Dethklok

Dethklok is both a virtual band featured in the Adult Swim animated program Metalocalypse and a real band created to perform the band's melodic death metal music in live shows. Both bands were created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha. The music heard on Metalocalypse is performed by Brendon Small, with others as needed. Small and drummer, Gene Hoglan, performed on all three albums.

The first official Dethklok album was released on September 25, 2007, entitled The Dethalbum. The album debuted at number 21 on Billboard Magazine's Top 200 list. The band released Dethalbum II on September 29, 2009, and toured with Mastodon, High on Fire, and Converge. The band's third album, Dethalbum III, was released on October 16, 2012.

Fictional background
In the Metalocalypse series, Dethklok is depicted as an extremely popular and successful death metal band, described by their adversaries, the Tribunal, as the "world's greatest cultural force." The band's fan base includes billions of metal fanatics, who frequently endanger themselves to watch the band perform live.

The members of Dethklok are often portrayed as incompetent at almost everything not related to their profession. The band struggles to perform everyday tasks, including shopping for groceries, preparing food, and maintaining proper social relationships. They are often assisted by their manager and lawyer, Charles Foster Ofdensen, who frequently attempts to prevent the band from making poor decisions. The band's actions and uncanny misfortune have caught the attention of an Illuminati-style council, known as The Tribunal. The Tribunal is portrayed as Dethklok's antagonist throughout the series, and secretly monitor their actions in almost every episode.

The band is shown to make more money than any other business in the world, with nearly the entire planet's population adoring Dethklok despite typically being maimed or killed by various gimmicks they use in their shows, such as in "The Curse of Dethklok", when coffee is poured onto fans to make the guitar solo literally face-melting, "Dethdoubles", when a dormant volcano that Dethklok is playing above erupts, killing and maiming most, if not all, of the audience, including Dethklok's doubles, or in "Tributeklok", when Dethklok (performing as tribute band Thunderhorse) plays at an ice-skating rink, and an ice skater trips over the cord linked to Murderface's bass and her shoe falls off and impales another skater, causing a large blood bath (although the skater who tripped over Murderface's cord survived). However, some Dethklok concerts have no gimmicks, and no casualties, like the shows in "Girlfriendklok" and "Dethlessons". Even if the people are horribly maimed, there are a few occurrences where these same people defend Dethklok with their lives, such as in "The Revengencers", when multiple maimed patients at a hospital Dethklok is playing at attack Edgar Jomfru, who is attempting to snipe Dethklok.

The band lives together in Mordhaus, a large armed fortress capable of floating, and have various machines, like their five-person motorcycle and Dethkopter, which is armed with hundreds of artillery guns. Despite their home/workplace being extremely dangerous, people continue to sign up to be Klokateers, knowing they have to deal with the band's insane requests. The same requests are heeded by even officials, as even though they fail a health inspection, the band is let go for being "metal". The reckless behavior of the band is also ignored by the populace and law enforcement, showing that no matter what they do, the repercussions are often very small if anything at all.

It is hinted that Dethklok is in fact a supergroup, as four out of the five founding members (Nathan Explosion, Pickles, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, and William Murderface) were in bands before Dethklok, and drummer Pickles had already gained fame by fronting Snakes N' Barrels. It is unknown if Magnus Hammersmith, the original rhythm guitarist, was in any band before Dethklok.



Early years
Not much is known about the beginning of Dethklok, except that it was originally founded by Nathan, Pickles, Skwisgaar, Murderface, and Magnus. Somehow, they found a man named Charles Foster Ofdensen to act as the band's manager, and eventually they signed a contract with Crystal Mountain Records, much to the dismay of Damien Cornickelson, the only son of Crystal Mountain Records CEO Roy Cornickelson.

While still living together in a small apartment, Magnus lashes out at the other band members and ends up stabbing Nathan, who responds by punching Magnus so badly in his left eye, he permanently damages it. Magnus is then summarily kicked out of Dethklok and the band has an audition to find a replacement, though Skwisgaar tried to urge them that they didn't need a rhythm guitarist as he was good enough to do both. He ends up proving this by besting all the hopeful tryouts in duels when Toki Wartooth shows up late. Toki, despite having no previous band experience, proves to be almost on par with Skwisgaar but ultimately makes a mistake near the end and the band says he can't join as he lost. However, Skwisgaar notes "nobodys ever made me play so well" and invites Toki to join Dethklok anyways.

Growing success
During the following years, Dethklok experienced a rapid increase in commercial success, and quickly became the biggest and most successful band of all time. Their wealth and power allowed them to have their own headquarters, Mordhaus, as well as an entire army of roadies, called Klokateers. Eventually, Dethklok's popularity gained the attention of a government agency called the Tribunal, who realized that there may be a connection between Dethklok and the apocalypse.

