GWAR

There has never been a band just like GWAR. The metalheads have carved out their very own niche and become icons thanks to elaborate, otherworldly costuming and live shows that smash any sort of typical decency standards with stunning gross-out gags including a giant maggot and gallons of fake bodily fluids. Formed in the mid-’80s by Virginia Commonwealth University students, GWAR has a complex, twisted sci-fi mythology that informs their heavy and freakish tunes. In 1990, Scumdogs of the Universe proved to be their breakout moment and contained tales of their origins (the warped “Death Pod”) and the vicious “Sick of You,” which has been the curtain closer of their live shows for decades. While the band, which has featured many different members over the years, trade in a brand of heavy metal with doomy guitar and breakneck drumming—check out 1992’s merciless “Gor-Gor”—the visuals have always been the driving force behind the project. They’ve made numerous full-length films around the music, including 1993’s Grammy-nominated Phallus in Wonderland. The band’s last active founding member, vocalist Oderus Urungus (a.k.a. Dave Brockie) died of a heroin overdose in 2014, but GWAR have soldiered on in apparently immortal fashion.