A review by Daniel Haynes
Creators: Tommy Blacha, Brendan Small
Starring: Tommy Blacha, Brendan Small, Mark Hamill
Metalocalypse is a satirical black comedy cartoon produced by Titmouse inc. Created by Brendon Small, Metalocalypse is a show by metal-heads for metal-heads. The show focuses on fictional death metal band ‘Dethklok’, so immensely popular that they are “the world’s greatest cultural force”.
Dethklok consists of five members, Nathan Explosion (lead singer and songwriter), Skwisgaar Skwigelf (lead guitarist), Toki Wartooth (rhythm guitar), Pickles (drummer) and William Murderface, the band’s bassist.
Season 3 picks up where the previous season left off, with the band trying to cope after their manager apparently died. Dethklok is completely unable to control their finances and end up being blackmailed into signing with a different record label, until their band manager comes back from the dead and enables them to play a comeback show.
From then, the season has a variety of episodes which poke fun at metal band’s drug/alcohol addiction and rehab, law suits between band members, family relationships, medical examinations and ‘selling out’. By and large, the dialogue and issues covered throughout the season were punchy and entertaining. The best episodes would be ‘Tributeklok’ and ‘Doublebookedklok’, the former about Dethklok feeling as though they had ‘sold out’, so they formed a tribute band to themselves in an attempt to ‘find their roots’. The latter was a delightfully entertaining episode whereby miscommunication between the band and its manager resulted in Dethklok being scheduled to play in Israel and Syria on the same day, escalating international tension and causing many countries to prepare for WW3 in the event that Dethklok cancelled its show in one of the countries.
The voice acting and music within the show pays tribute to many popular metal acts and artists, and is generally of high quality. Brendon Small, Mark Hamill and Tommy Blancha do an outstanding job of voicing the show’s central characters. Additionally, each episode minor characters are voiced by notable metal artists. Season 3 boasted guest voice-acting from Slash, Scott Ian, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ace Frehley, Kirk Hammett, Matt Pike, Jack Black and Kyle Gass.
Recommended for metal fans.
There are two albums available as well, consisting of full songs from the show and some original stuff. Some of the guys actually go touring globally as Dethklok. The albums are pretty good too.
This review was previously published in Dark Matter issue 2, January 2011, and predated on this website to reflect the original publication date.
CARTOON NETWORK, the logo, METALOCALYPSE and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © 2010 Cartoon Network. A TimeWarner Company. All Rights Reserved.
