Beyond Hell

Released in 2006, Beyond Hell is GWAR’s first full-on concept album since 1999. The album was produced by lead guitarist Cory Smoot and famed jack-of-all-trades Devin Townsend, who also provides backing vocals to “Tormentor”.

The story of both the album and tour revolves around GWAR being ambushed by the Nazi Pope’s armies, who bomb the band’s fortress and force them underground. As GWAR delves deeper into the Earth, they find the entrance to Hell and are greeted by Jitler, a hybrid of Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler, who aides in their journey through the underworld. Along the way, the band fight various demons and monsters on their quest to kill Satan. When they arrive at his fortress, they discover Satan is actually a minotaur-like creature named Jewcifer (voiced by Matt Maguire). Jewcifer proves to be a worthy foe and has GWAR on the ropes, until they summon their mighty tyrannosaurus Gor-Gor to defeat him. After defeating Jewcifer, GWAR returns to the surface only to find their fortress is still destroyed and they have nothing to show for their efforts. They concede that their journey was virtually pointless and smoke a crack boulder sent by their manager, Sleazy P. Martini (portrayed by Don Drakulich, though he doesn’t actually appear on the album).

Tacked onto the end is a cover of Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”, which was recorded after GWAR’s label wanted a strong, more “mainstream” lead single to boost album sales.

Beyond Hell is the final GWAR album to feature Todd Evans as bassist Beefcake The Mighty.