If you're a music fan, you'll know it's not that unusual when at a gig to find yourself getting sprayed with leftover beer or, in some of the rowdier and more tightly packed crowds, warm pee from cups thrown across the audience.
It's never a pleasant experience, but one heavy metal band takes things to a whole new level by purposefully targeting their audiences with fake blood, semen, and other bodily fluids.
Sounds horrifying, right? Well, apparently not to the fans of GWAR; the heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia in 1984.
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Over nearly four decades, fans have remained steadfast amid a changing roster of band members after the phenomenon began with David Brockie, a singer who had already become known for giving audiences pinatas filled with change, sweets and cat poo.
After Brockie met artist Hunter Jackson, he asked to borrow some of Jackson's bands costumes to pose as his own opening act, which he dubbed 'Gwarggh'.
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From there, GWAR was born and continued even after Brockie passed away in 2014.
One fan who went to see the band in action described on Twitter choosing to wear white after being told they'd 'have a better chance of getting covered in blood', while another seemed to provide evidence for that recommendation as they wrote: "I made a homemade Gwar shirt when I went to see them, white tee that I just wrote Gwar on and it was covered in blood at the end."
The story of the band is told in a new documentary created by director Scott Barber, titled This Is GWAR, which reveals how Brockie introduced his fellow members to Dungeons and Dragons and how they would often play the game while driving between different venues, painting the picture of an Eddie from Stranger Things kind of vibe.
The story differs slightly from the story told on GWAR's website, however, where it's explained that GWAR are 'not of this world', and that their story 'begins in the deepest reaches of outer space'.
It continues: "Long ago, the beings who would become the rock band GWAR were part of an elite fighting force, the Scumdogs of the Universe. For eons, they served as thralls to a supreme being known only as the Master. But one by one, each future member of the band earned a glaring reputation for being an intergalactic f*ck-up. And so, they were banished, sent away on a fool’s errand to conquer an insignificant s**tball floating in a dark corner of the universe; the planet Earth."
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With the help of some of the bandmates, Brockie developed various characters for musicians to embody when they joined the group. The founder's character, for example, was named Oderus Urungus and had a large, goo-spewing cuttlefish hanging down between his legs.
It's probably clear that the band isn't for everyone, but the fact it's still going nearly 40 years later proves GWAR knows what it's doing.
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Emily Brown