DETHKLOK's BRENDON SMALL: 'Our Audience Has Gotten Younger Throughout The Years'

In a new interview with The Entertainment Outlet, Brendon Small, co-creator of "Metalocalypse", the hit animated series on Adult Swim featuring the fictitious metal band DETHKLOK, was asked what might be coming up next after DETHKLOK's spring 2026 "The Amonklok Conquest" North American tour with Swedish metal titans AMON AMARTH. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The crazy thing that I'm learning is that by me becoming the proprietor of this live entity, which is something I didn't expect to do at all — in fact, I thought we'd probably do a tour. But then we kind of developed an infrastructure and a world, and we started kind of trying to open up the map more. We went to Australia for the first time this year, we went to Europe for the first time this year, and we're noticing that there's an appetite for this project. And whether or not we end up making new stuff or not, we are finding that people are showing up for it. Now because I'm keeping it alive, it's a little bit more on the zeitgeist, so the possibility of doing stuff kind of opens up a little bit more. So there are conversations in place where I think, what would the next iteration of this thing be? And I think, well, what I'd love to do is just be funny for a while — be able to have the music happen, but also just be able to have these characters just kind of hang out and talk to each other. So I guess you could say that this promo that we did with Johan [Hegg of AMON AMARTH] for 'The Amonklok Conquest', where you see [the members of DETHKLOK] at the boardroom, is a bit of a proof of concept for a life beyond what we've been doing. So we just have to kind of convince the right people. And by us going out and doing this stuff, we're kind of showing them that there's an audience out there who can't get this particular kind of entertainment anywhere else. No other TV show gives 'em this kind of cross section of entertainment and music. So that's kind of part of it too. I really do think there's a lot more meat on the bone in this project. Here we are, also, it's 20 years since we started this thing, and the fact that our audience has kind of gotten younger throughout the years is also crazy too. I mean, our couple tours, we've seen people who were way younger than our audience in 2007. So, yeah, I do think about all that stuff."

Brendon continued: "This is such a different project than a band, than any other band that can make a record or do… We kind of have to do everything. The last thing I did wasn't just a record — it was a movie and it was a record, and it was another record. It was a whole score album, too, that has tons of guitar playing on it and tons of music on it that we spent all this time on. So it's not just one thing… So that's all the reasons why we're here today."

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.