If you were the costumed frontman of a blood-and-guts centric metal band that was very serious about never taking itself too seriously, of course you would want to have your final send off be a Viking funeral.

That’s how fans said goodbye to GWAR’s Oderus Urungus over the weekend at the fifth annual GWAR-B-Q at Hadad’s Lake in Richmond, VA. While Dave Brockie, the man who played Oderus was laid to rest by friends and family on April 1, his better-known alter ego got the sendoff he deserved: the Oderus costume was loaded onto a wooden boat in the middle of the lake, cast out, and set ablaze by a flaming arrow. So f-cking metal, dudes.

Brockie succumbed to a heroin overdose in March, ending a 30-year plus musical career leading GWAR, donning the flesh mask and shoulder pads of the 50 million year-old alien conqueror who deigned to come to our planet and melt our faces of with metal. In stage shows and various appearances, Brockie always committed fully to the character, and it’s really only fitting that both Dave and Oderus would get their own services and celebrations as they headed beyond this plane to lead extra-dimensional demon armies for all eternity.

We will miss Dave and always remember the times the GWAR gang would pop up, mixing the goofy mythology of the band with appearances on the Daily Show and and animated appearances alongside Weird Al.

[Source: Rolling Stone]