It is unknown about Dethklok's discography before Metalocalypse, but the first known Dethklok album is called Dethwater, which is an album intended for fish only. Anticipation following up to Dethwater caused massive amounts of deaths everywhere by eager Dethklok fans. However, Dethwater provoked very controversial, such as a Dethklok fan nearly drowning after listening to the song "Go into the Water" and literally going into the water, thinking he'll devolve into a fish, and afterwards Dethklok was sued by the fan's parents. Due to this, Dethklok decided not to play the album live for a long time, but when they did, they were attacked by the forces of General Crozier.

The Revengencers
After the attack, Dethklok remained out of the public eye for a long time, until they finally came out of the shadows and performed a new song, "Laser Cannon Deth Sentence", while executing multiple prisoners. Soon after, scientists working for Dethklok developed a powerful analog recording system that recorded the tracks into water itself. However, some of Dethklok's enemies sought revenge on Dethklok and banded together, calling themselves the Revengencers. Soon, the Revengencers began making attacks on Dethklok, first by assassinating the head of Dethklok Australia, then by bombing multiple stores of Duncan Hills Coffee, the world's largest coffee company whom Dethklok endorses. The Revengencers made their ultimate attack on Dethklok when they released their new album (presumably Dethalbum II), with casualties including Mordhaus itself, several Klokateers, and most importantly, Ofdensen.

After the Revengencers' attack, Dethklok again remained out of the public eye, having Mordhaus relocated up in the sky while reconstruction was underway in order to prevent any further attacks. Now self-managed, Dethklok began experiencing a massive financial crisis, not just because of the recession at that time, but also because of Dethklok's inability to spend and manage money well. Meanwhile, at Crystal Mountain Records, Damien Cornickelson took over as CEO, replacing his father, Roy, who had gone into a coma. Damien used this to exact revenge and blocked off all money made by Dethklok from going to the band's account, causing their money to dwindle further. The band was almost put in a dire situation of signing a bad contract with Damien as a result but Ofdensen's sudden reappearance resolved it and managed to reinstate their original contract, fixing the band's financial crisis. Dethklok celebrated the end of it by performing their largest, most brutal concert to date.

Near breakups
After being accused of selling out, Dethklok disappeared from the public eye for a third time, and joined a tribute band called Thunderhorse in order to get back to their roots. However, after suffering from hunger and sleep issues and realizing they didn't need to prove themselves after having done all that the first time before earning their fame status, Dethklok abandoned Thunderhorse and went back to Dethklok. Dethklok was soon put in jeopardy twice: first during a death scare when Pickles was reported to have been dying, and when Skwisgaar Skwigelf quit the band to find his father, although the death scare was proven to be false and Skwisgaar accepted his role as a "god", putting his personal issues behind and rejoining the band. Recently, Dethklok almost put the entire world under WWIII when they accidently booked two concerts for bitter state enemies Israel and Syria at the same time, without Ofdensen's knowledge. An angry Ofdensen blames Dethklok for almost causing global devastation and, emotionally hurt, the band members run away; unfortunately, on the day they were supposed to perform. However, Ofdensen reconciles with the band after he realizes his mistakes, and together he and Dethklok make Israel and Syria have peace with each other by doing a combined concert, averting yet another big disaster.

New album
Having accomplished the impossible yet again and with Mordhaus finally rebuilt, Dethklok made their triumphant return to the Earth's surface where the band's antics continued. During that time, Nathan attempts to date one of his semi-monogamous fans, Murderface makes an attempt at plastic surgery, Toki releases a tell-all book exposing years of enduring mental and verbal abuse from Skwisgaar, and another Dethklok album is produced in its analog water form. However, Nathan also begins experiencing strange dreams during this time involving being spoken to by a whale about the prophesized Metalocalypse. These visions, along with large consumption of alcohol (specifically tequila) persuade Nathan that the new album is wrong and must be destroyed. Therefore, despite a valiant attempt by Pickles to stop him, Nathan takes an axe to the master record while, at the same time, a series of massive hurricanes sink all of the ships transporting the new Dethklok album, effectively destroying all copies of it.

With the loss of the new album, Dethklok tries to help the depressed world economy out any way they can, but a rift begins forming between Pickles and Nathan. While the two try to maintain their friendship, Toki goes off to RockARoonie Fantasy Camp to make friends and unintentionally bumps into Magnus Hammersmith, who is there as a guest councilor. Despite Magnus's tense expulsion from the band, he appears to bear Toki not a single grudge for taking his place and the rest of Dethklok soon reconcile with him in the same way. Meanwhile, the rift between Pickles and Nathan grows even more when Dick Knubbler is fired during the recording of another new album and is replaced by Abigail Remeltindrinc. Both Nathan and Pickles are infatuated with her beauty but fail to read the signs that she's declared herself off-limits in terms of their sexual prowess. These signs continue during the final stages of completing the new album in the Dethsub where the band is forbidden to jack-off due to symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for three months. This elevated sexual tension spreads throughout the sub, even to Abigail when her vibrator's batteries run out and, during the final recordings for the new album, breaks her own rule by getting involved with Nathan after he approaches her once more. However, she quickly regrets this and tries to distance herself from the band. Later at a promotional dinner, Nathan claims the two are a couple to everyone there, upsetting Pickles who then announces his intentions to quit Dethklok as a result.

