As this deals with the series finale, all spoilers pertaining to the first four seasons and The Doomstar Requiem will be unmarked.
It will be brutal.
Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar is the direct-to-video Grand Finale for the [adult swim] series Metalocalypse. It was released on August 22, 2023.
Beginning after the heroic rescue of Toki Wartooth, Dethklok frontman Nathan Explosion finds himself traumatized in a BRUTAL professional and romantic flat-spin, all while he is tasked with fulfilling the prophecy and confronting the ultimate songwriting challenge to save the planet. Can Nathan Explosion look beyond his brutally damaged ego to save his band, stop the Metalocalypse, and finally face the ultimate evil: Salacia?
The movie's release was accompanied by the long-awaited release of the band's fifth album Dethalbum IV (the soundtrack for The Doomstar Requiem having been their fourth), and received its own official soundtrack a few days later. Its trailer can be viewed here
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Will you be the fist or the hand?
- Arc Words:
- "I am the Gear in the Wheel of the Klok. I fear not our mortality" doubles as a Call-Back to the very first lines in the pilot.
- To a lesser extent "Will you be the fist or the hand?"
- Arc Symbol: The aforementioned open hand.
- Apocalypse How: Ultimately the titular Metalocalypse is a Class 2 (maybe 1 if you're being generous), society is in ruins and a lot of people die, but a good chunk of humanity (or at the very least Dethklok's fans, but considering how popularity of the band it's presumably a large portion of them) survives and while what becomes of the world after Salacia's defeat is unknown, supposedly they intend to rebuild civilization from the ashes.
- Back for the Finale: Jean-Pierre, Dr. Twinkletits, Ronk Snogge and Fatty Ding-Dongs make cameo appearances as part of the titular Army of the Doomstar.
- Black Helicopter: The US Army sends an armada of them to attack Deus Keep in order to destroy the apparent Army of the Doomstar.
- Body Horror:
- Murderface's possessed arm contorts into all sorts of horrible twisted shapes, appearing to rapidly break and mend itself over and over again every time Salacia's possession becomes active.
- Senator Stampingston's ultimate fate when struck by the Doomstar's Dethlights. His arms and neck begin to swell with massive blood-filled tumours, which soon start growing on his face as well, expanding so rapidly that within seconds he's just a massive blob of flesh, until he finally explodes in a shower of viscera.
- Cassandra Truth: The opening exposition showcases that for those lacking the context of The Prophecy, Charles comes across as an insane cult leader, although in fairness even NASA starts to get concerned about the Doomstar.
- Clothing-Concealed Injury: After his Demonic Possession at the hands of Salacia, Murderface starts wearing a long-sleeved sweater to hide his glowing purple arm veins.
- Colony Drop: The Doomstar is falling closer to the Earth as time goes on. Project Falconback is revealed to be a giant superconductor meant to act as a magnet to drag the star close enough for Salacia to absorb four spirits from another plane to achieve his full power.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Vater Orlaag is hit in the spine with a shuriken, paralysing him from the waist down, and can only scream in horror as he's run over by a combine harvester. The viewer is treated to a close-up shot of the harvester's blades, showing Orlaag's corpse being brutally shredded to pieces and pumped out the harvester's funnel.
- Darker and Edgier: The film has a more serious tone than most of anything that ever came before for Metalocalypse, especially in its later half. There's still comedic moments such as Dethklok acting like a fussy family at Ishnifus's funeral, but generally the film plays the story straight and takes the threat to the world seriously with only occasional moments of banter.
- Demonic Possession: General Crozier and Murderface both continue to suffer possession from Salacia after The Doomstar Requiem. However, it is established at the start that Salacia can only possess one person at a time, leaving the other free to act normally. Later Crozier discovers that water is able to expel his spirit and end the possession completely.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Not only does Abigail turn down Nathan's wedding proposal, but she also breaks up with him after she realizes their romance was mostly just her getting caught up in the moment. This is one of the things that led to Nathan's
Creator Breakdown which resulted in him writing the nihilistic "Aortic Desecration" instead of the Song of Salvation, which nearly ends the world. However, by the end, Nathan realizes that he was wrong to pressure Abigail into marriage and accepts her rejection of him while he works on improving himself. - Emotional Regression: Toki between the intro and the funeral scene had regressed to the mindset of a bratty little kid due to the trauma of being kidnapped and tortured at the end of season 4. He also seems to be wearing earmuffs to avoid being overstimulated. He's back to normal by the time the band reaches Dais Keep.
- Faint in Shock: Nathan collapses during their reunion show when pyrotechnics trigger memories of when they were possessed by the Doomstar during Toki's rescue.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": The Church of the Black Klok is trying to hold a funeral for Ishnifus after he saved the band during Toki's rescue. Nathan is drunk on wine while also taking Xanax and coffee, breaking pots on accident, and trying to propose to Abigail. While at the same time Pickles plays the role of a mother being run ragged trying to get Murderface to turn his phone off, Toki to stop licking the pews, and getting Skwisgaar to take his brother to the bathroom.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: In addition to stopping the Doomstar from raining metal on the planet, the Song of Salvation also acts as a rallying cry for all of Dethklok's remaining fans to head to Norway and help in the final battle. First by fighting with the army, and then joining Dethklok in killing Salacia.
