The Dethalbum

Your either a Gear or your Not

Metal....You cannot deny it!Such a simple statement not only is true, it works! And ever since the Led Zeppelin debates that began when they came out, metal bands have come out to define (not just redefine) exactly what metal is. As a metal fan, I can say honestly.....we haven't written the first word because the bands have too often made the music about themselves; often, as in the case of Linkin Park, to hide their shortcomings and inabilities. Heavy metal should always be about the pure mastery of the music, and the bands should be the Sadists in that S&M musical relationship. Even the most honest of metal, death metal, has a lost focus.Once again, leave it up to the metal fans to save Metal. With 'Metalocalypse', metal fans Tommy Blacha and Brendon Small reminded the world that metal, particularly the cartoon band Dethklok's brand of metal, ruled them. The show, a funny romp about the mythical Dethklok and the extremes they'll go just to sell something, demonstrated at times that the music, though short in clips and bursts, was hypnotically good. It demonstrated that fans of the genre could put together awesome headbangingly good music for the show at least. How about a whole album?The 'Dethalbum' is the result of pure fan passion. This isn't just a convenient CD with a running order of the track listings for the show: these are complete music recordings, filled with the heavy, heavy, heavy doses of death, destruction, and degradation. They don't try to be clever here: if you are looking for depth in lyrics, grab an old Iron Maiden album (you know, before they bought Europe). The drum contribution from Gene Hoglan really sets the full throttle pace of the entire album, while....get this: ACTUAL GUITAR SOLOS! Remember guitar solos? I think Metallica did them once.Being a Deth-Metal inspired album, don't expect a Rob Halford expose on singing. Low, graveling, spoken-word-like singing can sometimes be hard to hear in some of the more thundering songs, but it works throughout the album. Collectively, with the tone and how each song is structured, it is a surprisingly good album, even if its a album about a fictional metal band making light of the whole metal mess. It gets five stars because a lot of work went into making this album and making it right, and it was made by real metal fans.

Yes my review is late but I figured I'd give my 2 cents.....Brendon Small the creator and main force behind Dethklok and most of the instruments for that matter shows on this just how competent a musician he is....Dethalbum all the way though is an interesting and fun listen. Hanving hired legendary drummer Gene Hoglan(Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad..) to play the role of Pickles shows how motivated Brendon was to make Dethklok a real thing..and for the most part the musicianship is quite superb...with overly catchy songs like "Thunderhorse" this album just catches your ears and keeps them at bay for the entire 71 minutes of this 2 cd set....it is however a shame that it was at 1st and to this day so hard to get this deluxe edition without paying an insane amount of money....because the 2nd disc has a few Dethklok hits that shouldn't have been left out of the reach of some fans that coudn't obtain a deluxe copy...."Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle" being one of these songs....the 2nd disc also includes a guitar lesson from Skwisgaar and the music video for "Bloodrocuted" which is mentioned in an episode but new to the ears....new songs never heard in the show are also on the album like "The Lost Vikings" and "Face Fisted"....all in all fans of the show will not be disappointed Dethklok is a real touring band and with this album the highest charting death metal album of all time shows Brednon and Dethklok are a force to be taken seriosuly within the metal universe....a very fun and very approachable album that 2 years later I still enjoy every bit as much as the day I obtained it....masterpiece. P.S. I'm ready for Dethalbum II it's gonna slay this even.

Seriously, why is it so-called "joke" metal bands are making the best music? Every song on this album is excellent and, as a bonus, actually quite funny, when you listen to the lyrics. Everything from the brilliant simplicity of Thunder Horse (whose only lyrics are Thunder! and Horse!) to the clever commentary on overpriced education in "Go Forth and Die" is catchy and memorable. Also, given the opportunity, why not go and make a better, metal snake? Finally, Face Fisted is perhaps the best "get ready to do something awesome" song on the album, and Murmaider (mermaid murder, obviously!) makes the idea of half-fish, half-human people far more metal than they have any right to be.Even if you've never seen the series (Metalocalypse) the album stands alone as some great musics, provides more than a few chuckles, and has remained in my musical rotation for years. While the album is also available a number of places for free, including Youtube, if you want to support the fictional band Dethklok and (more importantly) the real musicians behind them, you should pick this album up.