The Amonklok Conquest

Thursday, May 21st, 2026 at the PH Live at Planet Hollywood
Featuring Castle Rat, Amon Amarth, and Dethklok

l’ve seen metal shows at casinos (obviously), an arcade (anyone else been to Jillian’s?), even at a university as we’ll discuss later, but the theater at Planet Hollywood is in a shopping mall no matter how much you dress it up – and I love it for that.

Castle Rat

Formed in Brooklyn, New York in 2019 Castle Rat’s medieval fantasy themed doom metal became the talk of Bandcamp with the release of their debut full-length record. Their costumes and stage show are immaculate, dripping with Frank Frazetta aesthetics, their live show theatrics are the epitome of pulp fantasy in the modern era set to its own soundtrack. Frontwoman Riley Pinkerton narrates a tale in between songs set in their fictional world of the band’s fight with the villain of the piece; The Rat Reaperess complete with fight choreography.

I will say that because the rat faced woman reminds me of The Death of Rats also known as The Grim SQUEAKer from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, I’m kind of on the villain’s side on this one. 

Check out their full-length records ‘Into the Realm’ and ‘The Bestiary’ on their Bandcamp. 

Amon Amarth

Formed in 1992 in Sweden, Amon Amarth take their name for the Sindarin word for Mount Doom. Yes, they and many of the underground Scandinavian metal scenes of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s (Gorgoroth, Isengard and cue vomiting sounds Burzum) were Tolkien nerds long after it was cool, and well before it became cool again. At least as far as popular culture is concerned. Personally taking your name from Tolkien’s legendarium has always been a good move in my book. Pun intended.

I’ve seen and covered Amon Amarth fairly recently on the Pantera tour stop at T-Mobile Area and perhaps due to the better angle of where was viewing the stage the production was even more impressive than it had been last summer. The large Pillars of the Kings worthy statues made their return, but I do not remember vocalist Johan Hegg reenacting Thor Odinson’s battle with the world serpent Jörmungandr, so that was fun.

The personal highlight however was the performance of one of my favorite Amon Amarth tracks “Hermod’s Ride to Hel – Lokes Treachery Part 1” from my personal favorite Amon Amarth albums, ‘With Oden on Our Side’ – the on-screen actress portraying Hel with her half-dead makeup and mouthing the Lyrics in synch with Hegg was an excellent touch.

Amon Amarth’s standalone single “We Rule The Waves” remains their latest release and before that their full-length ‘The Great Heathen Army’ on Metal Blade. There is still likely going to be a new record in late 2026. 

Dethklok

I don’t know when or how I learned of Metalocalypse airing, but the Adult Swim vehicle created by Brenden Small and Tommy Blancha premiered August 4*, 2006. I was fifteen years old and primed for some comedy in my metal. Bands like Crotchduster or Zimmer’s Hole had special places in my heart at that age though, I would hear Dethklok before those other favorites. My now wife Courtney tells me the story every so often of me introducing the show to her and she distinctly remembers specific parts of the first few episodes we watched together that got me laughing the hardest, such as when pointing out a very dead background character twitching after being impaled.

It was a fun pasttime to try and guess who the guest stars were voicing. Some early examples that come to mind were Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield of Metallica as well as Michael Amott and Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy. Many celebrities also lent their voice talents, most importantly Mark Hamill and Malcom McDowell making frequent appearances as the show’s shadowy villains.

The following year many of the songs written by creator Brendon Small (a Berklee College of Music graduate) for the show were reworked into full songs and released as ‘The Dethalbum’ featuring the legendary Gene Hoglan on drums. Shortly after that, Small and Hoglan would be joined by guitarist Mike Keneally and bassist Bryan Beller on a tour of a dozen college campuses with …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Our Dead in October and November.

Little ole me was at the barricade to see the second date at UNLV on Halloween. The idea was relatively simple but brilliant, rather than spotlight the musicians on stage, create entirely new animation and voice overs to play on the backdrop to have the illusion that you were experiencing an episode of Metalocalypse being performed live during one of the fictional band’s performances.

Now around the time I was finishing high school / was watching next to no television so it would be a while before I saw much of the later seasons of Metalocalypse. So, while I remember from early in the show the band eating at Dimmu Burger, two decades later I was left wondering if in a later episode they went to eat at another burger joint Burzum’s and if this is Brendan Small poking fun at Varg Vikernes’ hilarious and dorky edgelord hatred for cheeseburgers. Man, I hope so. Fuck that guy. 

Another part of the animated portion of the show wanted to discuss here is the inclusion of the Batmetal animation. In 2014 ArhyBES, a Russian duo of animators posted the viral Batman parody set to the song “Face Fisted”, the eventual trilogy of parody videos gained so much popularity that it’s not hard to imagine that there are people who have watched them countless times without knowing about either Metalocalypse or Dethklok. My only wish would be that Brendan Small channeling Nathan Explosion had leaned into the litigious nature of the members of Dethklok and their manager more. At the end of the day the fact that this bit of history being included at all was a really cool moment.

I’ve understood but haven’t been one hundred percent behind the idea of the real life line up of Dethklok being in silhouette for the entire set. It helps when Brendan uses the voices of the characters he plays such as Nathan, Skwisgaar, Pickles or the band’s manager Charles but the teenage aspiring guitar player in me still wants to see Brenden Small perform his music and not his fictional characters – the thing is that Brendan Small is the comedic entertainer and I’m the writer with jokes that are the dribbling shits.

Massive props to Nile Brosh who stood in for the fictional Toki Wartooth, long time Vegas resident who has in addition to performing or recording with the likes of Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Danny Elfman, and The Iron Maidens she was also for a time The Muse in the Michael Jackson ONE show. 

‘The Dethalbum DKXX: Dethmastered (Remixed & Remastered)’ can be found digitally or streamed now!

PHOTO CREDIT: Live photos by Courtney Ware for ZRockR Magazine – @2026 – All Rights Reserved.