Adult Swim
Adult Swim is the adult-oriented nighttime programming block of the American children's cable network Cartoon Network and its own television production studio Williams Street Productions. It broadcasts every night from 8 p.m.-6 a.m.. Williams Street produces Toonami, block-within-a-block, on Adult Swim and produced Miguzi. Debuting in 2001, Adult Swim serves as the nighttime identity of Cartoon Network, was established as alternative programming during the late night hours when Cartoon Network's primary target audience, children between the ages of 6–15, would be sleeping. Much of Adult Swim's general content is known for their experimental, risqué, crude and improvisational humor, along with purposefully cheap-looking animation, bizarre presentation. In 2005, the block was granted its own Nielsen ratings report from Cartoon Network due to targeting a separate demographic; the block features stylistically varied animated and live-action shows including original programming, syndicated series consisting of Fox animated programming, short films, original video animation, anime with minimal or no editing for content.
In the United States, Adult Swim has aired adult animation features, mockumentaries, sketch comedy, live action, pilots. Shows may have sexual themes, frank sexual discussion, strong language, graphic violence. While the network features comedic and dramatic programs of all types, many of its programs are aesthetically experimental, transgressive and surrealist in nature. Thus, Adult Swim has become a source of conflict, with some saying that it is too controversial, while others noting that its ability to question the norm brings a level of surrealism and experimentalism, welcome. Adult Swim has contracted with various studios known for their productions in absurd and shock comedy; as with Cartoon Network, Adult Swim's reach through various services totals 94 million American households. Cartoon Network's original head programmer, Mike Lazzo, conceived Adult Swim; the block grew out of Cartoon Network's previous attempts at airing content appropriate for teenagers and young adults who might be watching the channel after 11 pm.
The network began experimenting with its late night programming by airing anthology shows like ToonHeads, The Bob Clampett Show, The Tex Avery Show, Late Night Black and White, O Canada, which all presented uncensored classic cartoon shorts, as well as blocks such as Toonami Midnight Run. In numerous interviews, it had been stated that at the time, one third of Cartoon Network's audience were adults. During the 1990s, prime time animation geared at adults started growing popular due to the success of Fox's hit show The Simpsons; this was followed by a trend of other adult-oriented animated shows throughout the decade, such as: Liquid Television and Butt-Head, Aeon Flux, The Brothers Grunt, The Critic, The Maxx, King of the Hill, South Park, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, The Oblongs, Clerks: The Animated Series, Mission Hill, Home Movies, Family Guy, more. Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Network's first foray into original programming, was created in 1994 for late night adult audiences.
The series was created by Mike Lazzo's Ghost Planet Industries, which became Williams Street Studios, the eventual producers and programmers of Adult Swim. Between 4:00 am and 5:00 am on December 21, December 30, 2000, several new Williams Street series made unannounced "stealth" premieres. Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Brak Show all premiered unannounced. Prior to that, in Entertainment Weekly, it was stated that Michael Ouweleen's next project was working on the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law Pilot with J. J. Sedelmaier. In a 1999 interview, the indie pop rock band Calamine stated they had recorded the theme song for Sealab 2021. While entertaining pitches for a variety of adult cartoons, Lazzo realized the potential for packaging them as a complete adult-focused block. Different names were considered, including “ibiso”, said to be Spanish for “stop”, “Parental Warning", but he settled on "Adult Swim". In June 2001, TV Guide had recorded an interview with Cartoon Network's former president, Betty Cohen.
She stated there was a new programming block coming out in September, aimed for an adult audience. During this month at the Cartoon Network Confidential, "Cartoon Network's best originals and outrageous animated shorts for discriminating adults" in New York City, an upcoming episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast titled "Kentucky Nightmare", the stealth pilots from December, Captain Linger, an episode of Home Movies were screened for free; the screening was part of the Toyota Comedy Festival. On Saturday, July 21, 2001, the Space Ghost Coast to Coast panel at San Diego Comic Con had a trivia game in which the winners won a promotional CD that had the theme songs to the upcoming Adult Swim Shows. Everybody who attended got a free Adult
Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification is an English company that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, speaker cabinets, brands personal headphones and earphones, having acquired Natal Drums and bongos. It was founded by drum shop owner and drummer Jim Marshall, is now based in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Marshall's guitar amplifiers are among the most recognised in the world, their signature sound, characterized by sizzling distortion and "crunch," was conceived by Marshall after guitarists, such as Pete Townshend, visited Marshall's drum shop complaining that the guitar amplifiers on the market didn't have the right sound or enough volume. After gaining a lot of publicity, Marshall guitar amplifiers and loudspeaker cabinets were sought by guitarists for this new sound and increased volume. Many of the current and reissue Marshall guitar amplifiers continue to use vacuum tubes, as is common in this market sector. Marshall manufactures less expensive solid-state and modelling amplifiers.
