Hell-O
Encyclopedia
Hell-o! is the debut album by Gwar
Gwar
Gwar is a satirical heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia, United States, in 1984. The band is best known for its elaborate science fiction/horror film inspired costumes, obscene lyrics and graphic stage performances, which feature humorous enactments of politically and morally taboo...

. The album was released in 1988, on Shimmy Disc
Shimmy Disc
Shimmy Disc was an influential New York City based record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. Before it was sold to the Knitting Factory, it was responsible for providing a mass audience for acts including Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, Ween,...

 Records.

Gwar's angle on the album is that of a morbid punk band (a la The Mentors
The Mentors
The Mentors are an American heavy metal band noted for its deliberately sexist shock rock lyrics.They formed in 1977 in Seattle, Washington and relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1979, where their irreverent attitude aligned them with the city's punk rock scene. Their music has developed...

, The Misfits, Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...

) obsessed with debauchery, violence and toilet humor. The songs generally support the theme of the group quite well, expanding the band's concept to comic proportions and supporting the back story.

The band play sooth-sayers to the United States ("Americanized" and "Ollie North") and modern human civilization in general ("Slutman City"), who have come to torture and enslave Earth for their own perverse sadistic pleasures ("Time For Death", "Bone Meal", "War Toy", "I'm In Love (With a Dead Dog)" - a tender episode in canine-alien relations). Like Superman, Gwar seem to enjoy superhuman powers on Earth, having their way with anyone and everyone they come across. However, they are not without enemies - a character known as Techno-Destructo has followed the band to Earth to recruit (or enslave) them to serve "The Master" in a holy jihad against the universe ("Techno's Song"). Don Drakulich plays Techno on the album (the part would soon be taken over by Hunter Jackson). Other songs follow similarly crazy themes - the "Gwar Theme" is a car-eating anthem, "Je M' Appelle J. Cousteau" features famous aquanaut Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water...

 in a Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...

-esque romp, and "AEIOU" disputes whether the English alphabet is the property of Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

 or Gor-Gor
America Must Be Destroyed
-Line-up:*Dave Brockie – Lead vocals*Pete Lee – Lead guitar, backing vocals tour only*Mike Derks – Lead guitar, Rhythm guitar, backing vocals...

 (another Gwar character who would later surface in the song/video of the same name). "Rock N' Roll Party Town", the first song ever written by the band, concludes the album in scenes of rock debauchery vaguely reminiscent of Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...

 (of whom the band, with their showmanship and larger-than-life personas, seemed to be an 80s underground version). The original vinyl album contained a comic book about the band, featuring artwork parodying Picasso's
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

 Guernica
Guernica (painting)
Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War...

(renamed "Gwarnica" here) and poking fun at the "this is your brain on drugs" commercials ("This is your brain on Gwar..."). The album's cover art features the band gleefully terrorizing Earthlings (particularly skinheads, who would attend the band's early shows and harass them with heckling, violence and throwing food, such as toast, onstage) and bulldozing their bodies into ditches (a reference to the Nazi concentration camps in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

).

The album is a divisive point among fans of the band, who generally love it or hate it. Hell-O is the least-frequently played album in concert and discussed by the band in interviews, although this could be because the band's line-up has changed to the point where no one from this period is still in the band (save lead singer Dave "Oderus Urungus
Oderus Urungus
Oderus Urungus, played by Dave Brockie, is the lead vocalist of the Metal band Gwar. He appears as an intergalactic humanoid barbarian with devil horns and a meaty looking face, and always carries around a long sword named "Unt Lick"...

" Brockie). "Gwar Theme" and "Pure As The Arctic Snow" are the two songs most often played live (though they are rare in appearance), and occasionally, the band will play a medley of songs from the album, ranging anywhere from 3 songs to (more recently) 12 songs, which is more than half the album.

Musically and conceptually, the record fits in with and came from the arty 80s noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...

 or "scum rock" scene (Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...

, Pussy Galore
Pussy Galore (band)
Pussy Galore was an American garage rock band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1985. They had a constantly fluid line-up until their demise in 1990. Like many garage rock outfits, they were dogged by substance abuse problems...

, early Ween
Ween
Ween is an American alternative rock group. They formed in 1984 in New Hope, Pennsylvania when central members Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class. Ween has a large cult underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in American pop music...

) with similarities to grunge (Tad
Tad (band)
Tad was an American grunge band from Seattle, Washington led by Tad Doyle. Among the first of the many bands which came out of Seattle in the grunge era, Tad was notable for the fact that its music had a noticeable 1970s metal influence, rather than the punk which influenced most other grunge bands...

