Band:	Dethklok
Album:	Dethalbum IV
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	August 2023

01. Gardener Of Vengeance
02. Aortic Desecration
03. Poisoned By Food
04. Mutilation On A Saturday Night
05. Bloodbath
06. I Am The Beast
07. Horse Of Fire
08. DEADFACE
09. Satellite Bleeding
10. SOS
11. Murmaider III

‘Twas ten years ago when the gates of Mordhaus last opened, pitching forth one unexpectedly final adventure: The Doomstar Requiem, a whirlwind of a musical that remains one of the most unique things I’ve ever reviewed for Metal Storm. It was a fabulous trip that unfortunately ended in a decade-long cliffhanger thanks to Adult Swim canceling the Metalocalypse series. Now the world’s eighth-largest economy is shredding its way back into action.

Dethalbum IV is a singular release in Dethklok history. It is the only Dethalbum not to be released during the television broadcast of Metalocalypse and the only one not to have any of its songs featured in the show; while I can make no informed statements about the writing, recording, or selection of any of these albums, the very fact that Dethalbum IV arrives almost concurrently with a new film rather than as a collection of season-scattered features makes it feel like an unusually discrete, curated piece of work. Normally that manner of coherent functionality works to an album’s benefit, but Dethklok is not a normal band on a typical career timeline; I always found that having those little samples in the episodes or having events to tie them to made the songs stand out in my memory. Who could forget “Black Fire Upon Us” after Charles Foster Offdensen appended that title to the assault on Mordhaus? Whenever I hear “Hatredcopter,” I see Pickles flying that stupid helicopter. And the entire Duncan Hills coffee disaster ought to enjoy some “Stonehenge”-esque renown among future generations of metalheads. I do miss a bit of that connection.

We’re still quite early into its legacy, but Dethalbum IV does not endure in my memory the way its predecessors do, and while perhaps it’s a lack of grounding narrative (which is an odd way to describe Metalocalypse), the genuine culprit is more likely a lack of songwriting on par with the old classics. The shred-heavy, power-inflected, and intelligibly growled melodeath of the first three Dethalbums relied on a distinctive combination of elements: bright, piquant lead guitar harmonies, unnaturally articulate grunts, occasional keyboard stings, structures that were limber and accessible even by commercial melodeath standards, and a fleshy but precise steamroller of percussion to tie it all together, courtesy of Gene Hoglan. These elements are all recognizable in Dethalbum IV, but they don't dominate the way they used to. This album has more of a groove/thrash feeling than an extreme power/melodeath one, and while it does not abandon the pursuit of hooks, the increased emphasis on pure musculature and rhythm leaves little room for catchy singles. Though it's ancillary to the songwriting, some of this may also have to do with the evolution of "Nathan's" vocals; they are coarser, higher-pitched, quite a distance from the bizarre talk-grunts that he employed on earlier material. We could hear this on Dethalbum III already and it was such an unusual singing style that I always wondered how sustainable it really was, but the now-more-evident transformation brings the vocal approach of Dethklok in line with more conventional harsh vocals in the death-thrash style. I feel as though I'm hearing Brendan Small rather than Nathan Explosion.

The harmonized guitar leads, which accounted for a lot of the melodic side, do not surface all that often; instead, the emphasis seems to be on Dethklok's dark and dramatic side. Dethklok has always had a capacity for slow, building grandeur in addition to its ripping two-minute hook machines, so that's not unfamiliar territory; I'd almost say "cerebral" if that weren't getting too close to complete antithesis of the whole image, but you get in songs like "Black Fire Upon Us", "Dethharmonic", and what is perhaps the band's signature song, "Go Into The Water", a monstrous, epic, and sophisticated spin on the usual buffoonery. That's where Dethalbum IV often takes its business, and it succeeds in spades on "Horse Of Fire" and "Murmaider III"; even if the slower pace asks a bit more from the listener, things do get interesting. Yet where that lower-energy sound exploration works wonders sometimes, it isn't consistent throughout the whole album. "DEADFACE" and "Satellite Bleeding" follow up "Horse Of Fire" with the same mid-paced crunch, expansive riffing, and spacious sound, but that's where I really start to feel a lack of power in the vocals, and the guitar melodies are too lackluster to force my attention.

There are still fun up-tempo tracks, too; homicidal grooves and shattering drum work make "Mutilation On A Saturday Night" the album's highlight along with "Horse Of Fire". "Bloodbath" and "Gardener Of Vengeance" are good, punchy tunes. The production sits in a nice place for Dethklok, somewhere between Dethalbum II and III: a tad rawer and heavier than III, not as bright or clean. It's cool just to have a fourth Dethalbum, too - a few years ago, this seemed like an impossibility, with the band and the narrative alike cut to an unfair close for forever-nebulous reasons. The fourth time around feels less inspired than the first three, however; the sound is evolving into something less unique and the songs aren't quite following along with the leanness and catchiness I'm used to. I think I'll have to get around to watching Army Of The Doomstar and hope that that makes for a bit grander of a finale.