Where does “common sense” get off telling me that I’ll never meet, interview, or see William Murderface perform, just because he happens to be a cartoon? Next you’ll be telling me I’ll never meet Wolverine. Well screw that, common sense.And who cares if some person named Brendon Small created Dethklok, the lovable yet insanely brutal mega-stars of Metalocalypse? Even if he does write their songs, play most of the instruments, do three of their voices, and dictate the majority of what they say and do, that does not give him and three other dudes the right to call themselves Dethklok! To be clear: Nathan Explosion, William Murderface, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, Toki Wartooth, and Pickles the drummer are Dethklok. Anything else is a glorified tribute band.
Still, credit where it’s due: at the waaay sold-out Worcester Palladium a week ago Tuesday, Small’s glorified tribute band (featuring Dark Angel’s Gene Hoglan, who can play bass-drum 16th notes very quickly for a really, really long time) did the genuine article justice. ’Twas an extravaganza of musical murderizing, two aspects short of a real Dethklok show. For one, nobody (that I know of) in the horde of berserk metalheads died a horrible death (as tends to happen on the Adult Swim show). Second, anyone within eyeshot of the stage could see that behind the smoke and extreme mood lighting stood an ordinary-looking band. This created an awkward juxtaposition, since they sounded like the end of the world — as heard from the blackest pit of hell and/or Valhalla.
So those inclined to pretend they were hearing the “real” Dethklok could’ve closed their eyes, but that would’ve been an awful idea. Things looked rather boisterous on the floor, and the ceiling-high screen behind the stage ran projections of grotesquely violent and awesomely song-specific animated videos. Highlights included “Dethharmonic,” during which Nathan Explosion cried tears of blood while doing his taxes, and “Murmaider,” in which magical sea creatures were ripped to bleeding bits by a giant demon-mermaid type thing.
Halfway through the encore, ex-Bostonian Small channeled Explosion to spread Dethklok’s message to obsessed erstwhile Red Sox Nationals: “The people of Cambridge think you’re stupid, but we say: Fuck them!”
