Pustulus Maximus of GWAR covered Cannibal Corpse’s “Pick Axe Murders” during the Slay at Home livestream event earlier today. Ra Diaz of Suicidal Tendnecies, Dick Verbeuren from Cadaver and Megadeth and Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder joined Maximus for the cover.

The group performs the heavy song as Maximus wears his costume in a dimly-lit chicken coup. Strnad screams the vocals as Ra Diaz plays bass, Verbeuren plays the drums and Maximus plays guitar. Diaz performs in his living room while Strnad is in an office, a Cannibal Corpse poster behind him. They play with a quick and angry energy, their instruments scaling up and down in rapid succession as each nods their head.

Slay At Home has also seen performances by TesseracT, Gavin Rossdale of Bush and Van Halen cover band “PanaMama,” made up of Two Minutes to Late Night, Shawna Potter of War on Women and Des Kensel of High on Fire. Day two of the festival live stream will be available here.

Ra Diaz has joined Charlie Benante’s series of covers throughout the COVID-19 crisis. So far they have covered Billie Eilish’s “bad guy”, Tom Petty’s “Yer So Bad,” Beastie Boys’ “Check Your Head,” Rush’s “Freewill,” “YYZ,” “Red Barchetta” and “La Villa Strangiato” and Living Color’s “FunnyVibe.” 

Maximus described what GWAR had been doing during quarantine last month in an interview with CNN. Earlier this month the band made the announcement that Scumdogs of the Universe 30th Anniversary Box Set will be available on August 7.

Photo credit: Sharon Alagna