Ragnarök

About

This is GWAR's 5th album, released on October 24th, 1995. This album has the most varied vocal stylings of any other Gwar album, as the majority of the band lends their vocals to tracks, as well as guest characters. Ragnarök is essentially a heavy metal album spiced with a story about the end of the world. The story isn’t too clear, but it involves Oderous and his alien sister Slymenstra are forcibly mated with the help of rouge space aliens. Meanwhile, a comet hurtling towards Earth causes the population to revolt and anarchy spreads all over the world. An AIDS-like plague has crippled the masses (“The New Plague” is sung by Brockie from the perspective of someone with AIDS). People await the metero’s arrival and their subsequent death. Though, it turns out it wasn’t actually a comet, rather Cardinal Syn, a robotic agent of harsh Catholic dogma. Syn is representing the Warrior Pope, who’s demanding that all bow down to him and obey his insane whims. But Syn is drawn to Slymenstra's baby, for a reason that is left for the listener to uncover. The album concept could also be supposed as a ridicule of Christianity (“Martyr Dumb” is very direct about this topic). Highlight songs include “Dirty, Filthy”, which is moreso a comedy anthem. “Meat Sndwich” is the opener, and probably one of Gwar’s best songs and most popular among fans. It’s incredibly catchy melodies and addicting instruments have the song being stuck in your head randomly all the time. Don Drakulich does a mock-rapping bit as Sleazy P. Martini on “Think You Outta Know This”. Another song to note is “Fire in the Loins” which is an energetic duet between Oderous and Slymentstra, which shows the contrast and arguments between men and women. “Crush, Kill, Destroy” features new bassist Casey Orr (having replaced Michael Bishop as Beefcake the Mighty) on lead vocals for the first time. The one song featuring a character exclusive to the storyline is “Surf of Syn” – though the vocals aren't the main emphasis of the song, Hunter Jackson as Cardinal Syn does a vocal style similar to death growling. Between every song, this album has six vocalists (The titletrack has the Sexecutionor on it). Apart from the various vocal stylings, this album also has styles not found on other Gwar albums. Nowhere is this more apparent than in “Surf of Syn.” This song is the biggest change in Gwar's musical style (from the usual punk and metal to metal-fused surf) until Carnival Of Chaos in 1997. The keyboard and synths on this album are also heavily used. Ragnarök's songs are not performed in concert as frequently as songs from the other albums. With Gwar's change in musical style towards heavy metal (as opposed to punk-metal, or the surf-metal found only on this album), and with the absence of all but one of the album's vocalists (Beefcake), the number of usable songs from the album is limited (usually just to “Crush, Kill, Destroy" although "Meat Sandwich” was a staple in the 2006 Beyond Hell tour).

via Last.fm

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