The 15 Best Gimmick Metal Bands

Music isn’t always serious business, sometimes its whole mission is just to have fun. And the biggest party is often thrown by bizarre masked weirdos with made-up backstories, over-the-top costumes and strange, off-the-wall themes. Just look at how far Ghost have come. But even among these bands there are some real gems hiding. We tried to steer clear of the most obvious picks (Ghost, Batushka, …) and highlight the lesser-known, overlooked ones, plus two that are about to hit our stages soon. So who are the best gimmick metal bands? (If we forgot anyone, remind us in the comments).

Okilly Dokilly

American metal/HC punk outfit Okilly Dokilly have easily got one of the most lovably goofy concepts in recent memory. Their name and look come from the biggest animated pop culture phenomenon of the 20th century, The Simpsons, and specifically one of the show’s central characters, the religious zealot Ned Flanders. Head Ned, Bled Ned, Red Ned, Thread Ned and Stead Ned take the stage in wool sweaters, round glasses and of course the mandatory mustaches, and three quarters of the lyrics are made up of Flanders quotes. Okilly Dokilly released their debut Howdilly Doodilly in November 2016 and got noticed with the video for White Wine Spritzer (a jab at the infamous Phil Anselmo incident). This past March they put out its follow-up Howdilly Twodilly, and this Saturday, November 30, 2019, we’ll get to hear the “Flanderisms” live at Winterdays of Metal 2019. “Hi diddly ho neighborinos!”

Gwar

Cult American HC/punk/metal band Gwar were wearing monster costumes long before Finland’s Lordi showed them off at Eurovision. The grotesque costumes the members hide in represent barbaric intergalactic warriors, a kind of space pirates, and their mythology twists and unravels all the way from the studio debut Hell-o! (1988) to the latest album, The Blood of Gods (2017). Gwar were originally just the opening act for the main band, Death Piggy, which featured members of the group at the time, but that quickly changed, because the crowd mostly showed up for Gwaaarrrgghhlllgh (as they were called back then) and left before Death Piggy took the stage. The costumes were originally meant as just a joke, since Dave Brockie knew someone who made them for movies, but the idea got such a great response that Gwar the space pirates are still around today. In 2014, founding member Dave Brockie (Oderus Urungus in Gwar) sadly died of a heroin overdose, and since then Gwar have carried on without any original members. Gwar are known for their controversial live shows, which feature plenty of spraying the crowd with assorted bodily fluids of Blothar, BalSac, the Jaws of Death, Jizmak Da Gusha, Beefcake the Mighty and Pustulus Maximus, plus twisted humor and political satire. To see how that looks live, catch them on December 12, 2019, when Gwar come to Kino Šiška with Voivod!

Spinal Tap

One of the best mockumentaries of all time is without a doubt Rob Reiner’s brilliant This Is Spinal Tap. In it, Reiner, as Marty Di Bergi, follows the fictional English band Spinal Tap, whose core is the trio of David St. Hubbins (veteran actor Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer, best known as the voice behind many characters on The Simpsons, including Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders and Dr. Hibbert), on a disastrous American tour promoting the album Smell the Glove. The film follows the band through countless mishaps, including exploding drummers and a Stonehenge stage prop that’s way too small, and watching it is a must. Spinal Tap have actually released a few real albums as their movie characters, the latest being Back From the Dead in 2009. That same year they also played at Webley Arena in London, as part of their “One Night Only World Tour”.

Ghoul

California death/thrash metal outfit Ghoul, made up of members of bands like Exhumed and Impaled, supposedly hail from Oakland, but they claim they actually come from the town of Creepsylvania in Romania. The band, who perform hidden under potato sacks, are Digestor, Cremator, Fermenter and Dissector, and in their lyrics they sing about the ups and downs of life in a small Romanian town where horror, death and turnips collide. In the lyrics, the aforementioned four run into twisted characters like Kogar the Destructor, Bernard Fussbottom, The Mutant Mutilator, Mr. Fang and Killbot. On the album Splatterthrash, the last of them defeats Ghoul and turns Creepsylvania, with its religious cult, into a fundamentalist Christian state, and Ghoul start plotting their revenge.

Macabre

This American trio is considered a band that, with its early work, influenced the up-and-coming death metal of the time musically, and even more so lyrically. Macabre play their own genre, so-called Murder Metal, a mix of grind, thrash and death metal and even nursery rhymes and counting-out chants, and the name comes from the subject matter Macabre sing about. Corporate Death, Nefarious and Dennis the Menace are obsessed with serial killers, and they supposedly even met one of the most famous, John Wayne Gacy, in person. In their lyrics they paid tribute, in their own sick-humored way, to names like Ted Bundy, Edmund Kemper, Zodiac, Jack the Ripper, Albert Fish and Richard Ramirez, but their favorite serial killer is Jeffrey Dahmer, to whom they dedicated the concept album Dahmer, released in 2000.

Brujeria

Chihuahuas, tortillas, burritos and chimichangas are Mexican stereotypes, and the Mexican death/grind narco-satanist collective Brujeria serve them up in a somewhat more sinister form. Drugs, sex, Satanism and racial hatred toward white people are the stereotypes at the heart of the witchcraft rituals of this band, who still perform masked and under made-up names (because they’re supposedly drug lords and smugglers). The band was founded by members of Fear Factory and Faith No More, and the only original member is the central figure Juan Brujo. Brujeria are also old friends of Slovenian stages, having played here several times, and with the EP Viva Presidente Trump! from the year before last and the album Pocho Azltan, they aimed their rage mostly at Trump and right-wing immigration policy.

