By Kelley Simms
CAN'T STOP GWAR
GWAR, 2017
N
othing can kill GWAR. Not even
the death of original frontman
Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie) in
2014 could keep the "Scumdogs of the
Universe" from wreaking havoc. Oderus’s
replacement, Blothar (Michael Bishop) —
who was initially the bassist Beefcake the
Almighty 20 years ago — commands the
mic and delivers “poetic” lyrics in true
GWAR fashion on the band’s 14th album,
The Blood of Gods. Blothar and guitarist
Pustulus Maximus spoke to Kelley Simms.
IE: What has been the most challenging
part about stepping in for Oderus?
Blothar: Well, I’m not Oderus. I’m the
Berserker Blothar and I sing the way I sing.
I do the songs the way they come to me.
GWAR has always been a group who do
what we do very well, and we do it collec-
tively. We do what we do for Oderus
Urungus. He was the greatest rock and roll
singer ever to grace the face of this planet
and the things that we do are in honor of
him. I think carrying GWAR forward is the
best thing we can do for that hideous, baby-
raping alien Oderus Urungus.
IE: Were there any concerns about if the
fans would accept you as replacements?
Blothar: We’re never concerned about what
the fans think. The fans think what we
want them to think. There was some con-
34 illinoisentertainer.com december 2017
cern that perhaps GWAR in the new millen-
nium would be unable to keep up with
humanity, because humanity is so dark and
self-destructive. And that’s the theme of the
album The Blood of Gods. It tells that story;
the story of GWAR struggling with human-
ity. So you can listen to the record and find
out more about that. The narrative is very
clear on the album.
IE: Same question for you Pustulus, as you
replaced fallen brother Flattus Maximus
(Cory Smoot) in 2011. What was your main
goal coming into the band?
Pustulus: To not suck! [laughs] My main
goal entering the band was to continue on
the tradition of the Maximus clan and to
bring my own flavor of rock ‘n ’roll back to
this group. I think it fits in very well and I
think we do Flattus much justice. I had bro-
ken into the space coffin and got to
Flattus’s guitars and brought them on tour
to pay homage to my fallen cousin. We’re
here to change all that and spray them with
blood and bodily fluids, and basically
expose them to a brighter future through
GWAR.
IE: Your guitar solos throughout the album
are blazing and even catchy. What were
you going for solo wise? Were they just
spontaneous or well thought out?
Pustulus: Everything I write I try to think it
out. Most of the stuff I’ve written eons ago,
so I just pull riffs out of a magic hat for the
most part. I’m more of a blues and rock ‘n’
roll style guitar player and that’s what I
enjoy and that’s what my mom says I’m
good at. So that’s what I bring to the table.
IE: Blothar, you were Beefcake the Mighty
20 years ago. What made you come back
after all these years?
Blothar: Beefcake experienced mitosis and
divided into two, and I am the better half.
It’s been different because we figure like
that’s naturally just something that ass-
holes do. Like play bass, that’s what cool
guys do. So now I’m an asshole all of a sud-
den, but I’ve adjusted well. Years ago play-
ing bass guitar for this band was a dream,
like a distant dream, a nightmare. But now
being the lead singer, I’ve got more midgets
than I can possibly molest. So I’m perfectly
happy!
IE: What were you focused on while creat-
ing The Blood of Gods?
Pustulus: We did come together in a uni-
fied front on this one. I wanted to make a
record that was different but the same. I
didn’t want to make the same four records
we just did before. That was a good era of
GWAR, but things stopped being eclectic at
some point and started molding into this, I
don’t want to say, meathead metal riffs…
I’m much more comfortable in the realm of
punk rock and rock ‘n’ roll. Not that I dis-
like metal by any means, but I think by
today’s standards, metal has gotten boring.
There’s only a few bands that I listen to
anymore in the heavy metal genre. And the
ones I like do it really well. I think it’s
reached a point where it’s not being
expanded upon like in the '80s and '90s
when it was fresh. Now it seems like every-
body’s trying to rip off Lamb of God (fel-
low Richmond buddies) nowadays.
Blother: What a terrible idea! (laughs)
That’s like stealing from a K-Mart!
Everything Pustulus said is right on the
money. I think we really didn’t have a
choice but to do a record like that. We did
the record like we needed to do. It’s not like
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