Gwar – Battle Maximus
20th November 2013So GWAR came to planet Earth in the 80’s with the objective of making the human race submit to their mastery, however they proceeded to discover crack cocaine and metal music and that combination fuelled their rise to stardom and ultimately the command of legions of loyal maggots who follow their every move. “Battle Maximus” is probably one of the heaviest GWAR albums and some of the songs like ‘Madness at the Core of Time’ and ‘Triumph of the Pig Children’ hark back to an early GWAR sound but are still brutal. For anyone who hasn’t heard GWAR before then they play a thrash/crossover thrash with a punk and hardcore tinge to the sound, this is some heavy thrash metal and one that people shouldn’t overlook.
When they play the heavier slower tracks like “Mr Perfect” (who is the new bad guy that has travelled through time to change all the beings of Earth to his vision of perfection and to seek the power of immortality from GWAR), they show that they can still be brutal and aggressive without excess speed and this is also shown on the GWAR style ‘ballad’ “Fly Now” where vocalist ‘Oderus Urungus’ pays tribute to ‘Flattus Maximus’ with the lyrics “He was a brother to me, Fly now Flattus, Flattus be Free” and shows that even after all the trillions they have killed that they still feel the loss of a loved one and friend. Songs like “Torture” and “Raped at Birth” batter the listeners senses and even the instrumental track “Battle Maximus” is an ode to their late axeman ‘Flattus Maximus’ and is actually a very good track. The vocals on this album are all sung by ‘Oderus Urungus’ except “I, Bonesnapper” which is the only song he doesn’t sing. This honour goes to GWAR’s “slave” ‘Bonesnapper’ who tells you his story and how he came to be with the mighty GWAR.
This album shows that after surviving so much GWAR have come back stronger and instead of trying to recreate the precise and sharp speed riffs that ‘Flattus Maximus’ brought to the band they have added speed riffs that are dirty and heavy, yet still recognisably GWAR. The lyrics still have the humorous nature to them and some will shock and disgust people, but this is GWAR! As mentioned earlier this album has a loose story to it but they are mainly about killing things and taking drugs which is what GWAR do best…
So in the words of GWAR “Get ready, human scum…GWAR is coming…all over your face!”
SCORE – 7.5
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ALBUM INFO:
Track List:
1… Intro
2… Madness at the Core of Time
3… Bloodbath
4… Nothing Left Alive
5… They Swallowed the Sun
6… Torture
7… Raped at Birth
8… I, Bonesnapper
9… Mr Perfect
10… Battle Maximus (Instrumental)
11… Triumph of the Pig Children
12… Falling
13… Fly Now
LABEL – Metal Blade
RELEASE DATE – 17th September 2013
BAND WEBSITE – www.gwar.net
STAND OUT TRACKS: – “Madness at the Core of Time”, “Torture”, “Raped at Birth” and “Fly Now”
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