Los Angeles, CA · melodic death metal

Dethklok

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Metalocalypse's cartoon death-metal band, real and devastating live — Brendon Small's shred played against the animation at brutal volume.

Dethklok began as the fictional band at the centre of Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha's animated series Metalocalypse, which premiered on Adult Swim in 2006. Small writes the music and performs most of the guitar and vocal parts, and the songs were built to work as functional melodic death metal rather than parody: tremolo-picked riffing, blast beats, and lyrics delivered in a low growl, often about absurd subjects handled with total seriousness.

The project moved off the screen with studio albums credited to the band and a touring lineup of session musicians, performing with animation projected behind them. Gene Hoglan handled drums on the recordings and in the live band for much of that run.

The band's debut, The Dethalbum, arrived in 2007 and reached number 21 on the Billboard 200. Dethalbum II followed in 2009, backed by a tour alongside Mastodon, High on Fire and Converge, and Dethalbum III came out in 2012. A soundtrack to the special episode Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem appeared in 2013.

Small later released Galaktikon II under his own name in 2017, material some fans treated as an unofficial Dethklok record since Adult Swim controls the band name itself. Dethklok returned to performing in 2019 after a five-year absence, and its fourth album, Dethalbum IV, came out in August 2023 alongside a soundtrack to the film Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar, followed by a US tour co-headlined with Babymetal.

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melodic death metal