Daily Loaf

You people out there give us
something more than just record sales.
You give us something to hate.
And we hate you,
you brainless mutants.

So begins Dethklok’s traditional closer “Fansong.” I suppose when you’re (fictionally) the world’s seventh largest economy you can take your fans for granted. After all, Dethklok represents creator Brendon Small’s metal nerd wet dreams. He creates the Metalocalypse cartoon series following the end of Home Movies‘ five-year run. He takes his cartoon metal band on increasingly successful tours with the use of touring musicians and a giant video screen. He made death metal history with the release of The Dethalbum, which temporarily became the biggest-selling debut in the genre until The Dethalbum II came along.

In reality, Dethklok exists because of its fans — socially awkward, maladjusted metalheads ignored and derided by most until Metalocalypse came along. The silly plots, vulgar characters and heavy metal parody lured not only metalheads but the rest of the weirdos that find Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup funny. Dethklok also attracts an increasingly improving pedigree of support bands for its tours. This time around they bring stoner-metallers High On Fire, metalcore veterans Converge, and the incomparable Mastodon. (Setlists and videos for Mastodon and Dethklok after the jump!).

A guest list snafu kept me from seeing High On Fire, but I entered just in time for Converge. The tight Massachusetts foursome brought crunchy, chugging riffs and breakdowns, chaotic time-changes, and a touch of doom to their signature metalcore. I am not a fan of frontman Jacob Bannon’s unintelligible barking style, but that’s what Converge does and there were more than a few fist-pumping kids pushing their way to the security barrier who would disagree. As for the rest of the audience? Either they took Hard Rock Live’s “Moshing and crowd-surfing are prohibited” signs too seriously or they were just lost by Converge’s complexity — not unusual for a Dethklok show which is, in all honesty, Gateway Metal.

Mastodon took the stage in their 8:15 co-headlining slot and jumped right into the Crack The Skye prog-metal opener “Oblivion.” Sequential album tracks followed, as did huge mosh pits for “Quintessence.” I sensed an interesting pattern once Mastodon hit the killer lead break four minutes into epic centerpiece “The Czar.”

They were tracking Crack The Skye from front-to-back.

I didn’t read any tour reviews or check any setlists prior to the show. I had no idea. Yeah, as a long-time fan I would have loved a more traditional career-spanning set, but this was pretty special. Brent Hinds pulled-off some ridiculous solos on 12-string during “The Czar,” and traded the spotlight back and forth with rhythm guitarist Bill Kelliher on the other Crack The Skye epic “The Last Baron.” Each song from the album was accompanied by silent-era movies and album art concepts reinforcing the story behind the disc. Mastodon returned following a short break to pull a few tunes from earlier records, highlighted by a Remission one-two punch of “Where Strides The Behemoth” and “Mother Puncher.”

Following some animated skits Dethklok took the stage (and screen) about 10, and they introduced themselves the same way they do on TV: with “Deththeme.” Metal legend Gene Hoglan struggled a bit behind the kit for “Bloodlines” but was otherwise steady throughout the evening. Dethklok mascot Facebones paid us a few visits during the set. In the first scene he described how the Klokateers, Dethklok’s hoodied stooges, work to help the band put on a show and wrangle groupies to celebrate the band’s ”sweet blowjobby metal.” Later, Facebones and two scientists explained the science behind moshing and the importance of picking up your fellow fans when they fall (not helping is a “dick move”). Another skit played every few songs and, aside from new videos for songs from The Dethalbum II, there was no new content compared to Dethklok’s Jannus Landing show last summer.

Brendon Small as frontman Nathan Explosion growls timely and topical lyrics on “Dethsupport,” given the House passage of healthcare reform legislation on Saturday: “to keep me alive it is costing me/ national deficit times three/ there is no way to avoid this fee/ please pull the plug and kill me.” The crowd erupted with the blistering opening riff of “Awaken” and the clustering of first album tunes near the end of the set. Between “Into the Water” and “Fansong” in the encore Brendon stage-bantered in character with the audience, “I know this to be true… Florida is the home of death metal.” He added as Pickles The Drummer, “Yeah! It was invented right here at Universal Studios on the Woody Woodpecker ride!”

Mastodon
Oblivion
Divinations
Quintessence
The Czar
Ghost of Karelia
Crack the Skye
The Last Baron
——————
Circle of Cysquatch
Aqua Dementia
Where Strides The Behemoth
Mother Puncher
The Bit [The Melvins]

Dethklok
Deththeme
Bloodlines
Burn The Earth
Hatredcopter
Black Fire Upon Us
Birthday Dethday
Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle
Dethsupport
Awaken
The Gears
Murmaider
Thunderhorse
——————
Into The Water
Fansong

Follow Joel on Twitter @lifeindeadtime.

Mastodon “Oblivion” live, 2009, Tempe, AZ.

Dethklok “Dethsupport” live, 2009, Boston, MA

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