2008 Woodie Awards
Go forth and die, eaten by Dethklok's brutal blackness
Samuel J. Struckhoff
Issue date: 7/3/08 Section: Variety
Being told Dethklok is playing a show at the Hard Rock Live could be compared to finding out the Super Mario brothers are real-life plumbers listed in the yellow pages.
Dethklok is the fictional death-metal band at the center of Adult Swim's animated series Metalocalypse. The cartoon follows the often violent and misguided exploits of the band, who have become the most powerful force on the planet.
A guttural roar rose from the audience as the thrashing guitar-riff signaled the beginning of Dethklok's set - the music of the world's most powerful cartoon band.
The Deth Tour 2008 is Dethklok's latest move into the realm of real-world rocking.
Over the sea of raised pinkies and index fingers, one could see from the on-stage screen that the intense energy and excitement was caused by the theme song to a cartoon.
In 2007, Adult Swim released the Dethalbum, a CD of full-length songs played by Dethklok on the show. One of the songs from the show, "Thunderhorse," was released as a bonus track on the video game Guitar Hero II.
The success of the late-night cartoon was evidenced Monday night by the crowd of metal enthusiasts ranging from the casual fan to the devoted metal-head. Inside the venue, two men stood among the audience wearing black executioner's hoods, similar to the masks worn by Dethklok employees on Metalocalypse.
The men, requesting to be known only as The Klokateers, said they were there as fans to "add ambience to the atmosphere." One of the Klokateers explained that his tastes lean more towards old-school metal and that Metalocalypse has rekindled his interest in the metal music genre.
Aside from the logistical problem created by the existence of a third dimension, there are many questions surrounding a cartoon band's handling of a live-action gig.
In every episode of Metalocalypse, the people around the band tend to die in horrific freak-accidents, with audience members making up the majority of Dethklok's casualties. In Metalocalypse, the band is released from liability for these accidents by contracts called "pain-waivers."
Dethklok is the fictional death-metal band at the center of Adult Swim's animated series Metalocalypse. The cartoon follows the often violent and misguided exploits of the band, who have become the most powerful force on the planet.
A guttural roar rose from the audience as the thrashing guitar-riff signaled the beginning of Dethklok's set - the music of the world's most powerful cartoon band.
The Deth Tour 2008 is Dethklok's latest move into the realm of real-world rocking.
Over the sea of raised pinkies and index fingers, one could see from the on-stage screen that the intense energy and excitement was caused by the theme song to a cartoon.
In 2007, Adult Swim released the Dethalbum, a CD of full-length songs played by Dethklok on the show. One of the songs from the show, "Thunderhorse," was released as a bonus track on the video game Guitar Hero II.
The success of the late-night cartoon was evidenced Monday night by the crowd of metal enthusiasts ranging from the casual fan to the devoted metal-head. Inside the venue, two men stood among the audience wearing black executioner's hoods, similar to the masks worn by Dethklok employees on Metalocalypse.
The men, requesting to be known only as The Klokateers, said they were there as fans to "add ambience to the atmosphere." One of the Klokateers explained that his tastes lean more towards old-school metal and that Metalocalypse has rekindled his interest in the metal music genre.
Aside from the logistical problem created by the existence of a third dimension, there are many questions surrounding a cartoon band's handling of a live-action gig.
In every episode of Metalocalypse, the people around the band tend to die in horrific freak-accidents, with audience members making up the majority of Dethklok's casualties. In Metalocalypse, the band is released from liability for these accidents by contracts called "pain-waivers."