ANIMATION DOMINATION
Metal-based Dethklok makes leap from TV to tour with new album, film
Brendon Small doesn’t get many moments to rest. Somehow, it’s just the way he likes it. “It’s a chore,” he says of all of his projects. “I’ve been promoting the record, one of which is a film score, and the film is landing on Max and then on Adult Swim. It’s pretty exhausting. The past couple of years, the way I describe it, is that I’ve been caught smoking by my parents and they are making me smoke the whole pack as punishment. With all the touring and creating, I’ve become addicted to creating content. It’s really the most fun I can have these days.”
Small is half of the mastermind behind the band Dethklok. The band was created for the animated show “Metalocalypse,” which ran on Adult Swim for multiple seasons. The film, “Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar” is currently streaming on Max.
The success of the show caused Small to bring the animated band to life real time and go on tour.
The tour is slated to make a stop at Revel Entertainment Center on Friday, April 19. Opening for the concert will be Dragonforce and Nekrogoblikon.
For more than a decade, Small has been creating a narrative that continues to move forward within the “Metalocalypse” universe.
“You still have to top yourself and you can’t do what you’ve done before,” he says. “I keep studying stuff along the way. I remain hunched over my guitar and studying the craft. There’s the soul of the project and that lives inside your dream world.”
Dethklok has released four albums to date, with “Dethalbum IV” being released in August 2023.
Small, who takes on triple duty in the band, says the records are bits and pieces from the TV show.
With “Dethalbum IV,” he decided to write an album from scratch and wrote about 40 demos.
“It took me a while and I knew we were going to do the project in the middle of the pandemic,” he says. “Meanwhile, I have some of the songs that are in the movie. I have the songs that are part of the narrative. Ultimately, the biggest part of the piece is getting my schedule together.”
Small’s musical journey has been filled with plenty of ups and downs.
In college, he interned at two jingle writing houses.
“It was then I realized I wanted to be the person that created the scripts,” he says. “Then I wanted to do comedy writing. My goal was to do everything I could to get to 30 Rock. I started studying writing. From there, I started to appreciate more visual elements of storytelling and tried to develop and push this project forward.”
As Small prepares for tour, he’s been playing guitar for two hours a day and doing exercises to keep up with the rigors of the road.
“Thankfully, a lot of the music is locked in my head right now,” he says. “The show is a crazy show. We have a giant movie screen and it’s behind us. We’ve been practicing in the dark and using miner lights around the stage. The show should feel like an amusement park ride. I want you to feel something that you can’t get anywhere else.”