Gwar in Sioux City: November 4, 2017

Well, I finally had occasion to see Gwar over the weekend.  I have missed out on several opportunities in the past to see them, but I decided that it was not going to happen again.  Of course it is a little disappointing to see them without the great Oderus Urungus fronting the band, but Blothar still does a pretty damn good job.  This concert occurred at the Hard Rock Casino in Sioux City, Iowa a venue I have not previously been to.  My wife was a little interested in this one too, given Gwar's theatricality.

The opening band was U.S. Bastards, a band fronted by Gwar guitarist Brent Purgason, aka Pustulus Maximus.  Their style is drenched in dirty, raw, Motorhead-influenced punk rock 'n roll.  To drive the point home, they even covered the Motorhead classic "Killed by Death".  I enjoyed them quite a bit more than I thought that I would honestly.  I am not sure my wife agreed.  She did not look up from her phone once during their set.

Up next was Doyle, a band named for bandleader, former Misfits guitarist and certified gigantic human being Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein.  Misfits were a rarity, a punk band that I truly loved listening to, due to their infectious songs, presence of Glenn Danzig, and crossing over into metal on occasion.  Their later material with Michale Graves was very close to metal and Doyle's solo band continued in this style.  Oh, there is still quite a bit of horror punk, but a lot of metal riffing as well.  Singer Alex Story introduced almost every song with "This next song is a bit of a love song, you can dance to it, if you like", a joke which got a little old after about the third time.  My wife liked Doyle, the guitarist, for reasons other than his musicianship.

Ghoul came next, and honestly I was more excited to see them than Gwar.  I just generally enjoy their music more.  This is where things got more theatrical as two people in costumes began doing a skit about finding some sort of portal to another dimension and talking specifically about the band, who then showed up, complete with burlap masks covered in blood over their faces and decapitating one of the people, spraying the crowd with blood.  Some of the prop usage left a bit to be desired.  One of the "soldiers" clearly had no idea how guns were supposed to work.  The show went on like this, eventually peaking with a Nazi-esque leader discussing building a "bigly wall" to keep out all the aliens before beating one of the Ghoul members with a nightstick.  Yes, the music was damn fun too.  Ghoul's sound is a mix of thrash and grind with very few moments of melody.

Gwar was next on the stage and they delivered exactly what I was expecting.  Lots of costumes, some sick humor, lots of body mutilation and fake blood spraying into the crowd, and some damn catchy songs.  They played a lot of material from the new album, but peppered in classics like "Black and Huge" and "Saddam A Go-Go".  Gwar brought out a Trump character as well, before disemboweling him and Blothar taking over as President of the United States.  About the only down side was that Gwar no longer feeds the World Maggot on stage.  But they still put on one hell of an entertaining show all the same.

This show was a lot of fun.  I am not a huge fan of any of the bands for their music, but Gwar and Ghoul in particular are bands that must be experienced live.  I am definitely glad we had the chance to go.  My wife enjoyed it quite a bit as well.

Cannabis Corpse/Ghoul: Splatterhash (2014)

Originally reviewed here.

Oh boy, this is quite the combination of bands to share a split. To be fair, I am actually not very familiar with Cannabis Corpse, but I am a big fan of Ghoul. Both bands are known for their outlandish lyrical content and their obsession with gore. The name of the split is a play on the album Splatterthrash by Ghoul. It of course references Cannabis Corpse's obsession with marijuana.

Cannabis Corpse kicks things off on the split. The band is a marijuana-based parody of Cannibal Corpse, which can probably be ascertained by the band's name. The band was created by Land Phil of crossover/thrash metal band Municipal Waste. He does do a fairly competent impression of Corpsegrinder Fisher. Many of the band's song names are direct knockoffs of Cannibal Corpse songs, such as "Inhalation Plague" from "Evisceration Plague". The references to Cannibal Corpse are pretty clear, though Cannabis Corpse does a pretty solid job of presenting their own style. The dual vocals are an impressive addition that is apparently new to the group these days. I have been previously reluctant to check out Cannabis Corpse. The fact that they were originally a parody band and their obsession with marijuana were turnoffs. However, the music is very strong death metal. I would be willing to give them another chance based on this.

Ghoul is a band that I am familiar with and like quite a bit. Their manic, horror movie thrash/death metal is a unique style that no other band has quite been able to replicate. Ghoul unfortunately is not very prolific with releasing music. It is likely that Ghoul is a side project for various members. They also add some different vocal styles, catching listeners off-guard with some black metal-style shrieking to go along with the typical gruff vocals. The two tracks here are a very good representation of Ghoul's sound. It is gory, intense, and surprisingly catchy, with the occasional oddball moment thrown in for good measure.

I still hate how short these splits are on occasion. Particularly with an inspired pairing such as this. There are only four songs on the whole thing with each band having just two tracks. Nevertheless, this is a good sampling of what to expect from both groups.

In Honor of Halloween: Live Bands

Today, I am looking at groups with horror-themed live performances. They may either utilize props or costumes. These videos pretty much speak for themselves, so I will save commentary this time out.

WHITE ZOMBIE


GWAR


GORGOROTH


GHOUL


MAYHEM


IRON MAIDEN

Impaled vs. Ghoul

Okay, these two bands are basically the same band. Ghoul is currently made up of two current members of Impaled, both of whom were also in Exhumed, and one of it's former members was also in Impaled. So at one time, three of the members of Impaled were in Ghoul.

It is common knowledge that Ghoul is not exactly a serious project, see the photos for proof of that. They wear sacks over their heads and are covered in fake blood. They go by names like Cremator (Ross Sewage of Impaled), Digestor (Sean McGrath of Impaled), Dissector, and Fermentor. The band even has its own origin story, which is interesting and long and will not be repeated here. The albums tell the story of the band and their wild and weird adventures in "Creepsylvania".

The issue though is the fact that the two bands basically sound the same. This was not always the case as Ghoul played a form of crossover thrash/grind and Impaled was essentially just a death grind band, but over the years Impaled has been becoming thrashier. At this point, the two bands are basically interchangeable except for the lyrical themes.

I have no problems with band members forming side projects. Hell, if it weren't for side projects, we wouldn't have bands like Down (formed by members of Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, Eyehategod, and Crowbar), Bloodbath (formed by members of Katatonia, Opeth, Hypocrisy, Witchery, and Edge of Sanity), and Destroyer 666 (formed by KK Warslut of Bestial Warlust). I do have an issue though when more than one member of a band form another band which basically either starts out sounding the same as the main band, or through its influence steers the original band into sounding like the side project.

If there are going to be two bands made up of the same members, they should sound like two different bands. End of rant.