Beowülf is an American crossover thrash metal band formed in Venice Beach, California, in 1981 by Michael Alvarado, Dale Henderson, Mike Jensen and Paul Yamada.
The group never gained a large mainstream success, but is considered one of the first bands that defined the "Venice Scene" in the 1980s, along with Suicidal Tendencies, Los Cycos, Neighborhood Watch, No Mercy, Excel and Uncle Slam, who all played a mix of skate punk, hardcore, heavy metal and thrash.
Their classic line-up is Henderson (vocals), Mike Jensen (guitar), Paul Yamada (bass) and Michael Alvarado (drums).
In 1994 the band line-up underwent changes before recording the band's fourth album in Seattle for Restless Records and hired Buckit to play guitar, childhood friend and former EVOL bassist Dug Mug Swanson and Denish Chaudhuri to play drums.
In 1995, original bass player Paul Yamada died of a drug overdose and that had an effect on Dale Henderson, who decided he was over with Beowülf.
He called back Rowan and Sullivan (from the Un-Sentimental line-up) and added Gimmi on second guitar and the new band had a more hard rock sound.
As of September 2011, according to Beowülf's official website, Mayorga is no longer in the band and his replacement is former Fear Factory member Christian Olde Wolbers.
Mike Jensen died from an apparent heroin overdose on February 13, 2020 and was replaced by former Strain 999 and Beowulf member Stephen Crapia.