Starring: Tommy Blacha, Brendon Small, Mark Hamill, Victor Brandt, Malcolm McDowell
Directors: Tommy Blacha, Brendon Small
Rated: Unrated
Studio: Cartoon Network
Release Date: October 30, 2012
Run Time: 144 minutes
Season: 4 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3 Out of 5 stars
When I first heard about “Metalocalypse” back in 2006, I was excited since I am big fan of brutal music and also Adult Swim’s animated show. The show has developed so well over the years and has consistently blown away any expectations I had. The show recently completed its fourth season on Adult Swim and has been the best season since the first. This season the show also returns to its original 11-minute long episode format, which I persoanlly preferred. It is so amazing to realize how far this virtual death metal band Dethklok has come since 2006 with CDs and tours. This show is totally brutal and I honestly cannot get enough of this. This release also includes a bonus of the entire season available to watch using Ultraviolet digital streaming copy. Now we just need to get seasons one and two put out on Blu-ray. You get that Adult Swim?
“Season four of “Metalocalypse” begins with our heroes, extreme metal gods Dethklok, as they ejoin from the sky to the earth to confront the evils that lay before all-human kind: the evils of dating fans; the evils of perceived racism, of the ‘tell-all’ books, of the bullying helpless diabeties, and the evil of fellatio. Will Dethklok face their fears or will they self-destruct when they world needs them most? The Metalocalypse continues…” Also the truth behind the shadowy organization, the Tribunal is starting to reveal itself and its mission to end Dethklok.
The fourth season contains the following episodes: “Fanklok”, “Diversityklok”, “Prankklok”,” Motherklok”, “Bookklok”, “Writersklok”, “Dethcamp”, “Dethvanity”, “Going Downklok”, “Dethdinner”, “Breakup Klok”, “Church of the Black Klok”. This season features guest appearances from some awesome talent like Corpsegrinder (Cannibal Corpse), Cam Pipes (Three Inches of Blood), Dweezil Zappa, actor Jon Hamm (Mad Men), and director Werner Herzog (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans).
The Blu-ray presentation on this season is an nice improvement over season three. It is presented it in its 1.78:1 broadcast ratio and looks sharp in its 1080p transfers. The star of the release though has to be the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track, since the show is based around music and this does not disappoint. There are also some decent special features, adding up another two hours of bonus content. There is fun interactive “Facebones DethGame”, which has some decent replay value. There is a sweet tribute to all the brutal fan art that was submitted to the show. There is a montage sequence included for the “Black Klok”. There is also “StaresDowns” with the band, a feature called “MurderThoughts”, A “Pickles Flyby” and a Tribunal BTS featurette. The feature that steals the show though is “Nathan reads Shakespeare #4: A Comedy of Errors” this is a 90 minute feature film and is a must see for fans!
2012 is a big year for Adult Swim’s virtual death metal band Dethklok. They are headlining a 34 date concert tour this Fall and also they just released a new album, “Dethalbum III”. The album also just debuted at #10 in the Billboard 200, which is the highest that series has ever achieved. If you are a fan of “Metalocalypse”, you should be doing back flips for all this brutality. Now we just have to wait for a fifth (and hopefully not last season) from Brendon Small. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another two years to release that. But at least for the time being we can mosh it out at the concerts and blast the new tunes!