Review: James Garrahy
Do anything for Dethklok. Do anything for Dethklok. Dethklok. Dethklok. Dethklok. DETH-FUCKING-KLOK!
The mightiest of metal bands are back and are ready to melt faces and burst eardrums. ‘Gardener Of Vengeance’ is our opener, and it’s everything you want it to be, a perfect medley of the distinctive double kick bass, intricate guitar work and of course, the one, the only, Nathan Explosion tearing your brain into a million pieces with his magnificent vocal prowess. Opening Dethalbum IV with this was the perfect power move.
‘Aortic Desecration‘, sweet fucking brilliance. This is Dethklok at their finest, just ripping everything to bits before reassembling it and serving it to you without hesitation via track ‘Poisoned By Food‘. Giving you a mixed time signature, it sits oddly in the pit of your core as it feels like a thrash song, but slowed down to give you that false sense of security as to what the rest of this album has to offer.
‘Bloodbath’ brings a cathedral-like introduction before showing you that the ‘Klok has not stopped making their signature sound familiar, yet brand new all over again. Definitely a monster of a track. ‘I Am The Beast’ is exactly that, a beast. Brutal and unforgiving, this is the song to break your neck to. All you can imagine is so much hair thrashing that it would be like a million stock whips going off in succession.
Now, after the original Dethalbum, ‘Thunderhorse’ was a track that just had everything, and when you put a track on your latest offering called ‘Horse Of Fire‘, it’s bound to have the same feeling. Whether intentional or not, this feels like a sequel that we didn’t know we wanted. By far one of the greatest metal songs by this gargantuan 5 piece. ‘DEADFACE’ has a great acoustic intro that blends into the slowed down cataclysmic stank-face of one of the heaviest tracks the Dethklok have ever produced. Turn that shit up. I implore you!
The vocals on ‘Satellite Bleeding’ are classic Explosion. The signature roar is there but gains so much depth with a seamless change between a whisper and that deep growl that has become synonymous with his vocals. Adding into that a hefty guitar solo, it just makes you want the song to never end.
‘SOS’ starts like a marching song before progressing into a gradual crescendo of brutality. Even if the first minute and a half has no lyrical content, it brings so much excitable anticipation of what this track becomes. It’s the gift that keeps giving throughout the whole 4 minutes and 38 seconds. Chant it with me now, “RISE! RISE! RISE!”.
Closing out the album, we have ‘Murmaider III’. The familiar horn of the past, blends to a distorted single tone that grinds deep in the pit of your stomach. Everything about this track is Dethklok, the heavy bass, the catastrophic riffs, ear bleeding solos and Explosion’s thrash-inducing lyrics, this is the perfect way to end this album. 11 out of 10 fellas.
If you need any more reason to catch up on every episode of Metalocalypse, this is it. With the feature that is attached to this album, it seems that Dethklok can still produce the same brilliance that launched them into the spotlight to begin with. Will we do anything for Dethklok? Hell fucking yes, we will.
DETHALBUM IV drops August 22 on WaterTower Music.
Pre-order HERE:
https://dethklok.bio.to/DethalbumIV