After a successful career as a drummer and teacher of drum technique, Jim Marshall first went into business in 1962 with a small shop in Hanwell, selling drums and drum-related accessories. According to Jim, Ritchie Blackmore, Big Jim Sullivan and Pete Townshend were the three main guitarists who came into the shop and pushed Marshall to make guitar amplifiers and told him the sound and design they wanted. Marshall Ltd. expanded, hired designers and started making guitar amplifiers to compete with existing amplifiers, the most notable of which at the time were the Fender amplifiers imported from America. These were popular with guitarists and bass players, but were expensive; the three guitarists were among the first customers of the first 23 Marshall Amplifiers made. Jim Marshall wanted someone to produce a cheaper alternative to American-made guitar amplifiers, but as he had limited electrical-engineering experience he enlisted the help of his shop repairman, Ken Bran, a Pan American Airways technician, Dudley Craven, an EMI apprentice, Ken Underwood an EMI apprentice.
They most liked the sound of the 4×10-inch Fender Bassman and made several prototypes using the Fender Bassman amplifier as a model. The sixth prototype produced, in Jim's words, the "Marshall Sound", although at this time the only involvement Jim had was to sell the amps on a commission basis in his shop; as business increased, Marshall asked the three to work for him in his shop, as he had more space and capital to expand. The original idea was talked about late one Friday night in early 1963 in a Wimpy bar in Ealing in West London by three amateur radio enthusiasts after they had been to their weekly Greenford radio club meeting, Dudley`s call sign was G3PUN, Ken Bran`s was G3UDC, Ken Underwood`s was G3SDW; as of Dudley's death in 1998 and Ken Bran's death in 2018, the only original individual is Ken Underwood. The first six production units were assembled in the garden sheds of Ken Bran, Dudley Craven,and Ken Underwood in the same year, in Heston and Hayes, all in West London, they were copies of the Bassman circuit, with American military-surplus 5881 power valves, a relative of the 6L6.
Few speakers were able to handle more than 15 watts, which meant that an amplifier approaching 50 watts had to use four speakers. For their Bassman, Fender used four Jensen speakers in the same cabinet as the amplifier, but Marshall chose to separate the amplifier from the speakers, placed four 12-inch Celestion speakers in a separate closed-back cabinet instead of the four 10-inch Jensens in an open-back combo. Other crucial differences included the use of higher-gain ECC83 valves throughout the preamp, the introduction of a capacitor/resistor filter after the volume control; these circuit changes gave the amp more gain so that it broke into overdrive sooner on the volume control than the Bassman, boosted the treble frequencies. This new amplifier, tentatively called the "Mark II", was named the "JTM 45", after Jim and his son Terry Marshall and the maximum wattage of the amplifier. Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, other blues rock-based bands from the late 1960s such as Free used Marshall stacks both in the studio and live on stage making them among the most sought after and most popular amplifiers in the industry.
Marshall entered into a 15-year distribution deal with British company Rose-Morris during 1965, which gave him the capital to expand his manufacturing operations, though it would prove to be costly. In retrospect, Marshall admitted the Rose-Morris deal was "the biggest mistake I made. Rose-Morris hadn't a clue, really. For export, they added 55% onto my price, which pretty much priced us out of the world market for a long time." The new contract had disenfranchised several of Marshall's former distributors, among them his old friend Johnny Jones. Marshall's contract did not prevent him from building amplifiers outside the company, so Marshall launched the Park brand name, inspired by the maiden name of Jones's wife. To comply with his contract stipulations, these amplifiers had minor circuit changes compared to the regular Marshalls, minor changes to the appearance. For instance the Parks had silver or black front panels instead of the Marshall's gold ones, some of the enclosures were taller or shaped differently, controls were laid out and labelled differently.
Starting in early 1965, Park produced a number of amplifiers including a 45-watt head. Most of these had Marshall layout and components, though some unusual amplifiers were made, such as a 75 watt keyboard amplifier with KT88 tubes. A 2×12-inch combo had the option of sending the first channel into th
Tony Iommi
Anthony Frank Iommi is an English guitarist and producer. He was lead one of the four founder members of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, he was sole continual member for nearly five decades. While working in a factory as a teenager, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand in an accident, an event which crucially affected his playing style. Iommi left Black Sabbath's forerunner, Earth, in 1968 to join Jethro Tull, after which he returned to Black Sabbath in 1969, recording their self-titled debut album. In 2000, he released his first solo album Iommi, followed by 2005's Fused, which featured his former bandmate Glenn Hughes. After releasing Fused, he formed Heaven & Hell, which disbanded after Ronnie James Dio's death in 2010. Iommi was ranked number 25 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". In 2011, he published his autobiography, entitled Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. Anthony Frank Iommi was born in the only child of Anthony Frank and Sylvia Maria Iommi.
His mother's family were vineyard owners in Italy. The family were Catholic but attended Mass; the family home in the Park Lane area of Aston housed a shop, a popular meeting place in the neighbourhood. The family living room doubled as the shop's stockroom, his mother ran the shop. Born and raised in Handsworth, Iommi attended Birchfield Road School, where future bandmate Ozzy Osbourne was a student one year behind him. At age 8 or 9, Iommi badly cut his upper lip as another boy chased him; as a result, he gained the nickname "Scarface" which caused him to become self-conscious of the scar, he grew his trademark moustache as a means of covering it. At about age ten, Iommi began working out and learned judo and boxing as a means of protecting himself from the local gangs which congregated in his neighbourhood, he became so good at boxing that he envisioned a future as a bouncer in a nightclub, thus avoiding a career in a boring factory job. Iommi wanted to play the drums, but due to the excessive noise he chose the guitar instead as a teenager, after being inspired by the likes of Hank Marvin and the Shadows.
He has always played guitar left-handed. After completing school, Iommi worked as a plumber and in a factory manufacturing rings, he states that at one point he worked in a music store but quit after being falsely accused of stealing. At the age of 17, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand in an industrial accident on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory. Iommi described, it was just unbelievable. I sat in the hospital with my hand in this bag and I thought'that's it – I'm finished, but I thought'I'm not going to accept that. There must be a way I can play'." After the injury Iommi considered abandoning the guitar entirely. However, his factory foreman played him a recording of famous jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, which encouraged him to continue as a musician; as Iommi wrote: My friend said, "Listen to this guy play", I went, "No way! Listening to someone play the guitar is the last thing I want to do right now!" But he kept insisting and he ended up playing the record for me.
I told him I thought it was good and he said, "You know, the guy's only playing with two fingers on his fretboard hand because of an injury he sustained in a terrible fire." I was knocked back by this revelation and was so impressed by what I had just heard that I became inspired to start trying to play again. Inspired by Reinhardt's two-fingered guitar playing, Iommi decided to try playing guitar again, though the injury made it quite painful to do so. Although it was an option, Iommi never considered switching hands and learning to play right-handed. In an interview with Guitar World magazine, he was asked if he was "ever tempted to switch to right-handed playing." Iommi responded: If I knew what I know now I would have switched. At the time I had been playing two or three years, it seemed like I had been playing a long time. I thought; the reality of the situation was that I hadn’t been playing long at all, I could have spent the same amount of time learning to play right handed. I did have a go at it.
It seemed impossible to me. I decided to make do with what I had, I made some plastic fingertips for myself. I just persevered with it. In any case, he decided to continue playing left-handed. To do so, he fitted homemade thimbles to his injured fingers to protect them. First, the thimbles prevented him from feeling the strings, causing a tendency to press down hard on them. Second, he had difficulty bending strings, leading him to seek light-gauge guitar strings to make it easier to do so. However, Iommi recalls that such strings were not manufactured at the time, so he used banjo strings instead, until around 1970–71 when Picato Strings began making light-gauge guitar strings. Furthermore, he used the injured fingers predominantly for fretting chords rather than single-note solos. In 1974, Iommi told Guitar Player magazine that the thimbles "helped with his technique" because he had to use his little finger more than he had before the accident. Late
Sleep's Holy Mountain
Sleep's Holy Mountain is the second studio album by the American band Sleep. It was released in November 1992 in Europe, March 1993 in the USA through Earache Records; the recordings that would become Sleep's Holy Mountain were sent to independent label Earache as a demo. The label signed the band and released the recordings as they were received, it was the last album to be released by the band as a functioning group for a while, as their subsequent albums up to 2018's The Sciences were released after the group had broken up. The album, which includes the word "stoner" in the lyrics of two songs and prominently features cannabis leaves in its album art, is considered one of the seminal albums in the evolution of stoner rock, it became a favourite of the heavy metal press and the band was heralded, along with Kyuss, as leaders of the emerging stoner metal scene. The song "Dragonaut" is used in the 1997 Harmony Korine film Gummo. In May 2009, the album was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series.
All music/lyrics written by Sleep except "Snowblind". Al Cisneros - bass guitar, vocals Matt Pike - guitar Chris Hakius - drums Cover artwork by Robert Klem Produced and Engineered by Billy Anderson Sleep's Holy Mountain at Earache Records site
London Records
London Records is a British record label that marketed records in the United States and Latin America from 1947 to 1979 before becoming semi-independent. London arose from the split in ownership between the American branches of Decca Records; the American branch of London Records released British Decca records in the U. S. since British Decca could not use the "Decca" name there. The label was noted for classical albums made in state-of-the-art stereophonic sound, such artists as Georg Solti, Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti; the London name was used by British Decca in the UK market for releases taken from American labels which British Decca licensed, such as Imperial, Dot, Atlantic and Sun, the first two UK releases from Motown. By the 1960s more licensing deals had been made with Big Top, Parrot, Hi, subsidiary labels were London Atlantic, London Dot and London Monument. An unusual feature was the letter code in the numbering system. From the late 1950s until 1973, the label bore the logo "London American Recordings", on Radio Luxembourg it was known as "London American".
In America, the label was best known as the American imprint of the pre–1971 recordings of the Rolling Stones. The label originally issued some early LPs and singles by Texas-based band ZZ Top. In the late 1970s, London signed deals with Bomp! Records and with Big Sound in Connecticut, U. S; this changed the label in the eyes of many from a backwater into something a little more "edgy" compared to the pedestrian contemporary releases from parent company Decca. The president of London Records in the 1970s was D. H. Tollerbond. After British Decca was acquired by PolyGram in 1979, London followed a more independent course with subsidiary labels such as Slash, Pete Tong's Essential Records and FFRR. Universal Music Group acquired PolyGram in 1998. In the 90's Tracy Bennet became President and Colin Bell, Managing Director; when Ames moved to the Warner Music Group, he took the label with him, so all of London's recent back catalogue was acquired by Warner, which acquired the London name and trademark from Decca.
The name is still used for UK-based artists, for ex-Factory Records artists. Notable artists released by that incarnation of London, called London Records 90, include New Order, Happy Mondays, A, Shakespears Sister. After PolyGram took over British Decca, classical-music albums recorded by British Decca continued to be released on the London label in the U. S. with a logo similar to the Decca classical label logo, until American Decca owner Universal bought British Decca owner PolyGram in 1998, after which they were all reissued on the original British Decca label in the U. S; the London pop music catalogue owned by Universal Music is now managed by Polydor Records, with US distribution handled by Mercury Records. Decca Records had a recording studio in West London. In 2010, Universal Music reclaimed ownership of the London Records trademark. On 1 July 2011 Universal Music reclaimed the London Records name and relaunched it under the executive team of Nick Raphael and Jo Charrington who together ran Epic Records for Sony Music Entertainment since 2001.
Both had started their careers at London Records in the Ames era in the 1990s. When Nick Raphael became president of Capitol Records's UK division in 2013, London Records moved there, where it operates as a subsidiary. In July 2017, Because Music announced that it would acquire Warner Music 90, the division of WMG that reissued most London Records artists from the PolyGram era; because completed the deal in August 2017, which includes the rights to over fifty London artists. Warner Music 90 will be rebranded as London Music Stream; because would acquire ten French performers including J. J. Cale's post-Mercury/Shelter catalog with the exception of The Road to Escondido, Mano Negra and The Beta Band from Warners in separate deals. With Because Music being distributed by Caroline Distribution in 2019, this returns London Music Stream to Universal, albeit as an independent label. London Records distributed labels throughout its existence. Among the more familiar labels are: Other subsidiaries include: Astra, All Boy, Ashley, Boot, Best, Brite Leaf, Cannon, Cedwicke, CGD, Chicory, Circle, Collier, Country Capers, Deaux, Domain, Edit, Folk Sing, G.
S. P. George, Great, Gulf, Hi Country, Imco, Jay Boy, Johen, K&G, KAB, Kingfish, LeJoint, London International, Louis, M. O. C. Mach, Magna Glide, Medway, Nefi, PAC, Pawn, Pen, P-K-M, Renegade, Ritz, Running Bear, Sahara, SCA, Shar-Dee, Siana, Splash, Sultan, Tarheel, Terrace, Tilt, Unison, Watch and XYZ Marion Menswear Gay Dad Onslaught Back to the Planet Banderas Chumbawamba East 17 The Yes/No People Voice of the Beehiv
Doom metal
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics intend to evoke a sense of despair and impending doom; the genre is influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal with songs such as "Black Sabbath", "Children of the Grave", "Electric Funeral" and "Into the Void". During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands from England, the United States and Sweden defined doom metal as a distinct genre; the electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit are the most common instruments used to play doom metal, but its structures are rooted in the same scales as in blues. Guitarists and bassists downtune their instruments to low notes and make use of large amounts of distortion, thus producing a "thick" or "heavy" guitar tone, one of the defining characteristics of the genre. Along with the usual heavy metal compositional technique of guitars and bass playing the same riff in unison, this creates an impressively loud and bass-heavy wall of sound.
Another defining characteristic is the consistent focus on slow tempos, minor tonality with much use of dissonance. Traditional doom metal vocalists favour clean vocals, which are performed with a sense of despair, desperation or pain. So-called "epic doom" vocalists take it a step further, singing in an operatic style. Doom metal bands influenced by other extreme metal genres use growled or screamed vocals, as is the case of death-doom, black-doom, funeral doom. Lyrics in doom metal play a key role. Influenced by notable blues musicians like Robert Johnson and Son House they are gloomy and pessimistic, including themes such as: suffering, fear, dread and anger. While some bands write lyrics in introspective and personal ways, others convey their themes using symbolism – which may be inspired by occult arts and literature; some doom metal bands use religious themes in their music. Trouble, one of the genre's pioneers, were among the first to incorporate Christian imagery. Others have incorporated pagan imagery.
For many bands, the use of religious themes is for symbolic purposes only. Examples include lyrics/imagery about the Last Judgment to invoke dread, or the use of crucifixes and cross-shaped headstones to symbolize death. Furthermore, some doom metal bands write lyrics about drugs or drug addiction; this is most common among stoner doom bands, who describe hallucinogenic or psychedelic experiences. Doom metal is rooted in the music of early Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath's music is itself stylistically rooted in blues, but with the deliberately doomy and loud guitar playing of Tony Iommi, the then-uncommon dark and pessimistic lyrics and atmosphere, they set the standards of early heavy metal and inspired various doom metal bands. In the early 1970s both Black Sabbath and Pentagram composed and performed this heavy and dark music, which would in the 1980s begin to be known and referred to as doom metal by subsequent musicians and fans. Aside from Pentagram and Black Sabbath, other groups from the 70s would influence the genre's development.
Blue Cheer is hailed as one of the first stoner metal bands. Through the use of loud amplifiers and guitar feedback, their debut Vincebus Eruptum created a template for other artists to follow. Though lacking the pessimistic lyrical content of their contemporaries, Welsh heavy metal band Budgie would produce heavy songs which were amongst the loudest of their day, stylistically influencing various doom metal acts. Early doom metal was influenced by Japan's Flower Travellin' Band their albums Kirikyogen and Satori. Other notable groups include Sir Lord Baltimore, Bang, Lucifer's Friend, Iron Claw and Leaf Hound. During the early-mid-1980s, bands from England and the United States contributed much to the formation of doom metal as a distinct genre. In 1982, English pioneers Witchfinder General released their debut album Death Penalty. During 1984 and 1985, three American pioneers released their debuts; the Swedish Candlemass would prove influential with their first record Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in 1986, from which the genre takes its name.
