BRENDON SMALL On DETHKLOK's 20th Anniversary: 'In One Way Or Another, The Audience And Myself Are Fueling This Project's Existence'

In a new interview with The Logan Show, Brendon Small, co-creator of "Metalocalypse", the hit animated series on Adult Swim featuring the fictitious metal band DETHKLOK, reflected on the show's 20th anniversary and the touring group's continued success, including on DETHKLOK's upcoming spring 2026 "The Amonklok Conquest" North American tour with Swedish metal titans AMON AMARTH. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's kind of crazy. This is an accidental kind of thing that happened, is that I ended up inadvertently… I didn't even know what kind of responsibility I was taking on when I took on proprietorship of the live music entity. I really didn't know that you have to put up risk, you have to organize all this stuff with the other bands, you have to talk to other people. And I inadvertently built a really great infrastructure with great tour managers, production managers, agents and all that stuff, and I realized this is a really cool art form that you get to kind of control yourself without a network, without anybody else. I still have to actually license my own stuff, which is bonkers, which is crazy, but it's totally worth it because I keep it alive. And by me keeping it alive, it keeps interest in the streamers and has people checking it out. So in one way or another, the audience and myself are fueling this project's existence. And through that I get to produce new animation. I get to even do this crazy little minute-long tour announcement with Johan [Hegg of AMON AMARTH] and DETHKLOK in a boardroom where I go, 'Oh. I am just kind of deciding to do this.'"

Brendon continued: "The question I get often is, is there more DETHKLOK in the future? And the truth is that our numbers are really good. And sometimes by us kind of going out and doing this stuff, we get more people interested in it. So this live thing is also, like, could there be more meat on the bone? Could I get these characters hanging out and talking to each other more? Could there be shorter iterations of it? Could there be something? And that's the question I'm kind of asking, too, by doing this, is, like, can we kind of take all the control back and do some of that stuff?"

Asked about having to license his own stuff and whether he foresees a scenario where he would one day be able to own those properties himself, Brendon said: "I guess for the right price anything is available, and the question is, what is that price?

"It's really funny. I came from a show before 'Metalocaypse' called 'Home Movies' and that show was owned by an outside company and licensed to networks too — first UPN, then Adult Swim," he explained. "And the owners of that company were kind of lethargic with this project. They didn't really do anything with their ownership of it. They didn't promote it, get people excited or do anything. And I thought, that's crazy. When a network owns the show, you get a little bit more visibility, I noticed. I noticed that shows like 'Aqua Teen' were getting more visibility than 'Home Movies' was getting in that they had more to gain by it succeeding than a show they didn't own. So I thought 'Metalocalypse' being owned by the network would probably launch us into the zeitgeist a little bit more. And I think that was the right move to make, and I still think that's the right move to make 20 years later, because I don't know that we would've got as much kind of spotlight as being a homegrown kind of show of Adult Swim, even though it's done by outside people like myself.

"So, I don't know if this answers any of your questions, but all that stuff was stuff that I thought about when kind of getting into production with Williams Street Productions and all that stuff, and collaborating with Adult Swim on a project like this. Again, this is such an odd project that it's hard for anyone to collaborate with a music-driven show that has this kind of outside life, like 'Metalocalypse', I would think, I'm running a network, if I'm running a streamer or anything, to have someone take on the responsibility of promoting the hell out of their show through a live entity and getting people out of their houses and engaged would be the ultimate thing. But that's just me."

DETHKLOK celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026, marking two decades since "Metalocalypse" premiered on Adult Swim.

As one of the most essential musical multimedia acts ever, DETHKLOK is both an animated phenomenon and a live metal juggernaut, combining intense musicianship with breakneck cinematic theatricality. Bringing the beloved larger-than-life characters of DETHKLOK to life once again will be Small on guitar and vocals, legendary extreme metal drummer Gene Hoglan (DEATH, DARK ANGEL, TESTAMENT),bassist Pete Griffin (Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Zakk Wylde) and guitar shredder Nili Brosh (Danny Elfman).

"Metalocalypse" is a cartoon series about a fictional death metal band called DETHKLOK that's bigger (and far more powerful) than THE BEATLES. The show ran for seven seasons, with the final episode being an hour-long rock opera, "The Doomstar Requiem".

After "Metalocalypse"'s rise in popularity, Small assembled DETHKLOK as an actual live band to play the music featured on the show, with Small himself handling vocals and guitar.

DETHKLOK's first three albums charted in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 and the third release, "Dethalbum III", peaked at No. 10, making it the highest-charting death metal album of all time. In addition, "The Doomstar Requiem: A Klok Opera Soundtrack" made it to No. 7 on Billboard's soundtrack chart in 2013.

After several years of dormancy, DETHKLOK returned in 2023 with a new album, "Dethalbum IV" and an animated movie, "Metalocalypse: Army Of The Doomstar". It was hard fought since Adult Swim abruptly pulled the plug on "Metalocalypse" show more than a decade ago, despite its rabid following amongst the metal crowd, many of whom came to appreciate the show's regular easter eggs and voice appearances from the likes of King Diamond, Hammett and CANNIBAL CORPSE's George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher. Indeed, "Metalocalypse" may be the only quasi-mainstream show to be truly catered to a metal audience, which can explain its enduring popularity and the steady drumbeat of requests for its revival.

DETHKLOK's 2023 "Babyklok" co-headlining trek with BABYMETAL was the first DETHKLOK tour in over a decade.