Rendezvous with RagNaRok is a performance film by the band 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...

 coinciding with their 1995 album RagNaRok

RagNaRok

Ragnarök is the fifth album, released in 1995 on Metal Blade Records, by the rock/heavy metal/punk band Gwar.This album contains the most varied vocal stylings of any Gwar album, as the majority of the band lends their lungs to the tracklist , as well as guest villain Cardinal Syn.Ragnarök is...

, though the video was released in early 1997 (much of the footage was from 1996). The bulk of the video is concert footage, with a mock interview interspersed between each song. Additionally, three music videos - "Saddam a Go-Go," "Meat Sandwich," and "Surf of Syn" - are among the scenes.

Movie Concept

The main concept of the movie is that a paranormal investigator, Mason Temple (played by Bob Gorman), is interrogating GWAR members about the coming of the comet RagNaRok. 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...

, 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...

, a dis-armed 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...

 and 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...

 offer accounts as to exactly what happened in the concerts. During the concert, grey aliens come and take a sperm sample of 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"...

 for reasons yet unknown. With this sperm sample, they inseminate Slymenstra Hymen, who gives birth further into the show. After giving birth (with the "Fire In The Loins" footage), the infant is abducted by Synnite warriors, who announce the coming of Cardinal Syn. Their reason for abducting the newborn is not revealed until Syn arrives - Cardinal Syn is a robot, powered by the soul of an infant with a high level of Jizmoglobin (previously mentioned in Skulhedface). With Syn's arrival, the band is utterly defeated, until they are finally able to (literally) disarm the robot, and open his chest cavity (which reveals his power source).

The video for "Surf of Syn" has a different fate for both GWAR and Syn. At the end, Syn's body is destroyed (by the craft that brought him to Earth; Techno Destrcuto hijacks it and rams it into the body), but his head fires lasers at GWAR, incapacitating them long enough to get away.

Music Used

Though there is live footage, the music used is lifted directly from the album, with two exceptions ("Sonderkommando," a song from This Toilet Earth

This Toilet Earth

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 , due to their gain in popularity as a result of MTV exposure...

, is a live version, with differing lyrics than the one found on the album, and "S.F.W.," a song written and recorded for the soundtrack to the eponymous film, is also live).

Music videos

"Saddam a Go-Go" was used in a later episode of Beavis and Butt-head, and was highly praised (it is generally assumed that GWAR is Beavis and Butt-head's favorite band). Though from This Toilet Earth, the entire video uses footage from the 1994 tour, and was unable to be used in the Skulhedface movie.

"Meat Sandwich" is credited (on the Ultimate Video GWARchive) as directed by Abe Spear, but credited as being directed by Dave Brockie in Rendezvous with RagNaRok. The meat-eating scene at the end made a number of extras ill, as they actually ate the (undercooked) meat (Brockie and Gorman claim to have instructed them to act like they were eating it, and they didn't listen).

"Surf of Syn" was the first video for the album, and was filmed on a very, very small budget. It features the X-Cops

X-Cops

X-Cops was a side project composed of members from the band Gwar and their extended "family" of musicians. Each member of X-Cops performed in a police uniform and had their own character. They released the album You Have The Right To Remain Silent... on Metal Blade Records in 1995...

, except for "Zipper Pig" (Gorman). Matt Maguire plays Cardinal Syn in the video (and in the song).

Miscellaneous

Flattus Maximus speaks more in this video than in any other recording to date. It is also the only footage with Peter Lee speaking as Flattus; the character was played by two extras (Lee was recovering from a gunshot wound) in Skulhedface, and Flattus and JiZMak never said anything during Dawn of the Day of the Night of the Penguins

Dawn of the Day of the Night of the Penguins

Dawn of the Day of the Night of the Penguins is a GWAR video of a live performance...

.