While a select few TV viewers in the UK have managed to catch some of the episodes of the 2006 cartoon series, Metalocalypse, just launched on DVD is a two-disc collection of twenty, 11-minute long programmes that have been produced. I believe that more exist and that there are more set to follow. I noted in the credits that Messrs James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, of Metallica hard rock infamy, have been involved, one presumes on both playing and voicing fronts.

However, this is really a labour of love by long-standing death metal fanatics Tommy Blacha and Brendon Small. While current screenings of Family Guy and American Dad have captured adult cartoon imaginations, this series is no less ingenious in its parody of another genre altogether. Significantly heavier and darker than Spinal Tap, the exploits of Dethklok, the rock band, are chronicled in inglorious detail, with more excessive blood-letting than a B-List slasher movie.

Naturally, the main characters, voiced not only by the aforementioned Blacha and Small but also by such luminaries as Mark Hamill (ex Star Wars-man and major league VO artist, who hates his in-vision appearances since his car crash of many years past) and Malcolm McDowell (the British star of If and A Clockwork Orange), are the members of the band, which is watched over by The Tribunal, a shady governmental-type organisation, which fears that the band will instigate a major meltdown through their death metal music.

While there are plenty of amusing moments, as an active satire of the rock and roll scene, albeit from a very extreme end of proceedings, it possesses innumerable strengths and should not be thought of in the same disposable way as any of the other cartoon series that have been mentioned earlier. Once you decipher the near-impenetrable scripts and accents and become familiar with the characters, the programmes in their delightfully short snippets reveal the ultimate parody of a potentially shocking business. I believe that this is niche material but it almost warrants broader acceptability for the biting nature of its intentions. I am keen to see more and hope that the producers realise the true value of this series.