Theatrical shock-metal legends GWAR will mark 20 years since the release of "Beyond Hell" with a fully remastered deluxe edition, arriving September 25 through the band's own label, Pit Records.
The reissue is the album's first-ever vinyl release and adds a batch of previously unavailable material: a never-before-heard outro track cut from the original 2006 sessions, a newly remastered version of "Eighth Lock" paired with its long-lost music video, and additional bonus content rounding out the deluxe CD edition, which ships with a fold-out poster.
Paul Logus, known for his remastering work with ANTHRAX and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, handled the audio restoration. The standard vinyl pressing comes on 180-gram gold vinyl, limited to 2,000 copies, alongside two smaller-run variants: a 300-copy "Blood Moon" edition available exclusively through GWAR.net and a 200-copy "Blood Smear" pressing sold only through Metal Injection.
"Beyond Hell" was originally produced by Devin Townsend, who recorded the album with GWAR over roughly three months, splitting sessions between Vancouver's Profile Studios and the band's own Slave Pit studio in Richmond, Virginia. Townsend, reflecting on the collaboration ahead of the reissue, called himself a longtime fan of the band's chaos. "I had been a GWAR fan since I was a kid," he said. "I loved the freedom, the metal, the spectacle, and the passion" that defined the sessions.
Formed in Richmond in 1984, GWAR built a singular reputation over four decades by fusing thrash-adjacent riffing with blood-drenched, latex-costumed stage spectacle, casting its ever-rotating lineup as alien warriors skewering politics and pop culture from behind elaborate masks and prosthetics. "Beyond Hell," centered on the band's mythical quest into the underworld to rescue bandmate Flattus Maximus, arrived in the middle of GWAR's long album run and remains a fan favorite despite being comparatively overlooked next to the band's more celebrated early records.
GWAR heads into a run of festival dates this August at Endless Fires Fest, Louder Than Life and Riot Fest, followed by the band's "Gor Gor Must Die!" headlining tour — timing that puts the "Beyond Hell" reissue directly in front of audiences during one of the band's busiest touring stretches in years.