Review: Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar

When we get feature-length movies about Venture Bros. and Metalocalypse, the reason is because the demand from the fandom is so passionate that the network (in this case Adult Swim) would be dumb NOT to hear it. Venture Bros., features subject-matter material that is very much appropriate for this current pop culture climate, almost ahead of its time if you will. Metalocalypse, I always felt, had a much more difficult road to get to the heights that the series has gotten to. Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick would mostly be able to leverage the giant fandoms for Venture Bros. showing up and pretty much demand anything they had asked for and rightfully so. Creator Brendon Small had to show two things when it came to making sure Metalocalypse caught on: 1) He can create an animated franchise (which we already knew given his history with co-creating Home Movies with Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard) 2) He had to launch, and thereby convince fans,studio heads, and others, that death metal music is not only a music genre, but one that can create an effervescent impact that can crossover to fans that may not even care for the music.

That latter one had to be difficult in the early ‘oughts when Metalocalypse first premiered on Adult Swim. At the time, boy bands were topping the charts, Eminem was solidifying himself as a god, and even heavy metal music was going through a transition, less in favor of the massively popular nu-metal bands of the nineties, and more-so with the rise of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Regardless of what era of heavy music you followed, death metal was, and is, by far one of the most underground examples. So, Brendon had to take a not-mainstream music genre, put it on an not-yet mainstream TV network, and then make sure he had the songs and musicianship to back up the over-arching mythos that is the band Dethklok.

Fictional band members are Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, Pickles, William Murderface and Toki Wartooth have rode the wave of Metalocalypse’s lore from the start, even if the show’s producers were a little wishy-washy with the direction of the series with the show’s first two seasons being of the quarter-hour variety before season three doubled it’s runtime. Season four saw a return to the quarter-hours before the finality of Metalocalypse would come into focus in the form of the excellent The Doomstar Requiem hour-long rock opera. Afterwards, Adult Swim would cancel the franchise which led to fan outrage, Jedi outrage, and even the network being of a bunch of assholes to its own fandom. Because of this, WB Discovery came with the idea to start doing feature-length animated films inspired by Adult Swim’s major animated franchises, with Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar being both one of the announcements, and Small’s vow to finish the epic journey on his own terms.

Note, I have laid out a pretty Cliff’s Notes version of the history of Metalocalypse and Dethklok. The reason being, I wanted to make sure that you, the viewer, understood what I’m about to say here when proclaiming a one-line review of Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar. As back-and-forth as the history of Metalocalypse the franchise has been, is exactly how Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar. Without a doubt, this is a sequel to Metalocalypse: Doomstar Requiem, so please, do yourself a favor and watch that first because I think you really need to get some of that homework in to truly flex on the minutiae of what’s going on here.

The start of the film is a bit rocky, with Metalocalypse trying to rediscover its comedic branding a bit, more akin to almost a couple of episodes of the show’s early seasons. At the end of the day, this is a show about DETHKLOK, an extreme metal band, that is the most successful entertainment act on the planet and the seventh largest economy in the animated world of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse. But, with how the movie kicks off, the film has a bit of an identity crisis of what it wants to be before it really kicks into one of the most mesmerizing animated experiences of my entire life, very reflective of the show’s entire run when you include the Klok Opera.

After the heroic rescue of Toki Wartooth, DETHKLOK frontman Nathan Explosion finds himself traumatized in a BRUTAL professional and romantic flat-spin all while he is tasked with fulfilling the prophecy and confronting the ultimate songwriting challenge: write the SONG OF SALVATION and save the planet. Nathan Explosion is forced to look beyond his brutally damaged ego to save his band, stop the Metalocalypse, and finally face the ultimate evil: Salacia.

The film stars Small, Tommy Blacha, Victor Brandt, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, King Diamond, Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Kirk Hammett (METALLICA), Jon Hamm (Top Gun: Maverick), Scott Ian (ANTHRAX), Amy Lee (EVANESCENCE), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Juliet Mills (Passions), Laraine Newman (Saturday Night Live), Raya Yarbrough (Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem – a Klok Opera), and Livia Zita (2022 winner – Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Award) and NOBODY has skipped a beat, this cast is as top-notch as you’re going to get and everyone kills it.

The accompanying soundtrack, though mixed a tad low in my opinion for the film, is an epic onslaught of heavy proficiency and makes for a great prelude for the proper new Dethklok album that comes out next week called Dethalbum IV.

Titmouse shows its shiniest self. Yes, Brendon Small is the heart, mind, and soul of Metalocalypse, but I always felt that Mark Brooks was the cock and balls, helping produce a mesmerizing visual feast that would even make a few over-produced anime franchises look back in fright and think “Whoa”. That’s not to take anything away from prior contributions from Blacha and the legendary Jon Schnepp, but Mark doesn’t get enough credit for his contributions to this franchise and Army of the Doomstar is one of his most important pieces.

Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar is the smashing of the guitar at the end of a show, with Titmouse, Brendon Small, and the whole team going bananas like Nine Inch Nails circa Lollapalooza 1991, decimating Titmouse’s most beautiful creation and by far Adult Swim’s franchise crescendo that has never truly been duplicated, and may never will. RIP Jon Schnepp, you would have been proud.