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This Toilet Earth

 
Album Review: This Toilet Earth

  • Artist: Gwar
  • Rating: StarHalf Star
  • Release Date: 1994
  • Type: Contains explicit content, Lyrics are included with the album
  • Genre: Rock

Review

On their fourth release, This Toilet Earth, Gwar managed to create a song so heinous ("B.D.F.") that it was removed from the disc post-release, just as the band was removed from their new label, Priority Records. Happily, the lords of gross-out metal were welcomed back to their old home, Metal Blade Records, with open arms and the group hardly missed a beat. On this 1994 offering, the mothers of scatological invention add a smidgen of stop-and-go faux funk to their assault. Faith No More and Zappa-like soundscapes advance tracks like "Pepperoni" beyond Gwar's traditional realm of bad metal. Vocalist Oderous Urungus' delivery sounds more confident than earlier efforts -- due undoubtedly to the years of touring and recording -- and his bandmates perform up to their own low standards. None of this is really meant to be taken seriously, and critical listeners need not consider This Toilet Earth or any other release from the world's most disgusting joke band. But there is some charm to Gwar. In the cynical American tradition of dualistic "free" speech, they are performance artists lampooning everything that's wrong with the marketing of teenage male entertainment, which -- not so ironically -- is everything that they enjoy. ~ Vincent Jeffries, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Saddam a Go-Go GWAR GWAR (2:30)
Penis I See GWAR GWAR (2:55)
Eat Steel GWAR GWAR (1:28)
Jack the World GWAR GWAR (2:24)
Sonderkommando GWAR GWAR (4:54)
Bad Bad Men GWAR GWAR (3:08)
Pepperoni GWAR GWAR (1:41)
The Insidious Soliloquy of Skulhed Face GWAR GWAR (5:16)
B.D.F. GWAR GWAR (2:41)
Fight GWAR GWAR (:56)
The Issue of Tissue (Spacecake) GWAR GWAR (3:10)
Pocket Pool GWAR GWAR (2:27)
Slap U Around GWAR GWAR (2:39)
Krak Down GWAR GWAR (3:22)
Filthy Flow GWAR GWAR (2:14)
The Obliteration of Flab Quarv 7 GWAR GWAR (2:41)

Credits

Jenna Anderson (Vocals), Howie Weinberg (Mastering), Jiz Mac the Gusher (Drums), Scott Wolfe (Producer), Dan Sites (Artwork), Raymond Scott (Composer), Tim Harris (Guitar), Scott Wolfe (Engineer), Hunter Jackson (Design), Tim Hetfield (Assistant Engineer), Tony Simerman (Graphic Design), Balsac the Jaws of Death (Guitar), Dave Brockie (Artwork), Scott Krahl (Vocals), Hunter Jackson (Package Design), Tim Harriss (Guitar), Jimmy "Crazy Jimmy" Garthoff (Trombone), Jeff Eden (Artwork), Matt Maguire (Artwork), Jon Mela (Trumpet), Robert Smith (Mixing), Bob Gorman (Artwork), Oderus Urungus (Bass), Balsac the Jaws of Death (Arranger), Slymenstra Hymen (?), Chuck Varga (Artwork), Michael James (Horn), Sexecutioner (?), Katherine Leatherwood (Photography), Robert Smith (Engineer), Hunter Jackson (Artwork), Jizmak DaGusha (Drums), Scott Wolfe (Mixing), Tony Simerman (Computer Graphics), GWAR (Arranger), Don Drakulich (Artwork), Beefcake the Mighty (Bass), Flattus Maximus (?), Sleazy P. Martini (?), Michael Sid Jones (Saxophone), Beefcake the Mighty (Vocals)
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Wikipedia: This Toilet Earth
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This Toilet Earth
Studio album by GWAR
Released 1994
Recorded 1993
Genre Thrash metal
Length 40:59
Label Metal Blade Records
Producer Scott Wolfe
Professional reviews
GWAR chronology
The Road Behind
(1992)
This Toilet Earth
(1994)
RagNaRok
(1995)

This Toilet Earth is the fourth album released by rock/heavy metal/punk band GWAR. Released in 1994, this album was to be one of their oddest and most bittersweet albums. It was the first GWAR album to be censored (the second was We Kill Everything, which comes in both censored and uncensored versions), due to their gain in popularity as a result of MTV exposure. The music and artwork is almost cartoonish when compared to the previous albums, and the instrumentation has expanded to include horns (in the opener, "Saddam a Go-Go") that reinforce the goofiness.

