Dethklok – The Dethalbum II (2009)

With the release of the “The Dethalbum” the fictional band Dethklok managed to sell 34,000 copies of this album on the first week, making the album the highest charting Death Metal album in history (in the USA). After selling over 300,000 copies of that album Dethklok has the mission of trying to surpass that feat, and I think it can be done, since “The Dethalbum II” is even better than the first one.

While most people that watch the TV show Metalocalypse have listened to a most of the songs for brief minutes, you still need to hear the entire song to fully enjoy the brilliance behind them. Technically Brendon Small has managed to create another brilliant album that features witty and catchy tunes.

If you have been living under a rock and never heard of the TV show or the band I would suggest you to do a Youtube search on Dethklok so you can get a bit familiarized with the ‘band’. Brendon Small the show’s co-creator and the main creative force behind Dethklok songs handles all instrument duties in this album, except for the drumming which I suspect is handled again by none other than Gene Hoglan since the drumming track is very tight and holds everything in place.

All tracks are very guitar driven and the riffing is pretty intense and very catchy in most instances, just like in the first album. The thing that I like the most is the amazing solos that Brendon Small pulls off in almost every song; they are very melodic and long in nature, giving the music that extra level of epicness, he is probably one of my favorite guitar players since he can create very simple but catchy melodies.

The vocals in this album are aggressive, but you can still understand what Nathan Explosion (Brendon Small) is singing, I can’t wait to see this band perform live on their tour with Mastodon, Converge and High on Fire. The base guitar is pretty solid but not much else to say in this category.

Featuring 12 tracks, the “Dethalbum II” will provide enough metal for fan to be entertained until season 3 of Metalocalypse premiers on Adult Swim. Humor is basic foundation of the lyrics and with titles like: “Laser cannon deth Sentence”, “The cyborg slayers” and “I Tamper with the evidence at the murder site of odin” we follow the band through their exploits in murder and mayhem. However, the song that I was more stoked about was Murmaider II: The Water God, since it’s the continuation of the song featured in the first “Dethalbum” and on the TV show.

Overall “The Dethalbum II” is a brilliant second album from this fictitious band, creating 12 tracks of catchy and destructive Melodic Death Metal.

Release: September 29nd, 2009

Country: USA