DETHKLOK

The violently brutal Metalocalpyse stars have a hot-selling new album and a highly anticipated national tour, so who’s calling them a cartoon band?

By Mikael Wood

As demonstrated nightly on Metalocalypse, their hilarious Adult Swim series, Dethklok are the biggest band in the animated universe. But cartoon domination doesn’t appear to be enough for singer Nathan Explosion, guitarists Skwisgaar Skwigelf and Toki Wartooth, bassist William Murderface, and drummer Pickles: Starting June 2 in Portland, Oregon, Dethklok are hitting the real-world road for a month-long North American tour in support of their debut CD, The Dethalbum, which since its release last September has sold nearly 200,000 copies. Defying the scientific laws of interdimensionality—and just in time for the relaunch of Metalocalypse’s second season on May 18—Revolver recently convened the five members of Dethklok (as well as the band’s manager, Charles Foster Ofdensen) for an exceedingly serious chat about semantics, snack chips, and brutality in all its forms.

REVOLVER You guys can’t get enough of violence. What’s up with that?
NATHAN EXPLOSION We don’t advocate violence. We advocate brutality. There’s a big difference.

Can you define that difference?
WILLIAM MURDERFACE Violence is a release of brutality, which there’s so much of in life.

So the world’s brutality drives one to do violence?
MURDERFACE Anything can drive one to do violence. Mundaneness, for example—that’s brutal. I think we should talk about this for 30 hours.

REVOLVER That would be brutal.
MURDERFACE Exactly. Right now I wanna kill you just for asking that question.
EXPLOSION Violence doesn’t necessarily surround you every day, but brutality does. Going to the dentist—brutal. Being stuck in traffic—brutal. Flying coach—brutal. These are the things that kill you slowly, and we latch onto that brutality and show it to the world.

Why would people want to be shown the brutality they’re already experiencing on a daily basis?
EXPLOSION Because they’re stupid. Period.

Do you guys every worry about inspiring violence?
MURDERFACE I worry that one day we might stop inspiring violence. That’s the day I’ll take my own life in the ultimate violent act.

Nathan, you singled out the brutality of flying coach. Has any member of Dethklok ever suffered that particular indignity?
MURDERFACE Well, inevitably, on every tour one of us will get left behind at a truck stop and have to fly to the next venue in disguise. One time I flew coach to Akron, Ohio, with a mustache drawn on the back of my head.

Was it as brutal as you’d feared?
EXPLOSION There’s just a lot of coughing going on, and I’m susceptible to colds when I’m on the road.

Given Dethklok’s fame, surely you could’ve simply commandeered someone’s private plane.
EXPLOSION Sometimes you’re lost, you’re scared, you don’t know what to do. You see an airport, it just makes sense in that moment. I agree, though: Had I been in my right mind I would’ve commandeered a helicopter, hovercraft, anything but coach. I’ll never fly that again, unless I’m developing material for a new record. I like to bring myself closer to brutality then. Sometimes I’ll arbitrarily get my teeth worked on; sometimes I’ll just slam my dick in a door. Whatever it takes to get in the mood.

What’s the biggest sacrifice you’ve ever made in the name of art?
EXPLOSION Taxes. That’s the biggest artistic and spiritual sacrifice that I’ve made so far in my career, giving away a fourth of my income to the U.S. Treasury.

Think about the public works that money’s underwriting.
EXPLOSION It does help propel some of the most brutal times we’ve ever seen, and I appreciate that. However, at the end of the day, it’s my fucking money.

What do you guys think about the state of heavy metal right now? Is metal in robust health?
MURDERFACE I’m healthy—that’s all I care about.
TOKI WARTOOTH We tends to be very self-centereds. I only care if my guitar’s in tunes. If our album sales are healthy, then the scene’s healthy. We don’t really cares about nothing else.
SKWISGAAR SKWIGELF It am good to sees that peoples am playing heavier music, tuning low-down on their instruments and playing faster. There’s am some really, really great bands out there—and, of course, a bunch of bands that is dildos. But for the most part I must say that metal is getting heaviers and lowers than I’ve heard it in a long time.

You see a general trend toward heaviness and lowness.
SKWIGELF Lowers stuff and sometimes more brutals. The closers to the ground anything is the more brutals. Talks to a dwarf and ask them how that is being so low to the grounds. You will finds out that it is heavier styles of life.

What advice would you give to a young band trying to break into the world of heavy metal?
MURDERFACE Alienate yourself from your family and spend all your money on Dethklok records, then realize that you can never be that good.

That sounds like a plan to help Dethklok get more famous.
MURDERFACE Oh, really? Rats!

