Tag Archives: dethklok

Friday Morning Metal – Brendon Small – Galaktikon II

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OMG MORE MUSIC FROM BRENDON SMALL! His Galaktikon II came out today, and it sounds like Dwayne from Home Movies joined Dethklok and convinced them to write a proper send up to Starboy & The Captain of Outer Space. I swear, Brendon Small could release an album of him farting on a snare drum, and it’d still be metal as hell.

Right out of the gate, the album sounds like a departure from the first, with vocals a lot more in line with Nathan Explosion than Brendon’s natural voice (Pickles). Some Days Are For Dying incorporates synth with the bombastic metal sound, and altogether it is a kickass space experience. They also want to magnetize the galaxy.

The album features some interesting time/rhythm shifts as well, primarily in The Agenda, definitely not something I remember happening in previous offerings, and a welcome addition. The first time I heard The Agenda, I was doing dishes, and it definitely pulled me out of the zone out that happens with such a heady chore.

Clocking in at 51 minutes, the album doesn’t overstay its welcome, which is nice when compared to some of the 75-80 minute “epics” that have come out in the past few years. It also means the songs are in the 3.5 to 5.5 minute range, a bit longer than BoingBoing‘s claim that a perfect song is 2:42, so there’s that. All in all it’s yet another kickass album from an incredibly talented musician.

And it wouldn’t be a proper Brendon Small Dethlaktikon type album without a song about an ocean.

Anyway, here it is, in its Spotify glory!

Friday Morning Metal – Brendon Small Playing The Duel from Metalocalypse

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Brendon Small is a musical genie. Like for reals. From his work as Duane in Home Movies, to all of Dethklok, and also Galaktikon, you can hear what kind of guitar wizard he is. And now you get to see the Skwisgar half of “The Duel” from the Doomstar Reqiuem rock opera.

It’s fun to watch. It also is one of those things where, if you’re learning to guitar, you’ll see it and want to put all your gear in the freezer. If that Bill & Ted’s third movie ever goes into production, I hope they ask if he’ll score it, because I think it’d make it that much more awesome.

Anyway, enjoy!

Oh also the full version with both guitar parts and all the noodly goodness!

Friday Morning Metal – Metalocalypse Now!

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Greetings viewer! Yesterday they countdown timer at Metalocalypsenow.com ran out, revealing a 503 error, and then a bandwidth exceeded error, and then a vanilla wordpress install, and finally a kickass website telling us to harass Hulu and [Adult Swim] to pool some resources so we can get a proper sendoff of Brendon Small’s terrific show.

In light of that, you will be getting copious Dethklok vidyas. Because that sounds like fun.

DOODLY DING DONG TICK TOCK.

Remember Guitar Hero 2? And trying to play Thunderhorse on the white Gibson Explorer with the plastic buttons? And then the frustration of losing yet again? This & Cowboys From Hell. Ugh.

I’m still waiting for a coffee that will wake someone from a thousand deaths.

And Skwisgar teaching you the sweeps picks on the guitars for the solo!

And Comet song is totally great. I didn’t realize how many of these videos could cause seizures.

Whenever I hear Awaken I just think of Nathan wanting 100 beers. Please.

Friday Morning Metal – Red Fang – Crows In Swine

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There’s a new Red Fang video, for Crows in Swine. It’s a cartoon done by Adam Avilla. I’m not sure who he is, but he makes awesome stuff. Heavy metal cartoon barbarians and four saviors gives off a bit of a Metalocalypse vibe, which is fantastic, because Dethklok is great. There’s also a bit of a Samurai Jack styling, with the main characters lacking outlines & whatnot.

And the song itself, with the mix of frenetic drums and groove-tastic breakdowns, it pairs incredibly well with the animation. Enjoy!

Favorite Metal Albums – Dethklok – The Dethalbum

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The_Dethalbum_Cover    I enjoyed Brendon Small way back when Home Movies was on the then nascent Adult Swim. The guitar work he provided for the character Duane reminded me of a couple guys I knew in high school, really shy guys who’d try out for bands and blow them away because he could take their song and add fills while the rest of the band was waiting for the metronome to kick up. And so when I heard he was working on a cartoon about the greatest heavy metal band in the universe, I was set.

