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Brendon Small, Tommy Blacha, Mark Hamill, Victor Brandt, Malcolm McDowell
Various
Metalocalypse: Season Two
- Animation
- 2007
- Buy the DVD
Reviewed by Will Harris
()
W
hen watching “Metalocalypse,” one has to wonder just how much good will creator Brendon Small built up with the folks at Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim with his previous series, “Home Movies.” It’s one thing that he was able to come to them and pitch a series revolving around a death metal band, but when you watch the show and see all the gore and violence, the adventures of Coach McGuirk and the kids have never seemed farther away. Not that “Metalocalypse” isn’t funny. It’s just that only the most open-minded “Home Movies” fans would ever be able to cross over from that show to this one.
If this is your first experience with “Metalocalypse,” then let’s set the stage for you. It is, as noted, about a death metal band; they’re called Dethklok, and they’re so very popular that, when Season Two of the series opens, the group’s decision to stop making public appearances leads fans not only to riot in the streets but even to commit suicide. Indeed, if stats can be trusted, they are the seventh largest economy on Earth, which means that the world will fall into financial ruin if they don’t return to the public eye. To make the appropriate comeback, as it were, the band decides to hold a concert in conjunction with the execution of hundreds of death-row inmates as they’re fired off on rockets as part of the performance’s pyrotechnic display. “I’d consider it an honor to be killed in front of Dethklok,” says one of the inmates. “Dethklok rules!” It goes horribly wrong, of course, with many innocents being killed and mayhem ensuing, but hey, Dethklok’s back, so voila, the economy surges!
Right now, you’re either laughing or cringing, and if it’s the latter, then let’s just say that “Metalocalypse” is not the show for you. As such, you’ll have to take our word for it when we tell you that, in its own way, it pokes just as much fun at the music industry as “Home Movies” did at Hollywood. When a fan pirates the band’s songs, he’s kidnapped and tortured by the band’s roadies. There’s an episode where the band’s drummer, Pickles, gets a new publicist, who promptly trades on his fame to lure members into her cult, where she robs them and then murders them; in another segment, the band has business-manager problems that result in a fencing match to the death to decide who will handle Dethklok’s affairs. The best episode of the season may be “Snakes N Barrels II,” where Pickles discovers that his former band – Snakes N Barrels – has reformed with a new lead singer, but the most enjoyable ongoing storyline comes from Dethklok’s encounters with the Revengencers, an anti-Dethklok terrorist group.
If you happen to be a death metal fan, you’ll appreciate the guest voice appearances from members of Cannibal Corpse, Arch Enemy, Emperor, and Dimmu Borgir. Even if you’re just an alt-rock fan, though, you’ll probably be amused to see Mike Patton’s name in the credits. (He used to be the lead singer of Faith No More, you know.) Otherwise, the regular cast is pretty impressive in and of itself, with Small working alongside Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell .
Those with tender dispositions will find it more than a little trying to watch “Metalocalypse” without fearing for your very soul, but the inherent concept – a band so popular that they can get away with just about anything – is a funny one, and if you can just put on the mute during the songs themselves, the scenes with the band members are invariably hilarious. It’s a little bit “Beavis & Butthead” at times, and not necessarily in a good way, but when it works, it reminds you that, at its heart, “Metalocalypse” is a very intelligent (if regularly disconcerting) show.
Special Features: Despite the back-of-the-box claim of being “loaded with 1 hrillion super cool zazz-filled metal dildo features,” there is, in fact, absolutely no bonus material whatsoever, which is particularly surprising when you consider how much Small contributed to the “Home Movies” DVDs. If we can presume that he’s probably even more psyched about this show (and given his love of metal, that’s almost certainly the case), then the blame here can fall on no one’s shoulders but those of Warner Brothers.
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