, Mudhoney
Mudhoney
Mudhoney is an American alternative rock band. Formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney's members are vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters. Original bassist Matt Lukin left the...

), funny punk (Meatmen, Angry Samoans
Angry Samoans
The Angry Samoans are an American punk rock band in the first wave of American punk. Formed in August 1978 in Los Angeles, California by early 1970s rock writer "Metal" Mike Saunders and his sibling lead guitarist bonze blayk, along with co-conspirator Gregg Turner and original recruits bassist...

, Dead Milkmen
Dead Milkmen
The Dead Milkmen is an American satirical punk rock band formed in 1983 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They consisted of vocalist and keyboardist Rodney Linderman , guitarist and vocalist Joe Genaro , bassist Dave Schulthise and drummer Dean Sabatino .Beginning within the local underground...

, Happy Flowers
Happy Flowers
The musical group, Happy Flowers, was formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, in 1983 by two members of the Landlords, John Beers and Charlie Kramer , both students at the University of Virginia...

, Nig-Heist), punk (The Mentors
The Mentors
The Mentors are an American heavy metal band noted for its deliberately sexist shock rock lyrics.They formed in 1977 in Seattle, Washington and relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1979, where their irreverent attitude aligned them with the city's punk rock scene. Their music has developed...

, The Misfits, Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...

, Samhain
Samhain (band)
Samhain was an American rock band formed by singer Glenn Danzig in 1983, immediately following his departure from the Misfits. Samhain played in more of a deathrock and heavy metal-infused style of horror punk than Danzig's previous band. By 1987 Samhain's membership evolved into a new band,...

), hardcore (Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....

, Bad Brains
Bad Brains
Bad Brains is an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1977. They are widely regarded as among the pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members objected to this term to describe their music. They are also an adept reggae band, while later recordings featured elements of...

, Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...

) and heavy metal (M.O.D.
M.O.D.
M.O.D. was a crossover thrash band from New York City, fronted by former Anthrax roadie and Stormtroopers of Death vocalist Billy Milano. The band existed from 1986 to 1997, and again from 2001 to 2008...

, S.O.D.
Stormtroopers of Death
Stormtroopers of Death, better known as S.O.D., was a crossover thrash band formed in New York in 1985. They are commonly credited as being among the first bands to fuse hardcore punk with thrash metal into a style sometimes called "crossover thrash." The song "March of the S.O.D.," from their 1985...

, Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...

). This last genre would be where the band would move on later releases (similar to the transition Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies is a U.S. crossover thrash band founded in 1981 in Venice, Los Angeles, California by Mike Muir, its leader and only permanent member. The band is sometimes credited as one of "the fathers of crossover thrash"...

 underwent between first and second albums). As such, when the album was released on CD, it was remastered (possibly remixed) to bring out the bass and make the production smoother. However, the original vinyl release finds the band squarely in the punk or indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 universe. In this context, producer Kramer's work on the album makes sense.

On the other side of the fence, detractors of the album criticize its raw production. Chuck Varga, who played The Sexecutioner
Sexecutioner
Sexecutioner was a character in the band Gwar, played originally Mike Delaney, and finally by Chuck Varga from 1989 until 1995-6, with one final appearance in 2000...

, recently posted on Gwar fan page Bohab Central that he was so disgusted with the sound quality of the recording that he walked out of the session after hearing a few tracks. "I know the bands music and it sounded much better than it did on Hello," he said, going on to say that producer Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer , known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, record producer and founder of the New York City record label Shimmy-Disc...

 "didn't care how Gwar sounded" and "gave us one of the most embarrassingly recorded LP's in history." The [low] quality of the production is further indicated by the length of the recording session - the course of a single weekend. However, consensus across the board is that the album wasn't as bad as We Kill Everything
We Kill Everything
-Story:The album's story differs slightly than the version told in "It's Sleazy" and on tour.The first three tracks on the album do not follow one particular story, and focus on Gwar's generally decadent ways...

(an album especially reviled by Dave Brockie and Michael Derks).

Shimmy Disc released "Hell-O!" on cassette and on vinyl 33 1/3 format. The vinyl album was produced in regular black vinyl and a limited rare red vinyl. The rare red vinyl album was limited to 500 copies. The European Shimmy Disc
Shimmy Disc
Shimmy Disc was an influential New York City based record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. Before it was sold to the Knitting Factory, it was responsible for providing a mass audience for acts including Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, Ween,...

 release of Hell-O! features a bonus track, "Black And Huge," found on Gwar's next album, Scumdogs of the Universe
Scumdogs of the Universe
Scumdogs of the Universe is the second album by Satirical Shock rock band Gwar. The album is their first album on Metal Blade Records and was released in 1990. It is to this date the band's best selling album and greatly expanded the band's horizons...

