Review Summary: An often overlooked and misunderstood album, I feel that this album has some of GWAR’s most interesting ideas that work. And a few that just don’t.
This album greatly fascinates me. The fact that they made an experimental album after their most critically acclaimed, and the very mixed reception. But I’ll first go into the sound and ideas of the album before I go over the reception.
Don’t get me wrong, this album is not perfect. Pepperoni is honestly just one of those songs that is instrumentality varied and interesting, but the lyrics ruin it. It’s easily one of the worst songs on the album. Fight is mediocre, and I kind of feel that Jack The World wants to be fun, but it tries too hard and doesn't. But the rest of the tracks are pretty solid.
My favorite ones are the ones that lean into the more cosmic sounds and make something more atmospheric than the typical GWAR dumb fun. My favorite of these is Sonderkommando. The lyrics and the vocal delivery is fantastic, and the cosmic atmosphere works great. Pocket Pool and The Issue Of Tissue do not disappoint either.
The most experimental track is The Insidious Soliloquy of Skulhedface. This is definitely the most weird I’ve heard the band get, and personally I’m all for it. It transitions from that heavy yet atmospheric cosmic sound, then switches juxtaposed into other sounds such as just piano and vocals. I feel that the vocals and the lyrics do make things engaging and interesting, even as the song progresses suddenly. It’s a really fascinating track that I don’t want to spoil too much.
Now time for the more dumb fun songs. Krak Down is among my favorites from this album, and shows that they can still do what they do best. It's heavy, varied, and the vocals tie it all together. It's one of those tracks that I can very easily sing along and jam to. B.D.F is similar to Krak Down for the reasons mentioned above. Even with the extreme shock value lyrics, it’s still a fantastic song that’s looked over. Bad Bad Men is a track that I can see why people would glaze over, but I personally think it's pretty good. Penis I See has pretty interesting riffs and the vocals keep me engaged.
Slap U Around is another standout from the album, which takes more country influences to have lyrics about domestic abuse. Pretty interesting.
I’ll finally get to Saddam A Go-Go. I kind of avoid talking about hit singles right away. And it's a hit for a reason. Despite all of the weird ideas, everything just works. The trumpets just blend together with the pummeling riffs to make a really heavy but weird song.
Also The Obliteration OF Flab Quarv 7 is a pretty great closer, encapsulating the whole evil misfits personalities the characters have, along with an interesting song.
With the actual album out for the way, now I’ll talk about how the reception fascinates me.
While it's very bold to release such an experimental album after their universally “best” one, I do feel that it made people come in with unrealistic expectations. But I do respect the band for doing this. It’s either releasing an album that tries to mimic the predecessor (and greaty risk being an inferior album in the process), or make something out of left field and risk it being disregarded. Basically damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
I just feel that people don’t give this album enough of a chance for it to get the recognition I feel it deserves.
This is the only GWAR album I really come back to anymore, and it’s not for no reason.
Recommended Tracks: Sonderkommando, Krak Down, Pocket Pool, B.D.F, The Issue Of Tissue.
