Today the Virginia State Medical Examiner’s Office released Dave Brockie’s cause of death, and it sucks. WTVR reports that  the 50 year-old GWAR frontman died of an accidental heroin overdose. According to the news station, responding police investigators found evidence of heroin use, but were awaiting toxicology results until announcing his cause of death. Friends apparently had been worried about his behavior, and while they’d known he’d smoked pot, “suspected his known penchant for marijuana smoking and partying had taken a bad turn.” This is definitely hard to hear about. While we’re still wrapping our heads around the fact that Brockie is gone, hearing that he went out in such a depressing manner is like tearing open an old wound. Listen up, y’all, drugs can kill.

GWAR fans will get a chance to pay their final respect to Brockie at a public memorial on August 15th, the day before the GWAR-B-Q kicks off. The annual concert will mark the first time GWAR plays without Brockie.Regardless of how Brockie died, he leaves behind quite a legacy, and the viking funeral he gets at the GWAR-B-Q will be quite the send-off.