Grindfeld

After Okilly Dokilly, another “TV” band on the list. Grindfeld was founded by the trio of Jared Klein (Rivers of Nihil), Joel Moore (Wretched) and Monte Barnard (Alterbeast, ex-Fallujah), and their concept is a tribute to the best sitcom of all time, Seinfeld. The death/grind trio put out the EP 5 Songs About Nothing in 2018, their only record so far, and it includes the obligatory evergreen inspired by the cult episode The Soup Nazi.

Hoth

American duo Hoth, made up of David Dees and Eric Peters, have drifted quite far from their original concept with last year’s album Astral Necromancy, but they still earn a spot on the list mostly thanks to its superb predecessor Oathbreaker. Hoth took their name from the ice planet in The Empire Strikes Back, the band’s logo even mimics the silhouette of a TIE fighter, and Oathbreaker is a superb concept album about the rise (and/or fall) of Darth Vader. On it, Hoth play melodic death/black metal in the vein of Dissection at their best, and they played with the Star Wars theme on their debut Infinite Darkness too. Sadly, the band has played only a handful of shows in the US so far, and even there they stayed true to their concept: live, they perform Sith-style, hidden under black hoods.

Cannabis Corpse

The band name speaks for itself. This side project of Land Phil (Municipal Waste) is a parody of Cannibal Corpse, clearly inspired by the green herb. Despite the humorous nature of it all, mostly poking fun at metal clichés, the band plays top-notch old-school death metal with heavy riffs and brutal vocals. Cannabis Corpse cleverly blend the names of cult metal releases with “weed terminology” in their album and song titles – Cannibal Corpse (Blunted at Birth, Tube of the Resinated in The Weeding), Entombed (Left Hand Pass), Gorguts (From Wisdom to Baked) and this year’s record Nug So Vile (Cryptopsy).

Botanist

Botanist is an American black metal collective founded ten years ago by Otrebor. Unlike classic black metal bands, Botanist don’t use guitars but distorted hammered dulcimers, and their biggest influences include The Ruins of Beverast, Ulver, Immortal, Martyr, Helloween and the composers Bach and Vivaldi. The Botanist is a character through whom Otrebor expresses himself, and through the lyrics it presents a romantic view of a world taken over by plants after humanity’s extinction. Otrebor uses the scientific names of plants and insects for this, inspired by Carcass.

Galactic Empire

Another Star Wars band on the list, Galactic Empire play John Williams’ legendary music dressed up as heavy metal. The band is made up of Boba Sett (drums), Bass Commander (bass), Dark Vader (guitar), Kyle Ren (guitar) and Red Guard (guitar). The fact that they dress in perfect replicas of Darth Vader, Stormtroopers and other characters is just the cherry on top.

Dethklok

This American melodic death metal band started out as the real-life version of the fictional band Dethklok from the animated series Metalocalypse. In the show we follow the twisted misadventures of a band made up of Nathan Explosion (vocals; the character was inspired by George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher), Skwisgaar Skwigelf (guitar; inspired by Alexi Laiho), Toki Wartooth (guitar; inspired by Fredrik Thordendal), Pickles (drums; inspired by Devin Townsend) and William Murderface (bass; inspired by Geezer Butler). The show’s creator Brendon Small brought Dethklok to the stage too, and alongside him the band features drumming legend Gene Hoglan and guitarist Bryan Beller. In ten years of activity Dethklok recorded four albums and called it quits in 2016, but this year it looks like they’ve come back from the dead.

F.K.Ü.

Swedish thrash metallers F.K.Ü. (short for Freddy Kruger’s Ünderwear) care about one thing only – horror movies. Their lyrics are drenched in references to cult horror flicks of the 1980s. In their lyrics you’ll find tributes to films like Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, The Beyond, Halloween, Maniac Cop and of course A Nightmare on Elm Street, after the main villain the band took its name from.

Powerglove

This American power metal band took its name from the legendary 1989 Nintendo accessory, the Power Glove, which flopped miserably in just a year but reached cult status. Powerglove play metal covers of classic video game themes. Gamers will easily recognize music from games like Mega Man, Mortal Kombat, Castlevania, Sonic the Hedgehog and others. On their second album Saturday Morning Apocalypse, Powerglove switched to themes from TV shows, movies and cartoons, including Pokemon, Batman, The Simpsons, The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Flintstones.

Necrophagia

If Macabre were the first to sing about serial killers, Necrophagia were the first to sing about B-horror movies, and the band’s founder and vocalist Frank “Killjoy” Pucci was considered a true connoisseur of the genre. In Necrophagia you’ll find tributes to Hammer films, Italian giallo (especially directors Dario Argento, Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci) and banned nasties like Cannibal Holocaust. On top of that, Necrophagia are one of the very first death metal bands, having released their debut Season of the Dead practically at the same time as Scream Bloody Gore. Sadly, Necrophagia came to an end with the death of Killjoy, who died of cardiac arrest last March, leaving behind a huge and everlasting legacy of (musical) filth.