Dethklok preview

Dethklok
Ryan Auditorium, Evanston
Sunday, November 18, 2007

Dethklok made history when they released Dethalbum (Williams Street) in September by setting a record unlikely to be broken (except maybe by themselves): The highest-charting death metal album ever!

Death metal records chart in the Billboard Top 200 about as often as slasher films win Oscars, but it isn’t totally unheard of. Cannibal Corpse (the genre’s biggest commercial success, if there is such thing) did it twice: Vile peaked at 151 in 1996, and Kill climbed as far as 170 last year. Excuse Dethklok for laughing, but 151? That’s the best Cannibal Corpse could do? Dethalbum debuted at 21, suckers. And they aren’t even a real band!

Dethklok are the stars of the Cartoon Network Adult Swim program, “Metalocalypse,” which centers around the band (the biggest, most brutal in the world), their stupidity, and the supernatural-like powers of their metaler-than-metal metal. Hilariousness ensues in episodes where the group do things like summon a giant, murderous lake troll in Finland or go into the fashion business (“We’ll make the most brutal clothing in recorded history. We plan on making clothes metal, literally and figuratively”), but for all the silliness, the music is really good. Dethklok consist of vocalist Nathan Explosion, guitarists Skwisgaar Skwigelf (the fastest guitarist alive) and Toki Wartooth (second-fastest guitarist alive), bassist William Murderface, and drummer Pickles, but the flesh and blood behind the band is “Metalocalypse” co-creator Brendon Small (born in Springfield, baby!), who writes all the music and plays most the instruments. Small (a Berklee College Of Music graduate) recorded Dethalbum with drummer Gene Hoglan (ex-Death/Strapping Young Lad), and the duo are joined by guitarist Mike Keneally and bassist Bryan Beller for this 12-date Adult Swim-sponsored college tour.

Dethklok open for . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead. Tickets are free for Northwestern students, and apparently you have to be a student to get a ticket, but surely our crafty readers can scheme their way around that, right?

– Trevor Fisher

Click here to hear samples of Dethklok.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly