Customer Reviews

Dethalbum II

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a recent scientific study 99.98% of people listening to Dethalbum II die... instantly... in a bloody explosion. Survival rate after initial exposure is nominal as long as you head bang constantly.

As for the album:

- Nathan Explosion graces us with some high pitched growls. Probably the most common cause of instant deth associated with listening to the album.
- Skwisgaar makes "demonically fast" seem like "unicornally slow" with his supreme command of a guitar. My fingers bleed just listening to the album.
-Not sure if Toki even plays on this album.
-Murderface made all sandwiches that were consumed during the making of this album and it really shows. He makes a brutal sandwich.
-Pickles never disappoints. What he lacks in hair he makes up in 16th note double bass pedal beats.

As for the songs themselves:

-Bloodlines: Gets you really hooked into the album. If you don't feel like you've been punched in the stomach after listening to this song you must be some kind of God.
-The Gears: Just when you thought you could get a break from the metal think again. By now your neck should start getting sore.
-Burn The Earth: The solo in this song demands air guitaring. Only your worthless hands will be able to only match 2% of the notes.
-Laser Cannon Deth Sentence: The main riff of this song is brutal.
-Black Fire Upon Us: The slowest song on the album. This will probably be your local high school's slow dance song for all of the school dances.
-Dethsupport: most people must be put on life support at this point in the album... therefore the appropriate song title.
-The Cyborg Slayers: My only complaint about this song is that my ears are not efficient enough to hear all of the notes during the solo. Hopefully my cyborg masters will give me a cybernetic implant...
-I Tamper With The Evidence At The Murder Site Of Odin: Valhalla recently gained the rights to use this song for their alarm clocks to get everyone in a killing mood first thing in the morning.
-Murmaider II: The Water God: Sequel? Check. Brutal? Check. Shredding? Check. Metal? Check. Mermaid? Check. Murder? Check.
-Comet Song: What can be more brutal than a fiery deth from above.
-Symmetry: This song carries us to the end of the album with a brutal riff... making us feel like we've been chopped into two perfectly symmetrical pieces.
-Volcano: If you've made this far into the album you're doing pretty good. Don't let your guard down because you could very well die before listening to the entire album. Brutal end to a brutal album.

If you've made it through a listen, repeat over and over into oblivion.

So i really enjoy the show, and the first album. This album still has the raw power of "dethalbum" but its more complete. Doesnt have the "cartoonish" feel that the first album has. If you like metal you will enjoy the music, lyrics are much better than the first Dethalbum.

As a fan of Dethklok and the Metalocalypse TV show, I couldn't wait for this album to be released. In fact, I've been not so patiently waiting for this release since I finished the previous album for the first time, and let me say right off the bat that it was completely worth the wait. The Dethalbum II invokes a sense of epicness and grandeur like no album I've ever heard. In fact, the closest thing that I can think of that gave me goosebumps like this CD is Amon Amarth's Versus the World from several years back.

Everything that stood out on the first album is here except, if you'll pardon the over-used expression, cranked up to eleven. Every riff, it seems, is fine tuned to melt one's face off, particularly tracks like Laser Cannon Death Sentence, Cyborg Slayers, and I Tamper With the Evidence at the Murder Site of Odin. The aforementioned eipcness and grandeur shines through most of all on the track Black Fire Upon Us, which is my personal favorite song on the album, perhaps even my favorite song of all time.

From beginning to end, each song feels like there was a lot of thought put into the arrangements and pacing, with a few changes to the brief clips from the show where appropriate. Brendon Small changes up his vocal style a lot more here than on the previous album, incorporating a more black metal feel to some songs and a few screams peppered here and there. The illusion that you're listening to Nathan Explosion is still maintained, and in my opinion, the wider range of vocal styles used is refreshing and absolutely appropriate for the more advanced music on the album.

That brings to mind another point, that being the excellent guitar work showcased on this album. The riffs and solos here would be impressive if done by a full band, but when considering that they were all written and executed by one man, it becomes nothing short of amazing. Brendon Small is truly a guitar legend in the making, and I can't wait to hear what he has for the next season of the show and inevitable third album. Mention should also be given to Gene Holgan who, as always, delivers a second to none performance.

The Dethalbum II, at the very least, is one hell of an album and should be a necessary addition to any metalhead's collection. If you're at all a fan of the show, pick this up. You will not be disappointed.

When I stumbled across the first album by Dethklok, I was only vaguely aware of the cartoon series. I had watched parts of two different episodes, and while I'd found it fun and entertaining, it didn't convert me to a die-hard fan. So it surprised me when I saw that an actual album had been released under the name of the cartoon's fictional band. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I picked it up anyway out of curiosity. Let me tell you, there's nothing silly or goofy about the music on these albums. I don't care if Dethklok is fictional, those guys do some serious head-banging.

While it's true that some of the lyrics and song titles are intentionally over-the-top, you never get the impression that you're listening to some kind of slap-stick, campy, send-up of the metal genre. Every song on both of these albums is blast-your-face-off metal. So while I'm sure a lot of the buyers for these CD's are going to be fans of the cartoon, I encourage metal fans in general to give this music a try, because I listen to it constantly and I couldn't even name for you the members of the cartoon band. This is just good metal. Period.

"Dethklok is Scum!!!!!!!!
It's repulsive to the F*&@ing ear, that's wot it is!!!!!"
But don't take cannibalistic baby-murderer Alfred Belmer seriously, this is actually an amazing album.
However, a few things I'm a tad bummed about. What's up with this having only twelve tracks? The last album had Sixteen! And there were songs from season two I really wanted to hear like the song from Dethrace or Dethgov, or even that sweet intro from the end of Dethrecord. Plus, to be honest, I liked the version of "Symmetry" heard on the show (Dethfashion) much more. The arrangements heard on the album of that song don't sound as good to me. (And that was my favorite song! It was like a crazy, hybrid combonation of Metal and 70s prog rock if you can wrap your head around that!)
Still, great album. Brendon Small must talk to his serpent a lot to have that kind of talent...

The love for the first album made this second one a great disappointment. First, it's not the comedy the first one was. Now this could be a good thing - why not trick the populace into listening to deth metal? I'd be all for it, but this is not going to impress you if you heard the first one. Most of the rhythm and riffs will sound familiar - it's like the first album got stuck in a blender and rearranged into this McAlbum. I played the cd in the car and almost pulled over to make sure I had the right one in there.

I'm sure no one will "like" this review for not being happy with the album - tell it to my masters, but I'm honest. Do understand - I'm a fan. I own both seasons. I watch reruns at 2am. I went to the show LIVE. I played the first album in my car for months (helps me merge in traffic, the combination of blaring metal and maniacal laughter seems to put others somewhat aghast). I'm just not some whorish fanboy though...if a great artist puts out a meh product, sorry but it's still mediocre.

It's not bad - you can play it in the background, but the lyrics are as dull as actual dthmtl and...I'm sorry but you've already heard this album and it was better before...oh I know what it is. You know how on a dance remix they just pull the pieces of the song apart and string them together poorly to make the song longer at the cost of what made you like the song in the first place? Well, this album is the dance remix. It's like the cook after he was sewn back together.

Listen, I'm not a columnist or professional music connoisseur, but i can tell you that this album rocks. I play a little guitar and when i listen to a CD i usually hear something that I would play different, but this album is perfect. If you like the show, or just like metal, I recommend that you buy or download this album. Compared to the first CD, his voice sounds a little different in some songs (I think he sings better in this album), and the overall production quality seems better. While there's a few less songs than the last one, they are all totally awesome, and I'm probably gonna listen to "Symmetry" and "Cyborg Slayers" like 100 times in a row. So the bottom line is that this album is a must have, and I can't wait to see what else Dethklok can do. (I'm also sitting in wait for Metalocalypse Season 3).

After hearing the snippits of the songs from the second season of Metalocalypse I felt that I just HAD to hear these ones. I knew that they were gonna ditch a lot of the comedy, but knowing the success of the cartoon they definitely would have had a much better studio for recording their album (I gotta say, making a cartoon about a death metal band and then using the popularity to create an equally successful death metal band is pure genius). Well, they definitely had a better studio, but their sound wasn't put in the right direction. As with a lot of metal bands they seem to have suffered the same problem of having every song sound just like the last. There wasn't much to differentiate the songs; they all sounded the same! The other problem came in when I noticed something wrong with the vocals. They had some kind of effect that made them sound weird; and the more closely I listened to them the more annoying they became! The riffs and rhythms were pretty much the same, and the vocals had no 'balls' to them. It sounded fantastic the first time through; but after the first 3/4 I was sick of the album! If an album wants to stand out, the songs need to be distinguishable from each other and unique; and if a 'balls-y' sound is what you're after more bass and less treble should provide a thicker body for the songs. All in all, this album wasn't worth the money, but isn't so horrible that I would tell people to stay away from it. I am likely just too cynical to enjoy it.

It took me a while to come around to this album, and it almost shames me to say that. The short story is this: you can look at this album one of two ways. The first, is to compare it to the first Dethalbum. The first Dethalbum was loaded with songs that were from top to bottom, hilarious. Songs about hating your fans. Songs about awakening lake trolls. Songs about refusing to be charitable. From this perspective, Dethalbum II will likely dissapoint. There are still a few funny songs (I Tamper With..., Dethsupport), but many of the songs actually tell legitimately 'metal' stories, and a certain degree of humor has been lost from the first to the second.

The second way to look at this album is from a purely musical perspective. From that point of view, this album completely blows away the first. The songs are louder, clearer, have a much higher production quality, and musically are just vastly superior to the first album. Nathan--er, Brandon Small's vocals are different this time around; trading a barely audible low growl that necessitated reigning in the guitars and drums in order to make out anything being said for a much higher pitched angry-hissing style which sounds just as distinctively metal, but doesn't require the producers to piddle around with the music and regulating it to the status of background noise.

This album is at least on par with any contemporary metal album from the last decade. If you listen to metal music, this should be in your collection, without question.

We can get the obvious out of the way; this album is an album of a band that doesn't actually exist.

I purchased the album since I have been a fan of the show and I heard the promotional track "Bloodlines" and loved it. Having received the CD in both the normal and the special edition form, I am proud to say that the album was very well done. It sounds better than the first one did and the tracks just seem to be a bit more original instead of sounding rather generic. It honestly sounds like a real band performing.

Definitely worth the buy.