Brendon Small Says That Dethklok Is Likely Ending

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

Dethklok, the virtual metal band from the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, may be coming to an end. In an interview with Metal Insider, singer Brendon Small claimed that he was “basically all but finished” with the band and spoke openly about his issues with the network.

This is surprising news, when one considers the measures taken over the past year to keep Dethklok alive. Last year, it was announced that Adult Swim would not be airing a final set of episodes for Metalocalypse, and therefore would not give Dethklok a proper ending. This enraged fans as well as the band, and a social media campaign was launched to give the band its rightful ending with the help of online streaming service Hulu. Presented by Rocksmith, the Metalocalypse Now campaign targeted fans of the show, the heavy metal community, record labels and other public figures. It aimed to convince Hulu and Adult Swim that Dethklok’s ending was well worth showing, and would attract a massive audience. The campaign was supported by many big names including Razer, Scott Ian, Joe Satriani, Metal Blade Records, MetalSucks and Metal Injection.

Small states in the interview that while the Metalocalypse Now campaign was successful, it was not enough to convince Adult Swim to produce the desired content. According to Loudwire, Small claimed that it was not a matter of money or support.

“They were saying that they didn’t have enough money, but I thought if we caused enough noise, some financial backers would show up. They actually did, and some people that were willing to offer just shy of two million dollars stepped forward and said, ‘we would love to finance the show and do this final mini-series,’ and the network said, ‘No, we don’t want to do anymore Metalocalypse at all,’ and that was the end of it.”

Although the campaign received plenty of attention and nearly 100,000 signatures on the petition, he confirms that the network was simply unwilling to give Dethklok a proper ending. Metalocalypse ended in 2013 after running for about seven years on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. That same year, they aired a special entitled Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem, a rock opera that was billed as a Klok opera, a play on both the music style and the band’s name.