Who could have imagined that a band born in the mind of Brendon Small could come alive upon a stage? The Metalocalypse series have been a major success for Adult Swim giving the chance for Brendon to make an album Dethalbum and actually get this fictional Death Metal band on the road.

I arrived at The House Of Blues half an hour after the door opening time since I thought that the would not be that many metalheads to come to see live this band on a Monday evening. Man, how wrong I was! If I did not have a press pass for the show I wouldn't be able to attend it because it was a sold out one. Indeed, the venue was packed from fans that were anxious to see the best Death Metal band on the world (I think all the Metalocalypse fans fully understand my saying.
So, after I got a pretty cool vinyl version of the album and a nice DETHKLOK t-shirt to go with I made my way to the photo-pit since the show was about to begin.

I knew SOILENT GREEN by name and actually learned a few things after reading Yiannis D review on their latest album. Well, to be honest I did not expect much from them that night. The band entered the stage with quite an energetic spirit but for a strange reason they weren't warmly welcomed. Actually, the band's singer had a 'nice' talk with one of the guys in the front rows who was yelling at them you suck. Well, it is definitely a shitty attitude to go to a concert and curse the bands that you don't like but it's a free country. The awkward start did not affect the band that performed vigorously their Death Metal meets Hardcore mix. Ben Falgoust did well as the band's frontman but I think I prefer him with the Blacksters GOATWHORE. The thing with this specific music genre is that it gets pretty boring after a while. I found it hard to tell apart the songs even though there were some pretty interesting parts with the tempo changes.

CHIMAIRA was next, and was another band that I only knew by name. The band from Cleveland, OH impressively took over the stage with a massive sound and a very good light show. Their entrance moved every one in the venue who seemed pretty aware of their works. Despite the fact that there are some Metalcore elements in CHIMAIRA that I dislike I liked their show. Their energetic performance along with the Thrash ton heavy parts made my neck kind of warmer and I did follow the audience violent and definitely sweaty movement for a couple of moments. As I always say a concert is the best way to judge a band and these guys earned my respect.

While the crew was preparing the stage for DETHKLOK we were listening to latest ZIMMER'S HOLE album. I think it was a deliberate choice since Gene Hoglan is the drummer on this one and Nathan Explosion shared some words in The Vowel Song.

So, after some minor problems on the projector the lights went out and the first thing we saw on the big screen was an advertisement. This tour was managed by Adult Swim who is behind the Metalocalypse tv production so this was not that of a surprise for me. The DEHKLOK logo was up and after some minutes during which the audience was really loud the show started! General Crozier was on screen talking about a virus that would destroy all the DETHKLOK fans. After the short yet hilarious excerpt from the Tv show Breandon and his company entered the stage with the Detheme spreading waves of enthusiasm in the packed venue. It was then that I realized that DETHKLOK is a phenomenon; I mean it is a fictional band that managed to enter the Billboard charts and have a most successful summer tour. Brendon who had some of Nathan's Metal attitude proved that he genuine rocks with all the Death Metal shredding guitar riffs. Gene Hoglan was a beast behind the drum kit giving the tracks a way better sound than in the studio album. Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller excellently topped off the 'live' version of DETHKLOK giving a genuine solid concert.

The show was also very good from the visual aspect. The screen was showing the video clip for the songs and some hilarious excerpts from the Tv series. During Detharmonic a nice lady wearing a red hair wig entered the stage with a violin to enhance the harmonic profile of the song. Go Forth And Die, Thundehorse and Murmaider were some of the gig's highlights that made me feel like I was actually in the 'real' DETHKLOK concert without all the bloody mutilations that the cartoon fans have to go through. The show ended with one encore and Fansong as the fitting closer. Brendon 'talked' to us with the voices from the show thanking everyone who came introducing the rest of the just before the last song .

What can I say more on this? It was something extremely special and I hope that this band will do so more touring and why not another album .The question is whether Brendon who is behind all these can stand the pressure from the growing success of the tv show and continue producing metal humor and good Death Metal music!

DETHKLOK setlist:

01. Detheme
02. Briefcase Full Of Guts
03. Birthday Dethday
04. Awaken
05. Bloodrocuted
06. Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle
07. Castratikron
08. Go Forth And Die
09. Hatredcopter
10. Murmaider
11. Thunderhorse
12. Go Into The Water
13. Fan Song

(photos by the Murmaider)

SOILENT GREEN

DETHKLOK