Starring Tommy Blacha, Brendon Small, Mark Hamill, Victor Brandt
Written By: Tommy Blacha, Brendon Small
Directed By:
Studio: Warner Brothers
Buy on Amazon.com link

Dethklok is the hardest, most brutal band in the world. Their mission: to make everything metal…everything from coffee to supermarkets. Dethklok is…Nathan Explosion: the lead singer and obvious Peter Steele clone, William Murderface Murderface: bassist and straight up Nihilist, Toki Wartooth: the second fastest guitarist in the world, Skwisgaar Skwigelf: the fastest guitarist in the world and Pickles: the drummer.

“Metalocalypse” is one of Adult Swim’s funniest yet most misunderstood shows. The series follows the exploits of fictional band Dethklok as they roam the world doing what they love to do, play metal and play it loud. Occasionally, (well in just about every episode) the boys in Dethklok cause some kind of accident or disturbance whether it’s unintentionally summoning an ancient killer troll, dropping their stage on over-exuberant fans or accidentally creating a radioactive mutant seahorse.

Other than the fact that the show is a cartoon about heavy metal music, (how cool is that anyway?), “Metalocalypse” takes the piss out of a lot of pop culture references and everyday annoyances like family and cooking food for yourself. In the very first episode, “The Curse of Dethklok”, fans from all over the world withdrew their life savings in order to fly to wherever it was that they were playing just to watch them perform one single song and that song was a jingle for a coffee company. After their chef got shredded by a helicopter, the guys in the band have to go grocery shopping and only a couple of the band members even knew what a supermarket was. As with every great metal band, they trashed the place, picked up a GMILF (Grandmother I’d Like to F…) and made beer soup. In another episode titled “Mordhaus”, Dethklok opened their home to the fans. One band member totally forgot about the day, another woke up with a BIG fan, and I’m not talking about BIG as in “greatest” and yet another member of Dethklok managed to get his face glued to his bedroom wall all the while fans are lining up to take their turn at watching a guy with his face glued to the wall. Dethklok later planned a meeting to talk about how much they hate fan day and their fans. In “Dethtroll” Dethklok proves how brutal they truly are with their invention of the “Dethphone” a cell phone that they created on a booze binge with evening minutes that start at 11 PM, a spiky metal exterior that pokes through flesh when using it and even though there are five phones, it only includes one line but the others can listen in on the conversation. In the words of Nathan Explosion himself…that’s brutal.

What I love the most about the first season of “Metalocalypse” is the obvious heavy metal theme and the many references to the genre. Not only do they poke fun at metal much like Spinal Tap did in the 80’s, but they also pay homage to the greats. Pickles’ former band Snakes N’ Barrels is an obvious parody of Guns N’ Roses, Nathan Explosion is a splitting image of Type O Negative’s Peter Steele and the video for “Thunderhorse” could have come directly from Dio’s twisted mind. Even the DVD cover takes a key from Metallica’s “Black Album”.

All of the show’s music is original music that has been created by the uber-talented Brendon Small, which he has recently taken on the road with a Dethklok college tour. Top the soundtrack off with animation that gets better with every episode and you have yourself a bloody, psychotic, gore-ridden version of Spinal Tap…only a lot more brutal!

If you enjoy your cartoons filled with thrash metal, blood, violence, vomit-inducing death scenes, voices provided by some of metals’ biggest icons in James Hetfield, Kirk Hammet and King Diamond and a touch of sarcasm as well as plenty of comedy, then listen to the Metal Gods and go forth and spend your drug money on “Metalocalypse: Season 1” because, quite simply, drugs are bad and metal is good. Dethklok is the 12th largest economy in the world…and they’re shooting for #1. Help em out guys!

Features:
Hidden Clips and Interviews

Audio:
English; Dolby Digital Surround Sound

Video:
1.66:1

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: The Curse of Dethklok, Dethwater, Snakes N Barrels, Bluesklok, Girlfriendklok, Dethtroll
Rating: NR
Running Time: 230 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: