The time is nigh. Metal monstrosity, Dethklok, has opened its hallowed iron gates to us and allowed us a peek at their inner sanctum. Here, he are treated to blood soup, raw lamb’s bladder and a desert of chocolate chip cookies that are crispy on the outside, but soft inside, with gooey bittersweet chips that accept the flavor just so. Then, singer Nathan Explosion, guitarist Swisgaar Skwigelf and drummer Pickles seat themselves carefully on a black leather couch with eight-inch spikes protruding from the arms and between the cushions. The zillionaire musicians are flanked on either side by beefy security guards armed with Uzis and broadswords should something go awry, and as we place our recorder on a table scattered with rattlesnakes, we’re starting to feel uneasy.
Many who have gotten this close to the world’s most dangerous and popular band have not survived long enough to brag about the experience, and the way Explosion and Pickles are eying us, suggests they’re deciding whether or not to feed us to the zombies in their videogame room when we’re done. But we’ve gotten this far and we must persevere.
While the discussion becomes unsettlingly tense at time, as the interview progresses we’re feeling a kinship with these guys and hope that at the end of our allotted 30 minutes (they have an important meeting with Apple Chief executive Steve Jobs after us), we’ll be allowed to exit to our taxi and shuttle back to the airport to return home.
In the end, we’re not sure why they decide to let us to leave unharmed (maybe they need some good press after all the recent bloodshed), but the lamb’s bladder has given us a nasty case of acid reflux and the soup’s blood caused an ugly rash. The cookies were damn good, though.
In any case, after leaving the Dethklok compound we write up our story for Revolver, which runs as a Q&A in their November 2007 issue. Now with the permission of the magazine (good thing we kept those photos of their editor in an, ummm, uncompromising position), we’re able to bring a full audio podcast to you.
In the following podcast interview with Dethklok, Explosion, Skwigelf and Pickles discuss why so many people around them die, why they sued each other, how bassist Murderface doesn’t play his instrument in the studio and what’s so exciting about helium balloons. So, while the band’s heralded reality show “Metalocalypse” is on hiatus, enjoy this rare conversation with the supreme masters of metal. And, prepare to meet your maker.
Click here for a direct MP3 download of the Headbangers Ball Blog Podcast interview with Dethklok.
Thanks: www.MTVNEWS.com