Dethklok is probably the closest to death metal I’ll travel in the world of metal, and I’m really only here because I enjoy cartoons. The guitar work is phenomenal, merging various harmonies to create a driving, dancing arc to every track. And it better be, given that Skwisgaar Skwiggelf, fastest guitarist on the earth, is leading the charge.

There is a deliberate motion within many of the tracks, implied by the drumwork, almost a march to it. And given the water theme within many of the songs over their body of work, my guess is I need to march into the ocean. Once they break free from that ominous trajectory, you hit songs like Awaken, where Nathan Explosion is awakening a Finish lake troll. The song drives hard, with crazy double kick and fantastically harmonized guitars. And then I just imagine Murderface throwing his phone at the troll and killing it.

Thunderhorse was featured in Guitar Hero 2, if that gives any indication on the age of the album. A fast driving song with minimal lyrics, this is a great track to throw like midway through a run or bike ride or whatever. You try to match the pace of the song and you’ll be home before you know it. The guitar work is noodly and amazing, harmonizing between Skwisgar & Toki in a great way.

The Dethalbum comprises the songs from the first season of the show (lacking Crush My Battle Opponents’ Balls unfortunately) and is a non stop romp through noodly guitar riffs, songs about birthdays, and the grandspas guitars involved in the blues. The drum work beats you over the head and whips you into a frenzy, while Small’s vocals as Nathan Explosion can be best described as “broooooooootal.”

Key tracks: Birthday Dethday, Awaken, Thunderhorse, Duncan Hills Jingle

Friday Morning Metal – Dethklok – Metalocalypse

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So I finally got to watch METALOCALYPSE: the DOOMSTAR REQUIEM A KLOK OPERA the other day. And it was totally amazing. I like that we got to see the band’s origin, especially the Skwisgar/Toki epic guitar battle. Brendon Small is a phenomenal guitarist, and to hear his work in such a big way is great.

It’s sad that this is probably the end of Dethklok (for now at least), because they provided such great music and hilarious jokes. They definitely most can’t the least would be not a bad job and always a good.

Here’s a track off Dethalbum III – The Galaxy. BRUTAL

Friday Morning Metal – METALOCALYPSE: the DOOMSTAR REQUIEM A KLOK OPERA

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TWO WEEKS UNTIL THE EPIC CONCLUSION OF DETHKLOK: METALOCALYPSE. It looks to be so brutals, I can’t wait for Rocktober 27th!

Here is the trailer for it, with random clips and shots that really drive home the might and grand scope of such an awesome show from such a talented artist. That’s right. Brendon Small is a friggen genius.

Friday Morning Metal – Murdertrains

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There are quite a few songs about Murder trains. I didn’t realize riding the rail could be so violent. Some are crummy, some are masterpieces, all talk about trains of murder. Here goes nothings!

Here’s the version from How I Met Your Mother, where James Van Der Beek’s band “The Foreskins” performed Murder Train. Very fun. Mostly because they use it in clips like of Marshall and his brothers beating the pie out of each other.

And here’s Fanatik’s take on Murder Train. Very much a nu metal sounding whosits:

Finally, here are the masters of disaster, the kings of the universe, Dethklok, performing Blues and Metal majesty with Murdertrain:

Friday Morning Metal – 8-Bit Style

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Powerglove, CarboHydroM, and the Minibosses are great bands that do metal/hard rock covers of 8-bit and 16-bit video game songs. Excite Bike, for instance. Or Contra. Well yesterday I stumbled into a terrific rabbit hole of 8-bit covers of metal songs. And now I want to play the video games that would have these songs, because I bet they’d be next to impossible (Hi Contra without the Konami code) and totally kickass.

Dethklok – Thunderhorse. Great boss fight music, like if the boss was in a helicopter or something and you were commandos shooting rockets and lasers at it.

Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark. This one starts off slow, like an intro to a Castlevania almost.

Judas Priest – Painkiller. Double kick totally sounds like helicopter noises. They don’t even attempt to recreate Halford’s vocals, I don’t think 8-bit has a “Metal God” tone I guess.

Dragonforce – Through the Fire and Flames. All these songs would be kickass final battle songs.