Disbanding and Mr. Salacia
Blighted by this sudden chain of events, the other members of Dethklok also decide that their paths have seemingly drifted apart from one another and they announce their intention to disband, which results in worldwide panic among fans and mass public vandalism and destruction. Each member tries to go their own way: Murderface running for New Jersey's senator (with Toki as his unpaid intern), Pickles opening his own winery, and Skwisgaar and Nathan starting their own soft jazz side project. All of these new career options fail one after another though and Pickles announces his willingness to rejoin the band if Nathan would apologize to him. During their farewell concert in Reykjavik, Iceland, both Nathan and Pickles struggle to find the will to apologize to one another when the band and their audience is suddenly attacked by the leader of the Tribunal, Mr. Selacia (a.k.a. the Half Man). The band is saved by Roy Cornickelson, who sacrifices himself in order to let the band escape to the Dethsub.

Despite an ever present strain and stress between them all, Dethklok stays together for their own safety and is escorted by Charles Ofdenson to the meeting place of the Church of the Black Klok, where he was originally brought back to heal after the raid on Mordhaus. There, the band is introduced to Ishnifus Meaddle, High Priest of the church, and they learn that they have more to do regarding the outcome of the Metalocalypse, which includes making a new album to atone for the one Nathan destroyed. Reluctance keeps the band from reforming until the funeral of Roy Cornickelson, where Nathan has been asked to give the eulogy. During his speech and despite doing internal damage to himself, Nathan overcomes his pride and apologizes to Pickles for everything. The band's reconciliation is short lived though when the funeral is ambushed by the Revengencers led by the mysterious Metal Masked Assassin. The massacre comes to a bloody conclusion, but not before Magnus betrays Toki by stabbing him through the back while another terrorist seemingly kills Abigail. Back on board the Dethsub once again, Ishnifus Meaddle suggests that Toki and Abigail are still alive but in the hands of their enemy.

Reuniting
The remaining members of Dethklok attempt to hide their feelings about missing Toki that they try to party and drink it all away. While they got confirmation that both Abigail and Toki are alive and being held by the Revengencers and Magnus, it isn't until the band tries to do a live show with a Toki hologram that goes awry that they finally decide they need to go rescue him.

Charles, due his contractual obligation that he can't let the band put themselves in harm's way, resigns so the band can carry out their rescue attempt. The band eventually makes it to where Toki and Abigail are being held but are ambushed inside by the Metal Masked Assassin. However, Ishnifus appears and sacrifices him self as a distraction, so that Dethklok can proceed to search for the two. As they free Toki and Abigail, the Assassin once more confronts them but, reunited, the band unleashes the power of the Doomstar, killing him. Magnus, seeing the power of the prophecy, realizes he was actually a vilian in all this and kills himself to atone for his mistakes.

The band goes on to celebrate their success with a massive concert and purchase the Depth of Humanity building to tear it down to open a home for wayward musicians in its place.

Current

 * Nathan Explosion — lead vocals
 * Skwisgaar Skwigelf — lead/rhythm guitar, keyboards
 * Toki Wartooth — rhythm guitar, keyboards
 * William Murderface — bass guitar
 * Pickles — drums, percussion, vocals

Former

 * Magnus Hammersmith - rhythm guitar
 * X2P1158 - Pickles' replacement from "Rehabklok"

Studio members

 * Brendon Small — vocals, guitars, bass guitars, keyboards, drum machine
 * Gene Hoglan — drums (2007–present)
 * Bryan Beller — bass, backing vocals (2012–present)

Live members

 * Brendon Small — lead vocals, guitar
 * Mike Keneally — guitar, backing vocals (2007–present)
 * Bryan Beller — bass, backing vocals (2007–present)
 * Gene Hoglan — drums (2007–present)
 * Pete Griffin — bass (2012)

Tour
Dethklok does have a touring band, although there are no actual human counterparts to the characters on the show. The band consists of show co-creator, vocalist/guitarist Brendon Small, who writes and sings most of the music for the show, alongside drummer Gene Hoglan, bassist Bryan Beller, and second guitarist Mike Keneally.

Discography
Actual:
 * 2007: The Dethalbum: the debut studio album
 * 2007: Trail of Dead/Dethklok: a split EP given out during a university tour
 * 2009: Dethalbum II: the second studio album
 * 2012: Dethalbum III: the third studio album
 * 2013: The Doomstar Requiem: soundtrack album

Fictional:
 * Dethwater: this album is fictional and in the show only. Some of its songs are included in The Dethalbum and Dethalbum II.
 * An unnamed album featuring the band members shirtless and edited to give all of them a ripped physique. This album is fictional and in the show only.
 * Seething Vortex: the fictional album in the show that is destroyed by Nathan Explosion in Season 4.