Oderus Urungus, better known as Gwar's frontman Dave Brockie, was given a Viking funeral on a Virginia lake where the costume he wore during the metal band's shows was set to flames on a floating boat.
Brockie, who founded the theatrical metal band, died March 24 from an accidental heroin overdose,
according to Rolling Stone magazine. He was 50.
The "funeral" took place Friday at the Gwar-B-Q weekend festival at Hadad's Lake near Richmond at which band members were joined by the band's fans,
according to Loudwire.com.
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Randy Blythe, of the band Lamb of God, told a crowd how Brockie went out of his way to inspire and encourage him, per Loudwire.
"That meant more to me than any record review, any Grammy nomination, any sort of tour we ever did, it meant more to me that my friend that I respected so much would take time out of his day and say, 'Dude, I'm f****** proud of you,'" Blythe said during a eulogy at the event.
Blythe also posted many of his feelings about Brockie on his Instagram account along with a photo of the Viking funeral.
"A blazing Viking ship with Oderus laid out in it, the cuttlefish pointing proudly straight up," Blythe said on Instagram. "Watching my friend Dave's costume go up in flames in front of a thousand fans was so much more intense for me than the private memorial for friends & family we had April Fool's Day."
During a 1990 interview with
Spin magazine, Gwar was called the "sickest heavy metal parody band in the galaxy." The band mixed music that was compared at the time to Black Sabbath and the Dickies with live shows that included 14 performers they referred to as slaves.
"GWAR was created by the master of creation, an ambiguous being named Larry, as the ultimate doomsday device," Brockie, in character, said during the Spin interview. "GWAR was at one time in the legion of Scumdogs of the Universe, but they were banished to the earth. GWAR's ultimate goal is to leave Earth, after destroying it, and rejoin the Scumdogs."
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