Review Summary: So what do you get when a comedy metal band makes an album that isn't funny? A boring and generic melodic death metal album, that's what.
Three years and two seasons of Metalocalypse have passed since the release of
Dethalbum II and expectations could not have been higher. When The Dethalbum came out in 2006 fans were jumping for joy that they could now laugh along to their favorite show in audio form, and in 2009 fans were pleasantly surprised to find that
Dethalbum II greatly expanded on the band's sound musically and sounded like a real album. Here we are in 2012 and the third
Dethalbum is finally here and it is major disappointment.
Remember when you could tell what episode a Dethklok song came from by listening to it, or even just from the song title? That was pretty cool, I remember tracks like "Birthday Dethday" which brought up images from the Murderface birthday episode, and "The Gears" which was about the episode where they brought in new workers. I certainly don't remember an episode where God was impeached or someone ejaculated fire from seasons three and four, and that's the real problem with this record, the songs have no identity and tie in little with the show which inevitable just makes the album a pretty good melodic death metal release and nothing more.
When I first started this record I was initially fooled. "I Ejaculate Fire" mistakes the listener into thinking this is going to be an interesting album, as it's the opener and one of the only really interesting songs. From the Egyptian sounding intro to the fantastic guitar effect on the solos, "I Ejaculate Fire" is an incredible tune that sets the pace for the rest of the album which is quickly squandered. It goes into "Crush The Industry," the only other fantastic song on the album, which has crushing trems and an impressive instrumental intro with no vocals coming in until around 1:30. After "Crush The Industry" it's all down hill starting with "Andromeda" and "The Galaxy," two songs that are about the same thing (Andromeda is a galaxy duh) and then eight more tracks of varying quality ranging from good to pretty good I guess. Most of the rest of the tracks excluding "Impeach God" and "Biological Warfare" are completely forgettable and just run of the mill melodic death metal tunes. The guitar work is more sophisticated than the first album sure, but that doesn't make them nearly as interesting as the three note track "Awakened" from the first album, or any other of the less musically complicated tracks the band is known for.
It basically comes down to the fact that the tracks lack charisma and identity. I even had to look up which episode most of these songs came from because I couldn't tell just from listening to them, and I'm a big fan of the show. With only a couple stand out tracks,
Dethalbum III treads water and doesn't compare at all to the character or humor the first two albums had.