- Grand Finale: The movie acts as the final chapter of the Metalocalypse franchise as a whole.
- Killed Off for Real: Dick Knubbler, Senator Stampingston, Edgar Jomfru, Vater Orlaag and Salacia.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Nathan is pulled through the wringer in this movie. He is tasked to write and perform the "Song of Salvation" that will save the planet from Salacia, but neither he or his bandmates know how to do it — only that if Dethklok performs it wrong, Salacia will win and the planet will turn into an apocalyptic Hell on Earth. The trailer shows scenes of him being wracked with symptoms of intense PTSD, such as lack of sleep (Nathan talking to Offdensen completely bleary-eyed with shaking hands), involuntary flashbacks (the trailer showing sudden images of the events of The Doomstar Requiem in the beginning), and creative burnout (Nathan struggling to write song ideas, with various words scribbled out in his notebook). At one point, the trailer briefly shows Nathan lying prone on the ground with his microphone, implying he collapsed on-stage during a concert.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: It is established at the start of the story that Nathan is the only band member with a clear memory of the events of saving Toki. It's left him with PTSD that he struggles with throughout the movie.
- One-Winged Angel: Mr. Salacia achieves his final form in the climax.
- The Only Believer: Senator Stampingston is the only one of Salacia's cultists who is genuinely elated by the opening of the Doomstar portal. While his subordinates begin to flee the carnage and scream in horror, he continues to ecstatically chant "IT'S HAPPENING!" even as he mutates into a hideous bloated abomination and explodes into a mess of gore.
- Pet the Dog: After having successfully captured them and planning to execute them, Salacia allows Dethklok the courtesy of a last meal.
- Physical God: Salacia's goal is to merge with the Doomstar to achieve his full power. He succeeds and comes within a hair's breadth of total victory. But Dethklok and their fans use their own power to push him over the ocean. Salacia taunts them by saying only a god can kill a god. Right after, the Whale Prophet confirms their godhood by surfacing from the abyss and devouring Salacia.
- The Power of Friendship: In the final battle, Dethklok are empowered by their fans and those who followed them, allowing them to defeat Salacia. The final scene is Nathan thanking his fans and realizing that they were the true Army of the Doomstar.
- The Power of Rock: Naturally for Metalocalypse, the band must use their music to save the planet. One of the driving elements of the story is that Nathan must write the lyrics to the Song of Salvation, which can prevent the Doomstar from destroying the planet. He fails at first due to feeling isolated from all of his loved ones, but gets it right after a rock talk from Pickles. Notably it seems to be that only the lyrics are what make the Song of Salvation work. Pickles mentions at one point they have music ready to go, they just need Nathan to sing his piece over it, and the backing music for Aortic Desecration and the real Song of Salvation are completely different.
- Prisoner's Last Meal: Dethklok are allowed a last meal before their execution at Salacia's hands. Toki opts for a glass of Kombucha, which he has never tried before, and ends up hating it. Pickles orders a tray of cool ranch doritos and chocolate milk for Nathan, which he describes as "the best thing a death metal vocalist can eat".
- Screamer Trailer: The trailer has elements in the beginning, showing sudden, flashing scenes of what previously happened to illustrate Nathan's fractured state of mind post-Doomstar Requiem...followed by deliberate Mood Whiplash.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: As befitting its much more serious tone, the movie gives overtly comical characters like Facebones and Dr. Rockso short, singular scenes and doesn't feature them for the rest of the film after.
- Time-Compression Montage: The film has a musical montage after its opening that establishes various aspects of the plot such as Nathan being treated for PTSD, the Arc Words of "Fist or the hand" being shown through visuals, Dethklok having an army of 60,000 Klokateers, and the public media insisting Nathan doesn't have what it takes to produce good music anymore and should step down before the economy collapses. It also serves to put an undetermined amount of time between the intro set at the end of Season 4 and the actual time of the movie.
- Time Skip: At least
according to the news articles◊ apparently seven years passed between Requiem and this. Guess the Doomstar took its sweet time descending to Earth. - What Happened to the Mouse?: Pretty much any character that's not in the main cast or involved in the final battle are subject to Uncertain Doom, including characters that actually show up in the film such as Abigail or Nathan's parents.
- Where It All Began: The final battle takes place in Batsfjord, Norway; the same location where Dethklok performed the coffee jingle in the first episode.
- Wrap It Up: After the original series was cancelled in 2015 and several fan campaigns failed to get a proper finale greenlit at the time, this film provides a conclusive ending to the story of Metalocalypse a decade later. It picks up immediately where The Doomstar Requiem left off and only stops after the Metalocalypse has happened, been stopped from destroying the rest of humanity, and Salacia at his full power is Killed Off for Real by the band and their fans sending him to be eaten by the Whale Prophet.
