GWAR The Return of Gor-Gor Review
GWAR
The Return of Gor-Gor
The Pit Records
2025
Richmond, VA’s latex-laden, costumed freak show GWAR has returned! For 40 years as of 2025, they’ve been equal parts performance art, punk/metal/hard rock, and pure controversy. Their stage show is the stuff of legend, no one in the first ten rows ever leaves without being drenched in copious amounts of fake blood, fake semen, and whatever other substances they feel like hurling at the audience. From 1988’s Hell-O to the now-classic Scumdogs of the Universe, GWAR has endured as one of metal’s most unique and entertaining acts, amassing 23 albums and touring this toilet earth with a live spectacle second to none.
After the death of frontman and ringleader Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie) in 2014, the band decided to carry on. GWAR has always been a collective with a rotating cast of colorful characters, and today Blöthar the Berserker fronts the chaos. He was briefly joined by Vulvatron (Kim Dylla), but now helms the mic alone, alongside Balsac the Jaws O’ Death and Grodius Maximus on guitars, Beefcake the Mighty on bass, and Jizmak da Gusha on drums.
With The Return of Gor-Gor we get three brand-new songs and four live tracks, wrapped in a true multimedia package: vinyl, CD, digital download, a Gor-Gor plush toy, branded merch, and even a 32-page comic chronicling the sordid tale of GWAR’s beloved pet T-Rex. According to Blöthar, Gor-Gor, missing since Oderus left this mortal coil, has returned as “a 20-foot-tall trans-species prostitute.” Apparently, times have been tough for our scaly friend.
The new songs, “The Great Circus Train Disaster,” “Lot Lizard,” and “Tyrant King” (the latter even slipping in some late-’90s SoCal skate punk vibes) are worthy additions to the catalog. They bristle with urgency, leaning hard on thrash, hardcore, and punk speed while sprinkling in the requisite GWAR weirdness: clean guitar breaks, funky detours, and sound-effect mindfuckery. Mixed by Converge’s Kurt Ballou, the production has a pronounced live feel—big, tight, and punchy, with every instrument landing just right.
The live material rounds things out with classics: “Crack in the Egg,” “The Founding Fathers,” the instrumental “America Must Be Destroyed,” and the ever-offensive “Fish Fuck.” They sound great and will no doubt satisfy longtime scumdogs, though I can’t help but wish for more new songs in the mix.
Still, The Return of Gor-Gor delivers exactly what we’ve come to expect from a GWAR release. That’s no complaint—it’s fun, chaotic, and packed with the kind of out-of-nowhere shifts only GWAR could pull off. It follows the absolute face-smash of 2022’s The New Dark Ages admirably, even if it doesn’t fully capitalize on that momentum. Minor gripe aside, it’s noisy, unhinged, and utterly devoid of discipline, just the way we like them.
The interplanetary shock-rock troupe sails onward, and The Return of Gor-Gor serves as a perfect gateway into their demented mythos. God What Awful Racket are still out there raising hell, and I, for one, am glad they are.
~TB