all of their highlights and disappointments.

01 - Bring Back the Bomb - I heard this song on Music Choice, a horrible music channel on digital cable. Being an old fan of Gwar, I was shocked and impressed. It starts off the album thrashing. This is about nuking shit, for the sake of blowing stuff up. The riffs are thrashy, the drumming is on time with the music, and the vocals are appropriatly harsh to suite the music. As usual, the bass is buried, but bass was never a reason to listen to Gwar. A bit repetitive, but definitly an album highlight.

02 - Krosstika - Starts off with fast paced riffing, then groves around the 30 second mark. Not bad like hardcore grooves, nothing like death metal groove... and not half thrash groove shit... Catchy though. Gwar has always had their own style, venturing now into the glorious realms of metal, this is still true. Well arranged song, but fairly average. Mid paced over all, but so is this album. If your looking for neck breaking thrash, go pick up some Coroner or Abomination. One of the weaker tracks on the album, but not bad.

03 - Womb with a View - Holy shit! it starts out with a lead! Yes, Gwar has actually managed to pull out a lead. Nothing mind blowing, but fuck... if you know Gwar, you'll be as surprised as I am. Sure its only 20 seconds, but not too bad for a band with a back catalogue of hilarious lyrics, catchy simplistic rhythms, and sub par musicianship. These lyrics though, not really funny, not really inspired... Basically filler material.

04 - Decay of Grandeur - Great intro, dark vocals in Oderous' distinct style. Cheesy backing vocals/chorus that any Gwar fan has come to appriciate. One of the better lyrical pieces on the album. Simplistic mid paced riffing once again, but it compliments the structure and adds dark atmosphere. Once again not something Gwar is known for. Drum work fits in very well, further accenting the mood of the track. Definitly a slower number, but well done, one of my favorites.

05 - War Party - The title track, as implied, sounds like the theme to a war party. Definitly a throwback to their old punk roots. Light hearted guitarwork pulls the song foreward with some faster vocal delivery in the beginning. Slows down around a minute and a half, reminding me of the slow heavy breakdown in Saddam-a-Go-Go. Eventually picks up, gets punkish again, and a little agressive. Nothing special, but a treat for fans of older material.

06 - Bonesnapper - Starts out slow, and you think its going to be a Gwar ballad. Picks up with distinct bass lines that surprised me, as the bass is usually hidden. At this point I have to compliment their drummer, as he has consistantly kept pace thus far, no complaints from me. I notice he has vastly improved his double bass work as well. Song slows down back to ballad pace, showing off some catchy basswork again. Until... what? YES! at the 3:40 mark, the soloing begins. Leads being astomishing, solos are unhead of, much less of this calibur. Yes, its short, but damn good. You may or may not like this track, as it has a couple change ups, but I do.

07 - Lost God - "All gods speak, all gods lie, all gods forever wallow in slime... all gods before me, swallowed by time" Pretty good I thought. The riffs however are repetitive. One can only expect so much, and creativity, originality, loads of original riffs, and technicality put together are too much to expect here. Slow song, doesn't really go anywhere... Definitly a disappointment, other than the lyrics. But lyrics alone do not carry a song.

08 - The Reaganator - Like Bring Back the Bomb, this one is a thrasher. It too slows down to let you more clearly listen to the lyrics. Gwar has lost alot of their comical attributes on this album, and theres nothing funny about this song. Definitly an album highlight, one of the albums more metal moments.

09 - The Bonus Plan - This one is another ode to old punk, of the hardcore variety. Heavier than your average punk though, and with vocals to match. Very short however, but still good. Made me think of Nuclear Assault. I wouldn't say it sounds like them, but its something Dan would approve of.

10 - You Can't Kill Terror - Eh, The Bonus Plan would have been a good note to end the album on. But it didnt end, thankfully! This number is great. Really well written riffs, though at this point in the album the drums are still keeping up, but getting old. I particularly enjoyed the guitar work though...

11 - Fist Full of Teeth - A somber, lumbering last track. Once again we get a dark atmosphere. No thrashing here, no nods to oldschool punk. This is gloomy, a slow and painful end to the thousand deaths the war party has submitted you to. This is the slow paced obligatory Gwar ballad. But this is dark, malicious, and relishes the aforementioned killing that comprises this album. A fitting end, another personal favorite.

All in all, this is far from perfect. Gwar have been a novelty throughout their career, but this album is a serious foot in the door of serious music. Some parts might make you smile, but there are some good riffs to be found here. Hidden gems if you take the time to listen. This is easily the finest display of all parties involved. The vocals show a range showcased throughout previous efforts, consolidated into this most solid work. The drums are the best they have ever been, without question. The rhythms are nothing amazing, but fit with the music. The bass remains buried, but comes through on a few tracks, also noticably improved. The leads are catchy but nothing amazing. Production is solid, clean, and allows you to hear everything going on. I do give them credit for the effort, and for the hours of practice that obviously went into this. A must have for any Gwar fan that appriciates real metal. A genuine recommendation to those with an open mind. Check it out and you will be surprised, perhaps even impressed.

\m/ Maddness, Mayhem, Murder \m/