The D have a long history with Foo Fighter Dave Grohl. To be honest, most of the album is Classic D, albeit shorter and less rocking. “Hope” is arguably the best of the ballads, and most rousing. The D explore new musical horizons with “JB JR Rap”, rapped in a hoarse voice and complete with an autotuned section. The redneck Nazi’s sound so thick that you really want to believe that they’re all really that dense. You really feel for Terminator’s lament in “Robot” (despite the odd Arnie-esque accent).
It’s not all bad though. Black’s voice acting shines through. The title theme offers plenty of potential for extension, but feels incomplete as is.Īnd they’ve done their fair share of ballads in the past too, but almost all of the songs on this album are ballads, leaving me wondering what happened to the band that once won a Grammy for “Best Metal Performance”. They could have at least fleshed out a few of the songs so that the album lasted longer. But still, this entire album lasts half an hour, and that’s with skits padding it out. And The D have plenty of short, furious songs with impact. It makes sense, they fit within short episodes. I guess the timing is appropriate, with approaching elections in America, but only time will tell how fast these political and pop culture references will date the album. It’s a political show too, with The D taking shots at Trump and Nazis. But then again, it’s exactly what I should have expected – it was just visual this time. Tenacious D have always been crass, but I was shocked at the many gratuitous sex scenes.
Along the way they adopt a three-headed dog, battle genital monsters, fight Nazis and travel to space.
It’s a sci-fi series that explored Tenacious D trying to survive in a (you guessed it) apocalyptic wasteland. I hesitate to call it an animation, but more a selection of Black’s hand-drawn stills to give visual reference for the audio. Like I’ve said, I’m a fan, so forced myself through it, but didn’t feel rewarded for my efforts. Post-Apocalypto (the web series) was a painful watch. I think they would have been wiser to have an all-or-nothing approach, and should have left the snippets out, instead of sprinkling an inadequate amount throughout. This should help to provide context for those who haven’t watched the series, but there isn’t enough to fill in all the plot points of the story-line. But the skits on this new album are just snippets from the web series used to advance the story. The narrative for this record doesn’t quite work though. I still enjoy the skits from their first record, which were silly stand-alone pieces. It follows a YouTube webseries that has played out over the past month, featuring the songs and snippets of dialogue from the show.īoth Black and partner Kyle Gass are comedic actors, so writing funny songs with narrative suit their strengths. I’ve seen them play three times, and although it can feel slightly forced, the story arc that carries through their shows is fun, and allows them to play with theatrical flair. Like The Pick of Destiny, it is a soundtrack.
Post- Apocalypto is their fourth full length album. He’s a slightly more reliable Adam Sandler, but I still have a soft spot for his work. I guess the same could be said about Jack Black, who has had gold moments throughout his acting career (namely School of Rock), but mostly boasts lemons.
They’re misogynistic, juvenile and crude, but at the same time I do find some of their content funny, and they know how to rock. Tenacious D have long been a guilty pleasure of mine.