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Oh man, I haven't heard Gwar in quite some time. I actually have Scumdogs of the Universe and one of their films Phallus in Wonderland lying around the house somewhere. I used to enjoy these guys when I was about 14, although I never really felt the need to keep up with them after school. Enough about my life story though, and on to the pressing matter of their latest release Bloody Pit of Horror.

Since I haven't heard any of their post 90's output I can't really comment on their work, although from a quick spot of research I managed to gather that their last few releases have all been in the heavy/thrash metal style, and Bloody Pit of Horror certainly falls into that category. It's hard to take these guys for the musical credibility, with their stage attire, ridiculous back story and idiotic lyrics and song titles it's easy to dismiss Gwar as a novelty. However the band can fucking play and they prove it throughout Bloody Pit of Horror with some particularly headbang-worthy tracks.

The opening four tracks make up the four-part title track and they are all pretty cool. The opener "Zombies March!" is certainly one of the finest moments of this release, although the guitars sound just a little too down-tuned. Nonetheless this is a good riff fest that certainly gets the blood pumping. Others tracks in this vein would include "A Gathering of Ghouls" with some cool thrash riffing, and a surprisingly punishing breakdown at the end which is revisited in the following track. The goofy tracks are certainly the weaker offerings here although the verses of "Tick Tits" amusingly remind me of the Faith No More song "Surprise Your Dead".

All in all if you're a fan of acts such as Austrian Death Machine or groove/thrash/crossover you're going to find some fun with Bloody Pit of Horror. However if you can't take a fair share of goofiness then you'd do well to steer clear of this. This isn't an album you're going to spin very often, although it is short and snappy and would work well for a party. Good fun but by no means essential.