Adult Swim Revives 'Metalocalypse' With Movie As Dethklok Drop First New Music In 10 Years

The band who started as a fictional melodic death metal outfit before releasing music and touring, Dethklok, will return with their first album since 2012’s Dethalbum III, entitled Dethalbum IV, as well as revive the Adult Swim animated television series, Metalocalypse, in the form of a film: Army Of The Doomstar.

The album and the film will be released on Tuesday, 22 August, on Blu-Ray and digital.

Dethklok didn’t just announce new music, though; they also dropped the new single, Aortic Desecration, which Metal Injection accurately described as “comically brutal”.

Co-creators Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha (who write and perform Dethklok’s music) will be accompanied by a huge roster of music and film icons, including the one and only Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Amy Lee of Evanescence fame, King Diamond, Anthrax’s Scott Ian, and many more. You can check out the complete list below.

"The all-new animated movie begins after the heroic rescue of Toki Wartooth; Dethklok frontman Nathan Explosion finds himself traumatized in a BRUTAL professional and romantic flat-spin, all while he is tasked with fulfilling the prophecy and confronting the ultimate songwriting challenge to save the planet,” the synopsis for Metalocalypse: Army Of The Doomstar reads.

“Can Nathan Explosion look beyond his brutally damaged ego to save his band, stop the Metalocalypse, and finally face the ultimate evil: Salacia?"

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You can pre-order Dethalbum IV here.

Despite Small stating, "I think I’m basically all but finished making Dethklok records, only because the network has been less than easygoing about lending out the name,” in May 2016, Dethklok returned to the stage at Adult Swim Festival in 2019.

In 2021, Adult Swim announced that it had revived Metalocalypse after cancelling the series in 2013. Army Of The Doomstar signals the show's return, which is about a band that became “the world’s most popular and successful death metal band.”

You can check out the new movie's trailer and the Aortic Desecration music video below.

Metalocalypse: Army Of The Doomstar cast:

Tommy Blacha

Victor Brandt (Metalocalypse)

Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner

King Diamond (King Diamond, Mercyful Fate)

Mark Hamill (Batman: The Animated Series, The Machine, Star Wars)

Kirk Hammett (Metallica)

Jon Hamm (Confess, Fletch, Top Gun: Maverick)

Scott Ian (Anthrax)

Amy Lee (Evanescence)

Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange)