When GWAR first appeared on earth, as a biography puts it, the year was 1988. A group of college students from Virginia decided to test the waters of marketability by creating a band in the Punk and Metal genre that would be so over the top you couldn’t help but notice them. With songs like “Slutman City,” “Time for Death,” and “I’m in Love (With a Dead Dog),” GWAR began to draw some attention. Then, with a live appearance clad in homemade costumes representing some sort of futuristic barbarian overlords from another world, GWAR was truly a sight to behold.
Not sure whether to laugh or cry, many people didn’t know how to accept GWAR. Were these musicians really taking a stab at music? Or were they merely mocking the Metal crowd and their association with the medieval fantasy stereotypes? Two years later, with Scumdogs of the Universe, it seemed that GWAR was indeed marketing itself as a viable commodity in the music scene. Combining its loud and brutal sonic assault with outlandish stage shows featuring garish props and lots of fake blood, even shooting meat from a canon into their audience, GWAR has become known as a major live attraction. The bizarre stage antics had them banned from some USA cities, and the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) boycotted most shows.
With the release of a new album, GWAR, the most unlikely band to weather the long run, has emerged as a mainstay in the Metal diet of headbangers everywhere. What was considered the real life Spinal Tap has gone far beyond Hell-O and is now on to their eleventh disc, Live from Mt. Fuji. A live disc from the premier live band; you would think, “How could this have taken so long?” The truth is the live show is probably more visual than auditory, so as a DVD release the live show would make more sense. Unlike many live albums that offer a breath of new life to old songs, this release sounds like a sampling of the annals of GWAR’s discography. However, as a live CD, the quality is quite good. Whereas most live recordings have that open feel to them, this album sounds layered and processed. The mix is very even and the overall sound is full; in truth, it is so full it almost sounds like the music was recorded over a backing track of an audience.
Live At Mt. Fuji could easily be seen as a greatest hits collection if ever there was such a thing for such a band –- a band without hits, that is. GWAR has sustained its contrived existence against the odds and seems to keep a loyal army of fans. The generic, foolish banter between songs is probably enough to justify the purchase of this offering to the GWAR loyalist, but to the discerning buyer, beware, there is nothing new here. If GWAR is your kind of band and you want to hear them live, go see them … this disc sounds like a contractual obligation more than anything else.
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