“WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE”
It’s been a long and difficult saga for Brendon Small, but with the upcoming release Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar, we will finally have a conclusion to the story of the “greatest band on earth,” Dethklok. Despite the more obvious humor of Metalocalypse, there has always been a love and adoration for heavy music, from the overarching score, guitar squealing censor blips, and the four absolute crushers of albums.
Dethalbum IV, releasing alongside the Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar motion picture on August 22, is a welcome addition to the canon and lands wholly into the melodic death metal category, with operatic crescendos building to solid blastbeats in songs like “Aortic Desecration” and “Bloodbath.” Small’s death voice is in top monstrous condition all around, but it really stands out on songs like “I Am The Beast” and “DEADFACE,” where he digs in deep on his growls, evoking a visceral, animalistic style the tops the more quick worded style of the earlier albums.
While, perhaps understated, his technical ability is on display to the more discerning ear. Driving riffs are peppered with triplets and arpeggio builds, while solos favor a languishing symphonic style over the earlier fret dancing of the first album. Maybe the experience of composing the Doomstar Requiem rock opera had something to do with this, but it’s a welcome direction.
The songs have a cohesive feeling of storytelling that the earlier albums lack, making the overall album listening experience that much more enjoyable. As a person who grew up in a time when album composition held a higher importance than charting singles, this is probably the most welcome experience. While I can’t speak for hearing it, a welcome addition to Dethalbum IV’s release is the concurrent release of Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), which will include additional songs as well as a completely original movie score on August 25th.
Either way, anyone with tickets to the upcoming Dethklok/Babymetal tour -affectionately known by fans as “The BabyKlok Tour”- is in for a treat, because Dethalbum IV, much like it’s predecessors, destroys, and culminates in the third part of one of the most inconceivably awesome cross album song trilogies of “Murmaider III.”
