Dethklok creator claims that the ‘angry metalhead’ stereotype couldn’t be more wrong: “Everyone’s got a sense of humour, everyone’s got levity”
Once you get to know a metalhead, any stereotypes about them being miserable and elitist falls away. In fact, a lot of the time the opposite is true – metal can be over-the-top, larger-than-life, even silly.
Dethklok co-creator Brendon Small understands that on a deep level. His animated comedy Metalocalypse, centered around a death metal band bigger than the Beatles, was founded on the premise of there being a humorous side of metal culture. It famously brought on board a host of icons from the metal world to do voiceovers, including Kirk Hammett, Amy Lee and Scott Ian.
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“Everyone’s perception of heavy metal is so different than the reality because heavy metal is brutal, and it evokes a feeling and a mood that’s so dark and so awesome,” Small tells Sense Music Media. “But everyone’s got a sense of humour, everyone’s got levity, and I wanted everyone to participate and become part of the joke of the show. I didn’t wanna be a them-or-us thing, I wanted everyone to go, ‘This is your playground. Let’s give you an opportunity to be funny. What can we do? Let’s play.’”
“It was so cool that those guys said yes. I was trying to be extra clever when we started the show. I thought, ‘If we can get Metallica on the first episode, then I bet I can get other people, too, to come into our world of silly, weird absurdity and play with us,’” he continues.
The show proved so popular that Small assembled Dethklok as a live band, for which he performed vocals and guitar. It aired between 2016 and 2013 before it was abruptly cancelled by its network Adult Swim.
After several years of inactivity, the band returned in 2023 with a new album, Dethalbum IV and an animated movie, Metalocalypse: Army Of The Doomstar.
The post Dethklok creator claims that the ‘angry metalhead’ stereotype couldn’t be more wrong: “Everyone’s got a sense of humour, everyone’s got levity” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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