The Series:

Adult Swim's Metalocalypse follows the exploits of Dethklok, the world's most popular heavy metal band. This band is so popular that they've become one of the largest economies in the world. They fly around in a gigantic metal helicopter and employ thousands of hooded minions to cater to their every whim while lounging around their compound, Mordhaus. The band spends a fair bit of their time simply hanging around the compound bickering but when they're not doing that, they're creating mayhem, intentionally or not.

The band is made up of five members: vocalist and lyrical genius Nathan Explosion (voiced by co-creator and co-writer Brendon Small), second fastest guitar player in the world Toki Wartooth (voiced by co-creator and co-writer Tommy Blacha), the hateful bass player William Murderface (Blacha), fastest guitar player in the world Skwisgaar Skwigelf (Small), and former 'Snakes And Barrels' member Pickles the drummer (Small). Each band member has his own unique personality, whether it be Murderface's penchant for Civil War stuff, Toki's love of coke snorting clowns, Skwisgaar's holier-than-thou attitude, Pickle's penchant for booze or Nathan's love of all things brutal. Individually, they are strong, but as Dethklok, the are unstoppable! So powerful are they that a covert group made up of powerful military types like General Krosier (Victor Brandt) and Senator Stampington (the one and only Mark Hamill!) have joined together to monitor Dethklok's every move. They know that if they don't periodically interfere that the band will become even more powerful than they already are.

So the series is about a metal band and a bunch of suits that keep tabs on them? Yeah, basically it is. Well, that and ultra violence. Each and every episode finds Dethklok getting into some sort of predicament usually resulting in fans, employees or would-be assassins getting killed in incredibly creative and gory ways. Whether a man has his face impaled on a metal codpiece or an entire orchestra is sliced up by a laser light show gone horribly wrong, those who are close to Dethklok are always at risk. The band also have to deal with various ups and downs - in one episodes Murderface decides to explore his spiritual side and this decision finds the band attending a Christian rock concert. Another episode finds the individual members of the group trying to score endorsement deals while Skwisgaard warms up for his pay-per-view guitar special. Toki brings home a new friend in the form of Dr. Rockso the rock n roll clown ('I do cocaine!') which serves to annoy the rest of his band mates while in another episode the band decides to adopt a fat kid so that they can reap the tax benefits they assume such an act will provide. Nathan's girlfriend interferes with the band's plans to attend the United States Pornography Awards and in another episode the members all find they have a knack for stand up comedy except for Pickles, who just isn't funny. A concert in Finland awakens an evil lake troll from his slumber, the star in a horrible movie called Blood Ocean, Toki decides he's too likeable and decides to become more evil, their cook gets sliced up by a helicopter blade forcing the band to grocery shop for themselves and the band decides it would be awesome to record an entire album underwater. The comedy and gags aren't quite as random as something like Aqua Teen Hunger Force but they're certainly pretty obscure and more than a little out there. They're also pretty damn funny.

All of these crazy high jinks play out to a pretty authentic sounding black metal soundtrack courtesy of Brendon Small and while the lyrics can be tough to make out sometimes (they're sun in a low pitched, growly death metal style), they really do add another layer of satirical humor to an already hilarious show.

While a pre-existing affinity for metal will probably help viewers enjoy the show more, it isn't required. There's enough clever dialogue, flat out strange and random lines and grisly sight gags to ensure that as long as you've got a warped sense of humor you'll find something to appreciate. That said, one of the things that really makes Metalocalypse work is that the writers are obviously heavy metal fans themselves and as such they pack in a lot of odd, quirky little references to real life bands (there's a burger joint called Dimmu Burger and a diner called Burzums). These work as great little in-jokes and just add to the show's quirky, off the wall humor. On top of that, attentive viewers just might recognize a few guest stars appearing throughout the season - King Diamond, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett all provide some of the voice work.

The episodes in this set, which make up the complete first season of the show, are presented in the following order:

Disc One:
1 - The Curse of Dethklok
2 - Dethwater
3 - Birthdayface
4 - Dethtroll
5 - Murdering Outside the Box
6 - Dethkomedy
7 - Dethfam
8 - Performance Klok
9 - Snakes n' Barrels
10 - Mordland

Disc Two:
1 - Fatklok
2 - Skwisklok
3 - Go Forth and Die
4 - Bluesklok
5 - Dethkids
6 - Religionklok
7 - Dethklown
8 - Girlfriendklok
9 - Dethstars
10 - It Has Begun

Note: A word about the 'warning - uncensored' sticker on the packaging. While the extra features are no censored at all (meaning the band members curse and swear during the interview segments and the uncut clips are truly uncut) the episodes themselves are the same here as they were when originally broadcast. What does that mean? That instead of the occasional burst of profanity coming across audibly, the swearing is still covered up with the guitar sound effects. Seeing as the sound effects are part of the gag, this shouldn't really annoy anyone but those expecting f-bombs aplenty might be irked.

Video:

Metalocalypse looks decent on DVD though it's more than slightly irritating that the 1.78.1 widescreen transfers are not enhanced for anamorphic playback. Aside from that, the show looks pretty good here. The series is intentionally pretty dark with a lot of blacks, browns and reds used so don't expect a particularly bright color palette here but color reproduction is pretty much spot on and there are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts. Some slight line shimmering shows up here and there but at least the picture is consistently clean.