Gwar Hell-o is the first release from Antartican nutters Gwar from 1988. Before we go to far into this record review I should make it clear I’ve been a long time fan of Gwar. I first got into them on their second album “Scumdogs of the Universe” but it took me a while to find a copy of this. Gwar have since perfected the art of media manipulation and basically making spectacles of themselves but not by this point. Gwar have always been a mixed bag, combining elements of punk, metal and just about every form of music imaginable into a strange bloody pantomime of horror, blood, and body fluids. This, their debut, has a lot of punk elements mixed in with the metal and may not appeal to all metal heads. Honestly some of the songs are a little undercooked and a decent proportion of the lyrics seem to be offensive for the sake of being offensive (I’m in love… with a Dead Dog) being a prime example.
The songs are simpler than most of the albums of theirs I own and honestly some of them are as stated before, undercooked. The thing about Gwar is their live show is so heavily tied into their music it’s almost impossible to separate the two. Some songs stand up by themselves and others really need the visuals of their live performance. Some songs are actually the backing music to their live show as a result seem a bit out of place or disjointed when you listen on a CD at home. There are some great songs on this album but some of it comes across as a concept album which if you don’t see the live show, you won’t get the concept.
The lyrics seem to poke fun at American culture (which I think is a great angle) but many of the lyrics do come across as juvenile. But within that there’s definitely some gems and glimpses of the genius that Gwar would display on later albums. My favourite songs would have be “Je ‘Mapple J Cousteau”, “Time for Death”, “Americanized” and “Pure as the Artic Snow”. There’s enough on the album to make it worth buying, but there’s also some filler that doesn’t stand up without the live show.
Over all this is some good fun if you don’t take your metal too seriously. If you are new to Gwar, I’d say listen to the “Scumdogs” album and buy that first. I also think lead singer Oderus Urungus has a great voice. It really bridges the gap between metal and punk rather nicely. If you do tend to take your metal seriously this may not be the album for you, it is however a lot of fun if you’ve had a few drinks or just in the mood to senslessly rock out/
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