.
The song found on some copies of Hell-O! is an earlier version (originally recorded to be released as a single on Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...

 records), and is the first Gwar song to feature Michael Derks as a member (having replaced Stephen Douglas as BalSac The Jaws of Death). The remastered Metal Blade release of the album does not feature this song. This version of the song fits in with Hell-O! more than it does with Scumdogs, as the guitars are not tuned down a half-step, and the tempo is faster (and Oderus' vocals are more of the singing style from this album). A video for the track was also filmed and included on the TVD and The Next Mutation
The Next Mutation
RAWGWAR: The Next Mutation is heavy metal band GWAR's third video release. It was sent out to promoters and the like, prior to GWAR signing to Metal Blade Records. It is a compilation of early MTV and cable TV appearances and a live show from 1989...

 video collections.

Track listing

Line-up

  • Dave Brockie (Oderus Urungus
    Oderus Urungus
    Oderus Urungus, played by Dave Brockie, is the lead vocalist of the Metal band Gwar. He appears as an intergalactic humanoid barbarian with devil horns and a meaty looking face, and always carries around a long sword named "Unt Lick"...

    ) - Lead vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

  • Dewey Rowell (Flattus Maximus
    Flattus Maximus
    Flattus Maximus is the name of a former character and guitarist in the American heavy metal band Gwar. He is known by his red face, white dreadlocks, dinosaur-head shoulder pads and reptile feet. The name "Flattus" implies a flatulent character. His speaking mannerisms suggest a childlike...

    ) - Lead and Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
    Backing vocalist
    A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

  • Steve Douglas (Balsac the Jaws of Death
    Balsac the Jaws of Death
    Balsac the Jaws of Death is the rhythm guitarist in the rock band Gwar. He appears as a humanoid creature with a face resembling a bear-trap. Balsac is usually portrayed wielding a giant battleaxe...

    ) - Lead and Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
  • Michael Bishop
    Michael Bishop (bassist)
    Michael Bishop is an American musician, and Bishop attended Thomas Dale high school. Most notably, he was the bass guitarist for the American heavy metal band GWAR. As a member of GWAR, he was the first to play the role of "Beefcake the Mighty") . In addition to GWAR, Bishop played bass and sang...

     (Beefcake the Mighty
    Beefcake the Mighty
    Beefcake the Mighty is the bassist in the rock band Gwar. He appears as a stout humanoid girded in Roman-style armor. He is usually portrayed wielding either an oversized Gladius sword or a large battle-axe .-Background:According to Gwar mythos, Beefcake originates from the planet Cholesterol...

    ) - Bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

    , backing vocals
  • Rob Mosby (Nippleus Erectus
    Nippleus Erectus
    Nippleus Erectus was a drummer of GWAR , who did all the drumming for Hell-O. He is also credited for the drums on Scumdogs of the Universe, though it was Jizmak Da Gusha who played them...

    ) - Drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

  • Don Drakulich (Techno Destructo
    Techno Destructo
    Techno Destructo is perhaps the most famous GWAR villain . He is played by either Hunter Jackson or Don Drakulich , though Jackson played the character for the majority of his time in GWAR...

    ) - Lead vocals on "Techno's Song"

Miscellaneous

  • When the beginning of the song "Öllie North" is played backwards, the actual beginning of the song happens to be a slurred rendition of a part of the bridge to Careless Whisper
    Careless Whisper
    "Careless Whisper" is a 1984 single by George Michael , released by Epic Records in the UK, Japan, and other countries; and by Columbia Records in North America. The song was George Michael's first solo single although he was still performing in Wham! at the time...

    .
  • The Dutch release of this album contains the bonus track "Black & Huge" as track 17. Early cassette & the vinyl releases also include the song "Black & Huge".
  • Originally this album, Scumdogs of the Universe and America Must Be Destroyed were the only Gwar albums to be released on vinyl. This changed with the recent releases of Lust in Space and Bloody Pit of Horror on picture discs.
  • In 2004, this was supposed to be re-released with Scumdogs of the Universe
    Scumdogs of the Universe
    Scumdogs of the Universe is the second album by Satirical Shock rock band Gwar. The album is their first album on Metal Blade Records and was released in 1990. It is to this date the band's best selling album and greatly expanded the band's horizons...

    on DRT, but that never came to pass.
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