The Disc With No Name

About

Inspired by stripped-down appearances at New York’s Saint Vitus club and on The A.V. Club’s quarantine session, heavy metal space pirates GWAR recorded an acoustic EP during the COVID-19 lockdown. Featuring unplugged versions of two songs from 2017’s <i>The Blood of Gods</i>—their first album after the 2014 death of founder Oderus Urungus (aka Dave Brockie)—plus acoustic renditions of ’90s favorites “Gonna Kill U” and “The Road Behind,” <i>The Disc With No Name</i> shows the softer side of the famed Antarctic scumdog. “Some of these tunes really translate pretty well acoustically, which is not that surprising because of the way we write song,” GWAR’s former bassist and current vocalist Mike “Blothar” Bishop tells Apple Music. “I'm not sure how a GOJIRA acoustic set would go, you know?” Below, Bishop comments on each track. <b>“F**k This Place (Acoustic)”</b> “[Guitarist] BalSac [the Jaws of Death] wanted to do a song that really summed up our feelings when we did <i>Blood of Gods</i>, and that whole album asks a single question: Should we keep doing this in the absence of Oderus? Whether we should or not, we’re going to. We were also noticing that GWAR was having a hard time keeping up with humanity in terms of absurdity, self-abuse, and disregard for the environment and for one another. So really the song is us looking around and going, ‘You know what? Fuck this place. Our best boy is out—maybe we should be out too.’” <b>“Gonna Kill You (Acoustic)”</b> “This was a great example of Oderus stretching the emotional bowels and framework of heavy metal, which he did a lot. I think he's very undersold as a vocalist. He’s funny, but he’s also really capable and clever, and this song is a good example of that. Believe it or not, I think this one came from Oderus’ love of Springsteen and the album <i>Nebraska</i>. Lyrically, I’m not really sure what it’s about, other than this dude is about to commit some grisly act. The original was already kind of acoustic, so I wanted to try singing it myself.” <b>“I’ll Be Your Monster (Acoustic)”</b> “This is another one from <i>Blood of Gods</i>. [Guitarist] Pustulus [Maximus] wrote the riff, and it was very easy to turn it from a straight-ahead blues rock song into an acoustic blues number. And that blues focus is why we chose it for this release. You don’t hear the blues in modern metal that much—other than a band like Clutch, who I’ve always appreciated, or Danzig. And they’re to be commended for it, I think.” <b>“The Road Behind”</b> .

via Apple Music

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