CONCERT REVIEW + PHOTOS + VIDEO: GWAR Drenches Milwaukee Metal Fest in Blood, Slime, and Total Mayhem on Closing Night

If metal had a religion, GWAR would be its deranged, intergalactic high priests, and Sunday night at the Milwaukee Metal Fest 2025 was their twisted, glorious sermon. Celebrating 40 years of carnage, chaos, and cosmic conquest, GWAR didn’t just headline the final night of the fest…they eviscerated it, baptized it in blood, and left it twitching in the dirt with a grin on its face.

From the first guttural roar of “Fuck This Place” (off the criminally underrated The Blood of Gods), GWAR made it painfully clear: this wasn’t just a concert, it was a goddamned war zone. The pit surged like a beast waking from a centuries-long nap, fists flying, bodies crashing, and faces painted red with glee…and blood. So much blood.

They tore through the fan-favorite “Gor-Gor” like lunatics on a warpath, as the band rampaged across the stage in a splatterpunk spectacle of gore, chaos, and pure theatrical insanity. That track, off the legendary America Must Be Destroyed, proved GWAR still has the venom and vision that made them icons. It was grotesque, theatrical, and unrelentingly heavy…the perfect anthem for an audience screaming for more.

After a brief breather (or perhaps just a chance to reload their cannons with fresh entrails), they returned for an encore that reeked of classic filth. “Licksore” oozed with old-school aggression, and just when you thought your mind couldn’t take any more, they closed the fest with the anthemic and blood-drenched “Sick of You” from Scumdogs of the Universe. That final track was less a song and more a sacrament, a shared catharsis between band and blood-soaked devotees.

And oh, the blood. Gallons of it. Spraying, drenching, baptizing. If you left dry, you weren’t close enough. For diehard fans, catching that arterial spray is a rite of passage, like being knighted by a chainsaw-wielding alien. You don’t just see GWAR, you survive them.

Forty years on, GWAR are still unmatched in their ability to combine theatrical insanity, savage satire, and riff-heavy carnage into one unholy spectacle. They didn’t just close out Milwaukee Metal Fest, they annihilated it, leaving a thousand soaked sinners in their wake, each one grinning like they’d just stared into the abyss and gotten a bloody high-five in return.

Hail GWAR. Hail metal. Hail the blood.

Check out the GWAR concert photo gallery below:

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