Dethklok Lives and Mastodon Rules

On both counts, the show was flat out fantastic. Dethklok was tight as hell, thanks partly to the click Brendan Small and Co. played to, but no credit can be taken away from the Gene "The Atomic Time Bomb" Hoglan as Mr. Small renamed him at the end of a face pummeling set of metal hilarity that was air tight. Cheers to the mighty Mastodon who played a surprisingly longer set than Dethklok, running through Crack The Skye from start to finish, taking only a two minute break before coming back for another mini set of tunes, three of which from Remission. A killer performance. If you missed this show, you are a stupid, because the experience was truly unique.

Behind both bands sat quite a large LCD screen, and both used it to its fullest extent, displaying all new visuals related to Mastodon's Crack The Skye storyline, and of course a mix of seen and unseen videos for each of Dethklok's songs. Hats off to Mastodon, coming this time around with a much more focused and developed vision for their video clips, utilizing a silent film age style, including actors, effects and make up, along with the digital art that made the special edition version of the album such a great collector's item. Dethklok's videos were both entertaining and on-point, starting off with the Metalocalypse theme, burning through a mix of Dethalbum's I and II that included Black Fire Upon Us, Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle, Murmaider and Dethsupport before finishing with Fan Song. Interludes between the band's brief breaks presented a very fun tutorial by Dethklok's mascot JawBones on moshing, and trailing Gen. Crozier's plot to eliminate all Dethklok followers, which gets thwarted in a very typically Metalocalypse fashion.

Brendan Small treated the fans to a bit of fun when he chatted with the crowd, switching from Toki to Skwisgaar to Nathan in an instant. He really seemed to enjoy New York's energy, and while Mastodon put on a jaw dropping show, the response to Dethklok was much more energetic, some in Halloween garb, including characters from Metalocalypse. Dethklok itself was dressed strictly in black to maintain emphasis on the videos. Of the rest of the players from the other bands of the night, only Brent Hinds dressed for the occasion, sporting a huge afro wig, silver pants and platform shoes. Yeah. He played with tremendous ferocity, and even attacked a crew member to the side of the stage for tuning his guitar incorrectly. All in good humor of course. All in good humor.