The album is a blend of chaotic styles reminiscent of Faith No More and Frank Zappa. Skulhedface was the movie released to document this album. "Jack the World" was also featured in the Beavis and Butt-head video game for the Sega Genesis.

Storywise, the enemy is now Skulhedface, an alien queen who was deformed in a Synnite Warrior raid on her planet centuries before. In retaliation, she travels to Antarctica, encounters GWAR while they are hibernating, and steals their Jizmoglobin, or life force. Her midget slave Flopsy and she then create a creature made up of the melded parts of evil historical figures (such as Hitler) called the Flesh Column. Skulhedface disguises herself as an evil executive for the Glomco corporation, and uses propaganda to turn GWAR into sickeningly cuddly cartoon characters. Meanwhile, GWAR discovers that the World Maggot is their only opportunity to escape Earth, but Skullhedface stands in their way. Oderus & Co. must regain their Jizz and catch the maggot in time. Both the movie Skulhedface and the album feature the voice of Scott Krahl as Skulhedface (Krahl played Gor-Gor in the tour prior to this album). Krahl also played the World Maggot on this tour and movie.

Contents

"B.D.F."

Because of B.D.F.'s comically vulgar and extremely graphic references to obscene acts that run the gamut from sodomy, necrophilia, pre-natal rape, pedophilia to mutilation (the initials stand for "Baby Dick Fuck," which is used in the chorus of the song), GWAR was forced to release the initial pressing of the CD through Priority Records - this initial pressing was 25,000 copies, according to Brad Roberts. The song was removed from subsequent pressings of the CD through Metal Blade Records. "B.D.F." was not the only song to cover such subject matter - We Kill Everything's "Babyraper," with its less-than-subtle title (as opposed to the abbreviation used for "B.D.F"), goes into extreme detail about the same subject, but, unlike in 1994, was not required to be removed from the album (presumably because it was released at the lowest point of GWAR's popularity). Both songs are still played live, albeit less frequently than other, heavier songs (indeed, very few of the tracks on either album are played live, due largely to story conflicts and new musical direction).

Unlike Slaves Going Single, first-pressing copies of This Toilet Earth are not as rare on eBay. Auctions rarely, if ever, end above $60.

Jack the World

Jack the World is the fourth track in heavy metal band GWAR's fifth album, This Toilet Earth. This song laments losing a 1993 Grammy to Metallica:
I wanna suck like lovers do
I wanna lose a Grammy too
I wanna kick the teeth outta you

Lineup Changes

This Toilet Earth is GWAR's first album with Peter Lee as Flattus Maximus. Lee would be shot in a carjacking not too long after the album was finished. As a result, he was out of commission for the beginning of the tour, and most of Skulhedface's filming. He did film one segment with Dave Brockie, however, that started the band X-Cops (Lee jokingly asked Brockie, both dressed as policemen, "What would be cooler than a bunch of cops playing kick-ass rock n' roll?").[cite this quote] As a result, touring for this album was minimal.

It is also the last album with Michael Bishop as an actual full-time member of the band. Bishop, who played Beefcake the Mighty, left the band in 1993, after the recording of This Toilet Earth. He would be replaced by Casey Orr, and then would return for the brief touring preceding, and the recording of, We Kill Everything.

Track listing

# Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Saddam a Go-Go"   Dave Brockie/Mike Bishop/Mike Derks 2:30
2. "Penis I See"   Brockie/Bishop/Derks 2:55
3. "Eat Steel"   Bishop/Brockie 1:28
4. "Jack The World"   Brockie/Bishop/Derks 2:24
5. "Sonderkommando"   Brockie/Bishop 4:54
6. "Bad Bad Men"   Brockie/Bishop/Derks 3:08
7. "Pepperoni"   Brockie/Bishop/Derks 1:41
8. "The Insidious Soliloquy of Skulhed Face"   Scott Krahl/Bishop 5:16
9. "B.D.F."   Brockie/Bishop 2:23
10. "Fight"   Brockie/Bishop 0:56
11. "The Issue of Tissue (Spacecake)"   Brockie/Bishop/Pete Lee 3:11
12. "Pocket Pool"   Brockie/Bishop 2:27
13. "Slap U Around"   Brockie/Jim Thompson/Derks 2:39
14. "Krak Down"   Brockie/Derks/Bishop 3:22
15. "Filthy Flow"   Brockie/Bishop/Derks/Lee 2:14
16. "The Obliteration of Flab Quarv 7"   Brockie/Bishop/Derks/Lee 2:42

Line-up


 
 

 

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Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "This Toilet Earth" Read more