{"id":14573,"date":"2013-09-17T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T00:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=14573"},"modified":"2013-10-09T13:35:57","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T13:35:57","slug":"album-review-gwar-battle-maximus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-gwar-battle-maximus\/","title":{"rendered":"GWAR – Battle Maximus (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

GWAR
Battle Maximus<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMetal Blade (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Following the death of guitarist Cory Smoot and the subsequent retirement of the Flattus Maximus character, Gwar make their highly anticipated return with Battle Maximus<\/em>. The new album features new lead guitarist Pustulus Maximus (Cannabis Corpse\u2019s Brent Purgason) and marks a much heavier touch than most of the Virginia band\u2019s albums. <\/p>\n

Throughout Battle Maximus<\/em> I can\u2019t help but shake an inevitable Faith No More comparison. The pummeling, semi-narrated \u2018Nothing Left Alive\u2019, \u2018Triumph Of The Pig Children\u2019 and \u2018They Swallowed The Sun\u2019 sound like outtakes from Angel Dust<\/em> (1992) or King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime<\/em> (1995). They have that same barked aggression, with just a tinge of progressiveness that those albums in particular featured. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the melodic, downward descending rock \u2019n\u2019 roll edge of \u2018Falling\u2019 brings a slightly stoner feel to the aforementioned barked aggression that pushes the comparison to Faith No More even farther. \u2018Falling\u2019 is by far one of my favourite Gwar tracks to date, so the comparison is by no means meant to be a slight. Instead, it shows just how progressive Gwar have become here, relying less on the straightforward rhythms and more on creating a multi-layered album.<\/p>\n

If you are a longtime Gwar fan and are cringing at what I\u2019ve described so far, fear not splatter whores! The band have blood and puke a plenty on songs like the dark and disgusting \u2018Raped At Birth\u2019 and the battle anthem \u2018Bloodbath\u2019, whose groove is quite likely to inspire circle pits throughout the world on the next tour go around. The instrumental title track is a fantastic showcase of what Pustulus Maximus brings to the table, with strong leads that certainly play up his stoner background but also don\u2019t shy away from the pagan-inspired 80s metal traditions either, landing somewhere between Venom and Saxon musically.<\/p>\n

Overall, this is one of Gwar\u2019s best albums (I\u2019d rank it right up there with 1995\u2019s Ragnar\u00f6k<\/em> and 1990\u2019s Scumdogs Of The Universe<\/em>). Is it still on a par with the best music I\u2019ve heard this year? Not quite, but Battle Maximus<\/em>, as with any Gwar album, is all about the whole package and the music is just a medium sized portion of that. There\u2019s a lot to like here musically and I think ol\u2019 Pustulus has a bright future with this band of scumdogs. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GWARBattle Maximus Metal Blade (2013)Rating: 8.5\/10 Following the death of guitarist Cory Smoot and the subsequent retirement of the Flattus Maximus character, Gwar make their highly anticipated return with Battle Maximus. The new album features new lead guitarist Pustulus Maximus (Cannabis Corpse\u2019s Brent Purgason) and marks a much heavier touch than most of the Virginia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,770],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-gwar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14573"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14600,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14573\/revisions\/14600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}