The Blood of Gods is a monster among men

Never far from controversy, the space Vikings and shock rock gods GWAR are back for a monumental 14th album The Blood of Gods. The band hasn’t strayed far from their core image they established in the ’80s; the sound of the music embodies the era of sex, drugs, violence, and heavy metal in an era where that way of life is but a fleeting memory with few people left to remind the world what metal was about in its golden age.

The theme of death and destruction is rampant throughout the album, and the world expects nothing less from the gore/shock rock pioneers. From songs about total war, to the current state of political affairs in the United States, and topped off with an excellent rendition of AC/DC’s “If You Want Blood (You Got It)” there is a decent amount of variety on the release without sacrificing their core image.

The album opens up with “War on GWAR,” a seven-minute trudge through everything a classic heavy metal song should be: The clean, diminished guitar opening with the slow transition into distortion (think the opening to Black Sabbath’s self titled track), into a fast galloping heavy metal anthem. All of the pieces are there, from the chanting in the background vocals during the chorus to the awe-inspiring, bordering on the edge of what shouldn’t be possible by a human guitar solo just after the five minute mark.

The album simply just wouldn’t be a GWAR album without something completely brash and incendiary on the track list like “El Presidente” which is the perfect example of their stage characters’ “kill all humans” mantra. The entire track is basically a denouncement of the current Commander in Chief and state of misinformation rampant in mainstream media. Without spoiling the entirety of the lyrics for a first time listener, what they are singing about at the core of it involves the current U.S. President and a sword, tied together by a damn fine guitar riff during the intro and verse sections.

The album as a whole is incredibly well produced and a vivid flashback to the golden era of heavy metal. The instrumental sections are consistently vibrant and head-bang inducing and the guitar solos are out of this world (pun intended). To put it simply, The Blood of Gods is a monster among men and every second spent listening to it is a reward to the perennial metal head no matter how young or old.