### GWAR, Mensrea, 2008-05-30

#### 18/07/08 || Global Domination

This review was written by ex-staffer/cocksmoker Jotun.

Venue: The National, Richmond Where: Virginia When: May 30th, 2008 Why: A crack-addicted prophet said I was the Keymaster. Naturally, I was looking for the Gatekeeper. How: While only wearing a damp yak-fur loincloth Country: America

Intro: GWAR has always had a special place in my heart that warms me to very bitter core of my loins and keeps me coming back to their creative and always entertaining stage show. Spewing forth as powerful and virulent as ever, GWAR has held and maintained their wonderfully sick, demented and twisted style while receiving praise from their fans as they are struck with various bodily excretions. Opening for the mighty Antarctic gladiators was the ever-enjoyable Richmond local band, Mensrea (who features Flattus Maximus in “human” form on guitar). Together, with the awesome acoustics and spacey accommodations of The National, the two bands reigned metal hell down through the night.

Mensrea: After some odd metal jam band that I just barely caught the tail end off, Mensrea took stage. Their setting up process alone set the precedence for what was to come. Bellowing into the mic and sustaining it beyond mere mortal capabilities, the lead singer had me eating out of the palm of his hands with his straight screaming style, which is not an easy sell for me. I much prefer low growls and bellows over screams when it comes to death metal, but these guys were not light-weights by any means. Full of grinds that dig away at your cranium while coupled with breaks and leads that are both talented, tasteful, and well-placed, Mensrea formed plenty of well-deserved pits and perfectly heralded the dominators that were about to take stage.

My only complaint is with one of the songs, which right in the middle of a perfect headbanging section turned into some clean vocal, screamo, gay love orgy that barely counts as music. While my neck could have certainly used the break, I would have much preferred it occurring from falling on the floor in the pit than from losing my love for the moment. Still, Mensrea put on a great show full on intensity and energy. 7.5/10

GWAR: Another GWAR show, and another hour and a half standing amongst profusely sweating and hairy metal heads while waiting to be greeted by the sweet embrace of fake blood being ejaculated over the venue in the name of seeing famous faces lose their guts (amongst other things). Beginning the night with George Bush, GWAR went from Hitler to the Pope (not much of a change granted), slaying everyone in the most wonderfully, gore-filled way. Fake blood, semen, and bile filled the arena as the space gladiators took very little time to break between songs. The crowd swayed like a frothing amorphis blob, soaking up every sound and evacuated liquid.

The music touched on GWAR’s entire catalog, even playing “Baby Raper” from “We Kill Everything” which was a morbidly pleasant surprise. The typical GWAR songs like “Immortal Corrupter”, “Sick of You”, and “Crush, Kill, Destroy” were played, along with a plethora of newer songs off of “Beyond Hell”. Despite the vocals being mostly incoherent due to the band over-powering Oderus’ gutterations and the poorer that usual production quality, the crowd and I still managed to scream along as GWAR unceasingly flew through their act.

The stage was absolutely phenomenal and well set up for all of the antics that ensued. One character I always love to see, Gor-Gor made an appearance and naturally an epic and bloody battle emanated. As the show continued, GWAR pulled some songs out of the dossier that I had never had the pleasure to hear live such as “Penguin Attack” and surprised the crowd with their ode to kidnapping children: “Have You Seen Me?”. Each song was played exceptionally well, but as stated before, the over-powering vocals and poor production at times would take away from the experience, especially if you were just taking a break from the sea of people to enjoy the show. 8.5/10

Two bands and one hell of a show. This is my fourth viewing of GWAR, and the stage show only gets more intense and hilarious every time I see them. Hell, this year Oderus had a whole new set of testicles attached to his cuttlefish, so only Jesus and Sylvia Brown could possibly know what is in stored for future shows.