Some doom metal bands were influenced by the underground gothic rock and post-punk scene of the 1980s, showing similarities with the dark themes addressed through lyrics and the music atmosphere, both music styles deal with. A doom metal band like Mindrot was described as a cross-over between death metal and gothic rock. Like other extreme metal genres, doom metal has regionally based scenes, with their own particular characteristics: In one of the greatest doom metal outputs, Finnish groups focus more on the depressive mood of the genre, evoking an intense grieving feeling; the bands play with slow tempos and melodic tones, creating an atmosphere of darkness and melancholia. This scene was kick-started by the band Rigor Mortis, which originated in 1987. Notable bands include Reverend Bizarre, Dolorian, Shape of Despair, Skeptici
Metalocalypse
Metalocalypse is an American adult animated television series, created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha, which premiered on August 6, 2006, concluded on October 27, 2013 on Adult Swim. The television program centered on the larger-than-life melodic death metal band Dethklok, portrayed dark and macabre content, including such subjects as violence and the drawbacks of fame, with hyperbolic black comedy; the show was heralded as both a parody and a pastiche of heavy metal culture. The music, written by guitarist/creator Brendon Small, was credited to the band and featured in most episodes; the animation was carefully synced to the music with the chord positions and fingering of the guitar parts shown in some detail. A one-hour special entitled Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem was released on October 27, 2013. In the series, Dethklok is a death metal band which enjoys a popularity level unheard of in reality, ranking as the seventh-largest economy on Earth by the end of the second season. Series creator Small described them as "like the Beatles, just a thousand times more dangerous and a billion times more stupid".
The fictional band members are Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, William Murderface and Toki Wartooth. Their manager is Charles Foster Offdensen. If Dethklok endorses a product or service, competitors are driven out of business. Organizations worldwide, ranging from governments to businesses, go out of their way to avoid hindering Dethklok, to the point that the band is allowed to maintain its own police force and can get away with any crime imaginable with no repercussions, although the band is too ignorant to notice that they are committing illegal acts; the members of Dethklok tend to cause disaster wherever they travel, anything remotely associated with them attracts chaos. Dethklok concerts are so notoriously dangerous that those attending are required to sign "pain waivers" at the entrance, releasing the band from legal liability in the likely case attendees are killed or maimed; the band is shown to have a callous disregard for the safety of their fans, as shown in the first episode where they pour scalding hot coffee over concertgoers.
The band's popularity is such that impressionable fans will do anything for them if that means death, the case. In the episode "Dethgov", fans of Dethklok lynch the governor of Florida after he refuses to establish a holiday for lead singer Nathan Explosion, whom they proceed to elect governor in a landslide write-in victory; the band's unnatural popularity and trail of destruction has attracted the attention of an Illuminati-style group, known as The Tribunal, dedicated to monitoring Dethklok's activity and plans. Episodes involve the Tribunal attempting to maintain and perpetuate public ignorance and rampant consumerism whenever Dethklok's antics inadvertently threaten to upset the status quo; the Tribunal, led by a mysterious character named "Mr. Salacia", works off the premise that Dethklok's unusual powers are the result of an ancient Sumerian prophecy about an "Apocalypse of Metal". General Crozier, the military leader in the group, appears to desire either the death of the band's members or the dismantlement of the band itself, but Mr. Salacia overrules him to prevent this from happening.
Most episodes show the Tribunal attempting to covertly thwart the band by calling in various "specialists", such as "military pharmaceutical psychotropic drug manufacturers", "celebrity depression experts", or various compromised characters who attempt to infiltrate the group. Brendon Small's show Home Movies ended its run in 2004, which freed Small to spend time with writer friend Tommy Blacha, they went to metal shows around the same time they were both trying to pitch shows to different networks. This was how they came up with the idea of doing a show about a metal band, vastly more popular than The Beatles had been, they came up with the storyline, wrote a theme song and had friend Jon Schnepp design the characters. The series was called Deathclock, but the name could not be used due to an existing trademark; the show and the main characters' band were renamed Dethklok. The show's title was extended to Dethklok Metalocalypse, although the starring band still retained the name Dethklok; the title was shortened to Metalocalypse because the extended show title was too complicated.
They pitched the show to Adult Swim. The show's first season consists of 20 11-minute episodes, the first of which premiered on the Adult Swim Video on August 4, 2006 and on Adult Swim proper the following Sunday. Metalocalypse was renewed for a second season consisting of 20 episodes which began airing September 23, 2007, two days before the CD release of The Dethalbum. An updated version of the Deththeme was featured in the second season as well; the Metalocalypse premiere was the #1 rated show in its time slot among males aged 18–34, earned the network's best premiere delivery and ratings in 2006. Among the top ad-supported basic cable programs of the week, Metalocalypse ranked #12 among men 18–34 and #6 among men 18–24; the series premiere ranked #30 for the week among adults 18–34. At San Diego Comic Con 2008, Tommy Blacha confirmed that the show would be renewed for a third season which premiered on November 8, 2009; the episodes of season three are 21 minutes long. The fourth season returned to the original 11 minute run-time.
Season four premiered April 29, 2012, consisted of 12 episodes. Actor Mark Hamill stated in 2013 that the f
