The Dethalbum

Unrepentantly dismissive of the line between parody and reality, The Dethalbum is the debut from fictional black metal band Dethklok, stars of the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse. Show creator Brendon Small describes Metalocalypse as “Spinal Tap meets Scooby Doo meets Norway.” In a never-ending search for “the brutal,” various episodes find the band in ridiculous situations that range from traveling to Mississippi to learn about the blues to trying their hand at stand-up comedy. Even though the show makes fun of the Scandivian black metal scene and its extreme obsession with death and evil, The Dethalbum, which mixes music from the cartoon with newly recorded songs, is actually a fairly convincing slice of metal. Small, a graduate of Berklee College of Music, handles the majority of singing and instrumentation himself and he clearly revels in the punishing riffs and balls-out solos that are the genre’s hallmarks. Of course, it’s the lyrics that make The Dethalbum what it is. Sung in the guttural demon voice common to all death metal, “Mermaider” (about mermaid murder) begins with the line: “There are no fingerprints deep under water / Nothing to tie one to a crime.” Other titles such as “Briefcase Full of Guts” and “Hatredcopter” speak for themselves. Like Spinal Tap before them, Dethklok lets you in on the fun regardless of whether you love black metal or just love the joke.