GWAR Address Death Threats After Trump & Musk Stage Gags: “This Is The Country Where We’re Supposed To Be Able To Do That”

Shock metal institution GWAR have built an entire career around outrageous satire and over-the-top carnage, but the band say backlash tied to their politically charged stage antics in 2025 led to one of the most unsettling reactions they’ve ever faced — including death threats.

For decades, the theatrical metal collective have gleefully dispatched exaggerated effigies of politicians, dictators, celebrities and cultural figures during their live performances. While controversy has occasionally followed those moments, the group’s recent clash with MAGA-aligned critics marked a rare instance where outrage escalated beyond criticism and into real-world threats.

GWAR’s concerts are famously steeped in cartoonish ultraviolence, blending sci-fi lore, grotesque humor and gallons of fake blood as fictionalized versions of public figures meet absurdly gruesome fates onstage. The spectacle has long been presented as satire, leaning heavily into parody rather than realism.

That distinction became a flashpoint last fall when footage from ‘Riot Fest’ in Chicago, IL circulated online showing the band disemboweling a caricature of U.S. President Donald J. Trump — a recurring gag dating back to Trump’s first term — alongside a staged beheading of billionaire Elon Musk. The clips quickly gained traction among political commentators, prompting accusations that the performance encouraged violence against conservatives.

The controversy intensified amid an already polarized political climate, eventually resulting in death threats directed toward members of the band.

One of the most visible critics at the time, the MAGA-aligned account Libs Of TikTok, condemned the performance, writing:

“Performers at Riot Fest in Chicago, Illinois, simulated the bloody disemboweling of President Trump on stage while people cheered.

This is incitement. They know exactly what they’re doing.

Democrats can’t help themselves. They love promoting violence.”

Remaining firmly in character, GWAR vocalist Blöthar The Berserker — whose persona portrays a member of the band’s fictional alien race — dismissed the accusations while speaking to Billboard shortly after the controversy erupted.

“The idea that GWAR is normalizing violence is patently absurd.”

He continued:

“We’re not millionaires that are afraid of what people are going to say when they see what we do… Yeah, it pissed me off! We’re a group of artists that makes art, and it’s really the idea that what we have done is normalizing violence… there’s nothing normal about the violence that goes on at a GWAR show. It’s a cartoon, it’s Looney Tunes.”

Blöthar further mocked the backlash online, suggesting the outrage ultimately benefited the band through increased exposure:

“Like I know this is a rage bait engagement farming twitter account, but ‘GWAR crossed a major line’ is one of the funniest f–king things I’ve ever heard. The dumbest people on the internet are still mad today. Got to love it. As long as they keep posting that awesome video and mentioning our name for the free publicity it’s a win for me.”

Though GWAR largely treated the controversy with their trademark irreverence — and have since continued targeting political figures including ICE and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem during performances — the death threats themselves carried a more serious weight behind the scenes.

In a recent Guardian feature examining the growing popularity of masks in metal, GWAR rhythm guitarist Mike Derks, better known as Balsac The Jaws Of Death, reflected on the sobering reality of the situation. He also pointed out the irony of facing censorship accusations in a country that prides itself on free expression, especially considering the band’s decades-long history of satirizing powerful figures worldwide.

“In a sense, it’s just laughable, but it was scary when we were getting death threats over social media. It did get me very upset when people were trying to say: ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’ This is the country where we’re supposed to be able to do that! People were saying we can’t do it after we’d been doing it for 40 years.”

For a band whose identity has always revolved around pushing boundaries through absurdity and shock, the episode served as a reminder that satire can still provoke very real reactions — even after four decades of doing exactly that.

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Performers at Riot Fest in Chicago, Illinois, simulated the bloody disemboweling of President Trump on stage while people cheered.

This is incitement. They know exactly what they’re doing.

Democrats can’t help themselves. They love promoting violence. pic.twitter.com/XHrxM7RucQ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 22, 2025