Any avid adult swim viewers out there have undoubtedly heard of Dethklok. The death metal band is the star of the adult animated series "Metalocalypse". Although the group was featured originally as a fictional group, creator Brendan Small eventually released an album which debuted #21 on the Billboard Top 200 List. In the morbid dark comedy series, Dethklok is depicted as the most successful band on the planet whose popularity and power have made them a threat to world peace as we know it. With funds and strength rivaling the United States military, every episode begins in a top secret military base where their adversaries discuss Dethklok's latest developments. The show is hilarious because episodes both mock and honor death metal bands. Brendan Small did this by creating a group of dumb, innocent heavy metal rockers whose fame and power leads them to inadvertently cause worldwide panic, mass murder, and horrific catastrophes on a daily basis. The characters in the group are Nathan Explosion, Swisgaar Swigelf, William Murderface, Pickles, and Toki Wartooth. Although the show can be quite gruesome at times, there is constant comical relief in the personalities of these musicians. Every member of Dethklok is a raging alcoholic, and combined with the heavy accents and goofy voices of the characters there are some classic dialogues. In these, viewers come to realize that behind the tough persona of Dethklok there are actually just a bunch of cowardly, sensitive guys. One of the interesting things about Dethklok is all members of the band are based off of actual famous death metal musicians (something I would assume offended some of these legends). George "corpsegrinder" Fisher of Cannibal Corpse is the basis for Dethklok frontman Nathan Explosion. A combination of Alexai Laiho of Chidren of Bodom and swedish guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen are portrayed in the pompous, heavily accented Swisgaar Swigelf. The Norwegian Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth is represented by Toki Wartooth, and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath is believed to be William Murderface. The group that actually creates the music of Dethklok announced that they would begin touring in 2007 in an attempt to support and promote Adult Swim. The tour was a major success, and the group called "And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead" even got a song on Guitar Hero called Thunderhorse. Overall, I am sharing about Dethklok more because I enjoy the show Metalocalypse than any legitimate taste for death metal music, but from a musicians perspective I have to give "And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead" credit. Death metal music can be extremely difficult to compose, and this group is no exception to that. The guitar scales, speedy power chords, and ridiculous drum double bass pedaling is definitely out of this world. Two back to back episodes of Metalocalypse are aired on adult swim (cartoon network) Monday through Thursday at 1:00 AM and 1:15 AM for the next two weeks until adult swim changes their lineup as they frequently do. Check it out, but be warned, grotesque acts of morbid comedy do not appeal to everyone.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Dethklok
Any avid adult swim viewers out there have undoubtedly heard of Dethklok. The death metal band is the star of the adult animated series "Metalocalypse". Although the group was featured originally as a fictional group, creator Brendan Small eventually released an album which debuted #21 on the Billboard Top 200 List. In the morbid dark comedy series, Dethklok is depicted as the most successful band on the planet whose popularity and power have made them a threat to world peace as we know it. With funds and strength rivaling the United States military, every episode begins in a top secret military base where their adversaries discuss Dethklok's latest developments. The show is hilarious because episodes both mock and honor death metal bands. Brendan Small did this by creating a group of dumb, innocent heavy metal rockers whose fame and power leads them to inadvertently cause worldwide panic, mass murder, and horrific catastrophes on a daily basis. The characters in the group are Nathan Explosion, Swisgaar Swigelf, William Murderface, Pickles, and Toki Wartooth. Although the show can be quite gruesome at times, there is constant comical relief in the personalities of these musicians. Every member of Dethklok is a raging alcoholic, and combined with the heavy accents and goofy voices of the characters there are some classic dialogues. In these, viewers come to realize that behind the tough persona of Dethklok there are actually just a bunch of cowardly, sensitive guys. One of the interesting things about Dethklok is all members of the band are based off of actual famous death metal musicians (something I would assume offended some of these legends). George "corpsegrinder" Fisher of Cannibal Corpse is the basis for Dethklok frontman Nathan Explosion. A combination of Alexai Laiho of Chidren of Bodom and swedish guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen are portrayed in the pompous, heavily accented Swisgaar Swigelf. The Norwegian Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth is represented by Toki Wartooth, and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath is believed to be William Murderface. The group that actually creates the music of Dethklok announced that they would begin touring in 2007 in an attempt to support and promote Adult Swim. The tour was a major success, and the group called "And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead" even got a song on Guitar Hero called Thunderhorse. Overall, I am sharing about Dethklok more because I enjoy the show Metalocalypse than any legitimate taste for death metal music, but from a musicians perspective I have to give "And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead" credit. Death metal music can be extremely difficult to compose, and this group is no exception to that. The guitar scales, speedy power chords, and ridiculous drum double bass pedaling is definitely out of this world. Two back to back episodes of Metalocalypse are aired on adult swim (cartoon network) Monday through Thursday at 1:00 AM and 1:15 AM for the next two weeks until adult swim changes their lineup as they frequently do. Check it out, but be warned, grotesque acts of morbid comedy do not appeal to everyone.
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2 comments:
Almost but not quite.
The Dethalbum was released September 2007. So it's a year old.
The 'band' on the CD is simply Brendon Small, who plays all the guitars, and Gene Hoglan, who Brendon hired to do the drums on the CD.
For the first season on the show, Brendon used a drum machine. Once Gene was hired, the show's theme was redone with his drumming and all the songs in the second season had drums by Gene.
Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller were hired to be part of the touring band.
So far, they did the small college tour in the fall of 2007 and then the bigger tour this past summer. I saw them in Berkeley, CA at UC Berkeley Nov. 2, 2007 and at the Nokia Theater in Times Square, New York on June 25 this summer.
Hahaha, that last comment makes me giggle a little bit... but anyway...
I am with you on the love of Melalocalypse and Dethklok on the show! The ridiculous death metal riffs and power cords makes the theme song and their deadly concerts on the show fun, interesting and surprisingly upbeat... or at least energizing. I think it's cool that you referenced who each of the characters are based on or have similarities to. Out of all the people I know, I think I have one true metal head friend, and she tells me things like what are in this post all the time, which may have added to the reason I liked it so much. I'm not the biggest fan of that kind of music, but occasionally I enjoy some good death metal, and Dethklok is definitely at the top of my list. I'm also a sucker for anything adultswim, so keep up the good work!
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