War Party

On October 26th, 2004, War Party was released, it continues the heavier focus as seen in VIolence Has Arrived. This is the most political Gwar album since America Must Be Destroyed, tackling subject matter such as the 2004 election, the war in Iraq, among other things. Dave Brockie said “...basically Gwar pledges support to the powers who support the war, and we make such a right-wing statement that the right wing would be ashamed to have us.” The band continuous the grotesque imagery in songs like “Womb With a View”, “Fistfull of Teeth”, and “Bonesnapper”. Beefcake retains the bands trademark silliness in the French punk song, “The Bonus Plan”. In the fall of 2004, War Party was supported by the Mock the Vote tour. The Enhanced CD portion contains a music video for “Womb With A View”, which shows a plethora of concert footage from their spring 2004 tour. With the continuation of the heavier musical direction, Brockie was especially favourable about the album. According to interviews with Todd Evans (Beefcake the Mighty) and Brockie, War Party was selling very well, and was attracting new Gwar fans, as well as seeing old ones come back. Unlike most other albums, this one doesn’t follow a true story per se. There still seems to be an ongoing concept throughout, about a fictional political party called the “War Party”, with policies dedicated specifcally to the eradication of the human race by supporting global war and hatred, under the symbol the “Krosstika” which is a cross between the christian cross and the Nazi swasitika (“Two great hates that hate great together”). The band refers to the Krosstika on their next studio album, *Beyond Hell*, and will often play this song towards the beginning of their concerts. Though the War Party itself has disbanded (according to Gwar lore), the band continues to play songs from this album in concert, as the album is among the band's favorites, most notably “Bring Back the Bomb”.

## Track Info

### "Bring Back The Bomb"

“Bring Back the Bomb” is one of Gwar's more popular songs. It's a fast paced track that advocates for continued and more reckless use of nuclear weapons (most notably the "A-Bomb" used by the U.S.A during World War II) as a solution to all problems. Within the album’s story, it is the rallying cry for the War Party, a political party that stands for complete destruction at all costs (as a parody of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq).

“Bring Back the Bomb” is the second most-performed GWAR song in their discography, having been performed at nearly every concert since 2004 with few exceptions. It made its live debut on December 31, 2003, though its lyrics wouldn’t be finalized until midway through 2004.

The song’s music video was shot on November 29, 2004, at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California. To achieve enough cover footage for the video, the band performed the song twice, back to back in the middle of their set. The start of the video features a brief clip of the song’s introduction from the *Live From Mt. Fuji* album, which featured the video as an enhanced bonus feature.

### "Krosstika"

"Krosstika" is a song about the symbol of the political party, the "war party". It's a mixture of the Nazi swasitka and Christian cross ("two great hates that hate great together"). The symbol would later be referenced in *"*Murderer's Muse" from *Beyond Hell.*

### "Bonesnapper (Faces Of The Slain)"

This song is the first mention and an introduction to Gwar's current bodyguard, Bonesnapper (Bob Gorman). Bonesapper would later have his own song on *Battle Maximus* called "I, Bonesnapper" which he sings.

### "Lost God"

"Lost God" is a song denouncing various gods from religions. One line, "It's gone beyond hatred this time" ended up being resued in the second verse of "Let Us Slay" on *Lust In Space* from 2009.

### "The Reaganator"

A song about the Reaganator, which is a robot built from the rotting corpse of Ronald Reagan. The song makes various references to other cultural and historical events throughout.

### "The Bonus Plan"

Sung entirely in French by bassist Beefcake The Mighty (Todd Evans), “The Bonus Plan” is a short punk song about rough sex with groupies. It is the only GWAR song sung by Evans and was never performed live.

## Personnel

* Dave Brockie (Oderus Urungus) - lead vocals
* Cory Smoot (Flattus Maximus) - lead guitar, backing vocals
* Mike Derks (Balsac the Jaws of Death) - rhythm guitar, backing vocals
* Todd Evans (Beefcake the Mighty) - bass guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "The Bonus Plan"
* Brad Roberts (Jizmak Da Gusha) - drums, percussion