Anything else?
PICKLES Don’t be afraid to drink while you’re playing. Don’t be afraid to get rip-roaringly drunk and practice that way.

What does drinking do to one’s playing?
PICKLES Lowers your inhibitions. Sometimes you’re sitting behind a drum kit with sticks in your hands and the only thing stopping you is you. Have a few drinks, loosen yourself up.

Quantify “a few.”
PICKLES What, for me? I’ll have a medium-grade tequila, like a Patrón. I’ll have one bottle of that, get loosened up. Then maybe have a cup of coffee, let my arteries do their thing. And then I just go to town. When I was starting out, though, a couple of drinks.

A couple of bottles?
PICKLES Yeah, whatever you wanna call it.
EXPLOSION Be organized. Show up on time. In the age of apathy—and apathy I can’t begin to care about—people notice those things. The powers that be that control the record labels, they see that and they see a band that wants to be big.

Which is more important: showing up on time or having sweet riffs?
EXPLOSION You can have your cake and eat it, too.

What’s something big the members of Dethklok have gotten away with as a result of the band’s fame?
WARTOOTH Probably my guitar solos. That’s the biggest.
MURDERFACE Sometimes girls will let me kiss them even though I know my breath’s not up to snuff.

Joe Blow wouldn’t get to kiss girls with your breath?
MURDERFACE Oh, God no.
CHARLES FOSTER OFDENSEN On the legal front, I don’t like the phrase “get away with.” We’ve never done anything wrong. Sure, there have been class-action lawsuits filed against us. There’s always a group of 10,000 or more who would like a piece of Dethklok action, and they’ll find their own way to get that. We had a song called “Set Yourself on Fire” on an older record, and people started setting themselves on fire. But we put a disclaimer on the inside in fine print that said “Do not set yourself on fire.” Case closed.

We in the media would call that a mixed message.
EXPLOSION That’s why the media is totally fucked up—because of thought processes like that.

“Set yourself on fire” and “Do not yourself on fire”—seems like a pretty direct contradiction. Where’s the grey area between those two statements?
EXPLOSION When we say “Set yourself on fire,” we’re saying, “Have fun.”

So why not call the song “Let’s Have Fun”?
EXPLOSION What death-metal band on Earth would ever have a song called “Let’s Have Fun”? “Set Yourself on Fire” means this: Get drunk. Do a lot of cocaine. Do some heroin. Do some acid. Throw in a couple downers. Throw in a couple more uppers. Then literally set yourself on fire. If you want to. You don’t have to. We’re saying don’t.

Maybe that should’ve been the title.
EXPLOSION Well, when you start working with radio and stuff, you realize you have to really shorten the titles. That’s not gonna fit on iTunes.

Speaking of iTunes, do you guys spend a lot of time thinking about the changing shape of the record industry? Are you worried about selling CDs in the future?
EXPLOSION Here’s the thing about metal: The fans are loyal, and if they like you, they’ll support you. You get a lot of Johnny-come-lately’s who download an album, but they don’t like the music anyway, so they’re not gonna pay for it. The good news is that with the industry and the technology changing, there are more ways to protect your properties. At Mordhaus we’ve been developing a new form of liquid music.

Liquid music?
EXPLOSION We’ve been recording on water, which is the ultimate analog source. We have a new album coming out in a little while, but the only way that people will be able to hear it is by injecting it into their veins intravenously. And if you wanna let your friend listen to it, or you wanna put it online, you actually have to open up your veins, and you’ll end up dying.

Dethklok have endorsed a fair number of products over the years, from coffee to guitars. Name one product you haven’t endorsed yet that you’d be proud to lend your name to.
MURDERFACE Electric chair.
WARTOOTH And electric highchairs for babies.
MURDERFACE Yeah, I’d forsake adult electric chairs to endorse electric highchairs.
EXPLOSION I’d have to say Cool Ranch Doritos. A lot of people ask me, “How do you get your voice?” or “What do you do to prepare before you go out live?” Two things: Chocolate milk and Cool Ranch Doritos. If I can get a chocolate milk and Cool Ranch Doritos endorsement deal, you’d be looking at a pretty satisfied customer.

Are you guys looking forward to touring this summer?
MURDERFACE I could take it or leave it. It hurts your hands—it’s hard to play.
WARTOOTH I really likes touring because I likes to kiss all the girls.

Couldn’t you do that at home?
WARTOOTH What, kiss the girls?

Yeah. That doesn’t seem like something you have to travel to do.
WARTOOTH Oh, OK. Right. So don’t wants to tour then!