Metalocalypse: Season Four picks up some indeterminate amount of time after last season's double-booked Middle Eastern megashow. Apparently, Dethklok has been in space working on their latest album. Why? Hell, it's Dethklok! Excess doesn't even begin to explain them. However, practically the minute they touch down, their personal and professional lives are tested beyond their limits.
Metalocalypse is a show that loves its characters. Mind you, not in the same vein as Futurama, a program that genuinely loves its characters as human (and alien) beings. No, Metalocalypse is a celebration of the awfulness of its heroes, and Season Four gives them each a good bit of attention. Nathan Explosion (Brendan Small) tries to find new love, from a hardcore groupie to new producer Abigail Remeltindrinc (Janeane Garofalo). This opens a rift between Nathan and Pickles the drummer (also Brendan Small). Meanwhile, Pickles struggles to win over his idiot mother, who seems to favor his loser brother Seth. Guitarists/English language butchers Skwisgaar Skwigelf (Small again) and Toki Wartooth (Tommy Blacha) have a love/hate relationship with each other, and this season sees it in almost full-blown hate mode. Toki's inferiority complex leads him to write a tell-all book called Skwisgaar Is Ams Dick, and you can probably guess where it goes from there. And of course, we get to spend some time with the always-repulsive bassist William Murderface (Blacha), who finally becomes fed up with being hideous and fat. One would think that the straw that broke the camel's back would have been his parents' chainsaw murder-suicide over baby Murderface's appearance.
Metalocalypse: Season Four is heavier on story than it's ever been, though it still retains its signature sense of morbid and violent humor. It stretches beyond Dethklok itself and brings the actions of the Tribunal (the Illuminati-like organization monitoring Dethklok since the very beginning) into focus. It is in this season that you finally get a sense of who (and what) the dreaded Mr. Selatcia (Mark Hamill) really is. The finale leads me to believe that there is an endgame in sight, as things are getting pretty heavy. And, of course, this wouldn't be Metalocalypse if it wasn't absolutely loaded with scenes of fans and characters being maimed, mutilated, and killed in graphic detail!
The last two home releases of Metalocalypse on Blu-ray have been awesome with one key exception: it is now completely uncensored. With other shows, this would be a great thing, but honestly, I prefer the pinch harmonic bleeps instead of the actual swearing. The nudity doesn't bother me nearly as much, though I could have gone without seeing Murderface's junk. But still, the video and audio are crisp and high-quality.
The extras in Metalocalypse: Season Four range from amusing to tiresome. Nathan Reads Shakespeare 4: A Comedy of Errors starts at the former and progresses to the latter. Each season has shown Nathan tackling a Shakespeare play for audiobook adaptation. Nathan's gravelly monotone clashes with the sophisticated poetry quite beautifully, but it gets old kind of fast. Luckily, he goes off on wild tangents all the time, which makes the lengthy running time (almost an hour and a half) more tolerable. Pickles Flyby starts at stupid and stays there. Pickles is drunk off his ass and standing in a giant glass cage as it flies over several environments. Slurred Yooper dialects sound really funny, but this feature just doesn't stay funny for that long. StaresDown 1, 2, and 3 are ridiculously dumb. Toki and Skwisgaar in three staring contests. While they compete, they insult each other and mangle the English language. It's predictable. MurderThoughts gives us a look into Murderface's thought process after his ill-advised Tijuana cosmetic surgery. The Prophecy is a recitation of the Church of the Black Klok's reason for existing. Dr. Rockzo's Greatest Hits is a mock infomercial for everyone's favorite cocaine-addicted clown's "Best of" album. CFO Raps is pure whiteness: band manager Charles Foster Ofdensen (Small, yet again) raps... horribly. Dethklock Fan Art is exactly what it sounds like, and ranges from awesome to deeply disturbing. The DethGame is my favorite of the special features, though it doesn't go as far as I hoped it would. Facebones hosts a trivia game featuring two contestants: the Dethklok equivalent of a Trekker and an imbecilic woman whose large breasts are apparently her only redeeming qualities.
Metalocalypse: Season Four indicates that the show will continue to run strong regardless of what kind of territory it chooses to explore in the future. If you're a fan of metal and dark humor, you'll probably think this is the greatest show ever.
