The Best Fake Band in Metal Turns 20
Metalocalypse holds a special place in my heart. I watched nearly every episode when it aired on Adult Swim, and I still throw it on when it pops up on streaming, where the show keeps finding new life in clips all over my feed.
Now it gets a proper victory lap. Metalocalypse is celebrating 20 years with a panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 24 at 7:30 PM in Ballroom 5AB. Creator Brendon Small will be there alongside drummer Gene Hoglan, writers Brian Posehn and Andrew Kevin Walker, and Titmouse co-founder Chris Prynoski, with Nerdist’s Dan Casey moderating. A screening of the 2023 film Army of the Doomstar follows at 10:30 PM, Small in attendance.
Here is the thing about Dethklok: a fictional death metal band has done more to expand metal’s reach than most real ones. The show pulled in people who never would have touched death metal otherwise, then handed them Brendon Small’s actual songwriting as the gateway. And Small can play. The first two records, The Dethalbum and Dethalbum II, still hold up as some of the most fun you can have with a metal album, that hard death metal edge welded to comedy writing that actually lands. Twenty years on, the joke is still funny and the riffs still rip.
And this isn’t just nostalgia. Dethklok tours as a real band and sells out rooms, most recently on the Babyklok run with Babymetal, with the AmonKlok Conquest co-headline alongside Amon Amarth on deck. That is not a cartoon coasting on a punchline. That is a band.
I’m bummed I can’t get down to San Diego for this one. But put Small and Hoglan on a stage together for an anniversary and you have the setup for real news, maybe even a hint at what’s next. Either way, the clips will be everywhere by Saturday. I’ll be watching.
Source: Nerdist