Masters of the Universe

ADULT SWIM’S Metalocalypse has given birth to
perhaps the world’s preeminent parody band: Dethklok. In the series,
death metal juggernauts Dethklok are the world’s most popular band,
yielding the planet’s 12th largest economy and garnering the attention
of a secret government think-tank known as the Tribunal. Characterizing
the band as a dysfunctional yet triumphant train wreck of metal
clichés, the series is piss-your-pants hilarious. In an
art-imitating-life turn of events, the real-life incarnation of the
fictional act is co-headlining a tour with Mastodon and being supported
by metal stalwarts High on Fire and Converge.

A recent conversation with series co-creator Brendon Small has
revealed that this Berklee College of Music graduate is a creative
wellspring as well as a long-standing metal fanatic with a healthy
appreciation for the genre he so lovingly lampoons. Citing Metallica,
King Diamond, Exodus, and Death Angel as early influences, Small
composes and plays guitar on all of the music for the series, which
boasts a list of contributors that reads like a who’s who of the metal
universe—from members of Iced Earth to Dimmu Borgir. Small also
ably engages in real-time axe shredding for the live performances.

This begs the question, how does an animated band perform live?
Small explains that the mechanics of the performance arm of the band
are that of a pit band playing to the projected animated image of
Dethklok; think Gorillaz with enormous brass cojones.

As with any genre that takes itself too seriously, Dethklok’s pole
position in the metal dominion has its chat-room detractors. Of these
humorless curs Small says, “This show is for the kind of people that
would get the joke. I respect someone who gets the joke and doesn’t
like it more than somebody who just doesn’t get the joke… they
actually have something wrong with their brains if they don’t
understand humor. That person’s more dangerous than anybody.”

Metalocalypse‘s real-life success has upped the ante for
Small. In addition to making the jump from 11-minute to 21-minute
episodes, he is embarking on a seven-week tour with some of the
heaviest hitters in the metal game. Though Small says that doing a tour
while simultaneously completing the production of the show “doesn’t
make my job any easier,” he remains optimistic. “So far our only goal
with the show is to make it work and to be funny and to not be boring.
It’s a very simple goal. And that’s the same with music. I want it to
sound interesting enough that it gets you through the song. And then
you’ll maybe want to listen to it again.”

 When posed with the inevitable question about a possible
Metalocalypse movie, Small explains that while he’d “love to do
it,” he has some reservations about quick releasing a film to cash in
on the show’s following. “I’d like to make it really good, not just
kind of try to beat the clock.” After that? Small says. “I keep
increasing my role [in Metalocalypse] somehow when I’m trying to
back off and get a vacation.” I suppose if you can pull off
simultaneously executing a tour with the biggest acts in metal, while
doubling the length of your hit animated series, you deserve a
vacation—especially when you’re the 12th largest economy in the
world.