Rating: - Sometimes the (Metal) Fans Make the Best Music
Metal....You cannot deny it!

Such a simple statement not only is true, it works! And ever since the Led Zeppelin debates that began when they came out, metal bands have come out to define (not just redefine) exactly what metal is. As a metal fan, I can say honestly.....we haven't written the first word because the bands have too often made the music about themselves; often, as in the case of Linkin Park, to hide their shortcomings and inabilities. Heavy metal should always be about the pure mastery of the music, and the bands should be the Sadists in that S&M musical relationship. Even the most honest of metal, death metal, has a lost focus.

Once again, leave it up to the metal fans to save Metal. With 'Metalocalypse', metal fans Tommy Blacha and Brendon Small reminded the world that metal, particularly the cartoon band Dethklok's brand of metal, ruled them. The show, a funny romp about the mythical Dethklok and the extremes they'll go just to sell something, demonstrated at times that the music, though short in clips and bursts, was hypnotically good. It demonstrated that fans of the genre could put together awesome headbangingly good music for the show at least. How about a whole album?

The 'Dethalbum' is the result of pure fan passion. This isn't just a convenient CD with a running order of the track listings for the show: these are complete music recordings, filled with the heavy, heavy, heavy doses of death, destruction, and degradation. They don't try to be clever here: if you are looking for depth in lyrics, grab an old Iron Maiden album (you know, before they bought Europe). The drum contribution from Gene Hoglan really sets the full throttle pace of the entire album, while....get this: ACTUAL GUITAR SOLOS! Remember guitar solos? I think Metallica did them once.

Being a Deth-Metal inspired album, don't expect a Rob Halford expose on singing. Low, graveling, spoken-word-like singing can sometimes be hard to hear in some of the more thundering songs, but it works throughout the album. Collectively, with the tone and how each song is structured, it is a surprisingly good album, even if its a album about a fictional metal band making light of the whole metal mess. It gets five stars because a lot of work went into making this album and making it right, and it was made by real metal fans.