GWAR
Channel 24, Sacramento
April 17, 2026
Photos by Paul Piazza
GWAR, the sci-fi barbaric flingers of gore, heavy metal, and humor descended upon Sacramento’s newest venue Channel 24 recently. These nomadic hordes came equipped with high volumes of blood and other scatalogical matter to spray into the crowd in during their nonstop, raucous set. And naturally, the devoted GWAR crowd absolutely soaked every minute of it.
The band brought a couple of powerhouse openers with them on this tour. The legendary Soulfly, anchored by thrash and groove metal titan Max Cavalera, received a massive greeting and played a fierce set. Also on board was King Parrot, a fantastic heavy band from Australia. This set the table, for a soon to be desecrated venue and a fantastic evening of heavy fun in Sacramento.
GWAR have been around remarkably since the late 80s, when a group theatrically-bent college friends from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia released “Hell-O” and eventually established themselves as a unique, shock-value touring band which created a major buzz for their unique approach to destruction and their interactions with fans and popular culture. Decades later, they are the standard bearers of shock and shlock in the metal world.
They have weathered numerous lineup changes, the tragic death of Oderus Ungerus (Dave Brockie) in 2014 and a proclivity unseen for an ongoing roadshow of this magnitude. The band’s most recent album, 2022’s “The new dark ages” was their fifteenth record. And while fans know and love their music, they always come back for the highly anticipated splatter show. In addition to the kicking things off with bizarre sci-fi plot, the band will generally toss in the obligatory slaughter of contemporary social figures and this tour was no different.
After warming up with the puncturing of an unwitting lackey, the band progressed onto such targets as a priest guilty of inappropriate conduct receiving a worthy punishment and then exacting justice upon former Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem in a brutal, yet entertaining way.
Soulfly played the middle set before GWAR and the crowd was given a strong dose one of thrash metal’s all-time great frontmen in Cavalera, who got his start in Sau Paulo, Brazil, but has lived in Arizona for almost three decades now. This follows a huge year, where the former Sepultura founder and his drummer brother Igor destroyed crowds worldwide with live performances of the band’s opus “Chaos A.D.” in its entirety. Now Max is back on the road with a rejuvenated Soulfly.
The band, which is more known for groove metal band than the thrash of Sepultura, came out blazing with songs from their 2024 record “Chama,” along with some of their classics from “Primitive” and “Prophecy,” along with a few others. The song “Back to the Primitive” seemed to really stir the crowd, with its line “Back to the primitive, F*@k all your politics!”
But the crowd went completely overboard when Will Haven’s vocalist Grady Avenell came out to sing “Pain” with the band. The song was originally recorded with both Avenell and Chino Moreno of the Deftones on vocals and was a highlight of the early 90s groove metal movement. Avenell and Cavalera did it justice as did Zyon Cavalera on drums. Another nice surprise during that set was the presence of Mike DeLeon on guitar, who absolutely destroyed and exuded the vibes of a possessed man on guitar. He had previously been seen playing Pantera standards with Phil Anselmo and the Illegals before becoming a member of Soulfly a few years back.
Opening the show were Austrailia’s King Parrot, a grindcore band that formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2010. Led by expressive screamer Matt Young and the barefoot guitarist Ari White, the band blasted through a powerful set featured songs going back to their debut Bite Your Head Off. The band’s recent record, A Young Person’s Guide to King Parrot, features such family-oriented cuts as “Fuck You and the Horse You Rode In On” and “Cunning as Dunny Rat.” They set the tone for what turned out to be an exceptional night of heavy music, gore, and lunacy at Channel 24.
