Metalocalypse: Season 1 on DVD
Dethklok are the worlds most successful and heaviest metal band. With an economy larger than some small nations, fans so devoted they’d risk death just to hear them play a jingle for a coffee company, and a home/castle (called Mordhaus) which houses it’s own underground research facility, you’d think they’d be the happiest rockers in the world… But, no… Like all good rock bands, egos, in-fighting, record execs, and general dickish behaviour, help ruin their collective calm.
Metalocalypse is written and produced by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha (with Brendon also writing and performing Dethklok’s tunes). The band consists of vocalist Nathan Explosion, lead guitarist Skwisgaar Skwigelf, drummer “Pickles the drummer” (all voiced by Small), rhythm guitarist Toki Wartooth, and bassist William Murderface (both voiced by Blacha).
With Dethklok having such a large following (estimated at 100 times more popular than The Beatles), the have attracted the interests of a shadowy organsation call ‘The Tribunal’ led by Senator Stampingston (voiced by Mark Hamill). As ‘The Tribunal’ try to look for ways to infiltrate and ‘gather intel’ on the worlds best selling band, usually only to be thwarted by blind luck (or more often sheer stupidity) on the band’s part.
Like other Adult Swim shows, Metalocalypse comes in at around 12 mins an episode, which works fine and keeps your interest for just long enough. I was finding some of the vocal work from Small and Blacha quite mumbly and hard to follow, but after a few episodes, that does get easier. Although the animation is fairly crude, the detailed eye gouging, limb ripping, and various other visceral dismemberment shown on screen during an episode does make up for the lack of movement!
Overall, i didn’t find Metalocalypse as strong as some of is Adult Swim classmates (Like Robot Chicken or Titan Maximum), but if your into your Metal, i’m sure you’ll get a kick out of the various homage’s to metal bands, as well as the large number of guest voiceovers from members of Metallica, Carnage, Sanctuary and Faith No More (to name but a few!)
Metalocalypse is a pretty solid celebration and parody of heavy metal culture, and i’m sure metal fans will love it.
Metalocalypse – Season 2, out now on DVD!
