A record label's tour listing made a cartoon band a headliner

The persona

Dethklok is an animated death-metal band from Metalocalypse, a series that Adult Swim's own site describes as 'Adult Swim's Metalocalypse,' naming band members Nathan Explosion, Murderface, Toki, Skwisgaar and Pickles in its own copy. Unlike a persona built for one ad campaign, Dethklok's business extended into real, ticketed touring: a Metal Blade Records news post from 10 September 2012 describes a genuine, multi-city North American headline run built around the animated act, with real support bands and a real box-office structure, not a one-off stunt.

What the documents establish

Metal Blade's own announcement states that the Dethklok North American tour kicks off on October 30 in Norfolk, VA and wraps up in Atlanta, GA on December 8, listing over 30 stops and naming real support acts, Machine Head, All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder, with ticketing directed to Adult Swim's site. The post quotes The Black Dahlia Murder's vocalist thanking 'Mr. Brendan Small' by name, identifying Small, Dethklok's co-creator, as the person with authority over the tour's lineup. Adult Swim's own show page confirms the network's branding and ownership of the underlying property, corroborating that the touring act shared its identity with the television series.

Character versus company

Every operational fact here, the routing, the support acts, the ticketing link and the person with lineup authority, belongs to real companies and individuals: Metal Blade as the label issuing the announcement, Adult Swim as the network selling tickets through its site, and Brendan Small as the credited decision-maker, not animated characters making choices about their own careers. The band members' fictional biographies, developed inside the series, are a separate narrative layer from the commercial machinery documented here; nothing in Metal Blade's announcement is written as if a fictional band member decided to tour. Calling this simply 'a cartoon band went on tour' would understate that a real label, a real network and named individuals built and operated the business behind it.

What to watch

Neither document discloses box-office figures or revenue for the 2012 tour, so no such claim is made here; a reader should look for a source stating attendance or receipts directly. This entry anchors its date to the confirmed 2012 tour rather than the band's full 2007-to-2013 history, since the sources opened here document that specific run; earlier tours need their own verified sources before being folded in. Editorially, Dethklok is a useful comparison for later, fully computer-generated virtual bands this archive covers, since its performers were real musicians under animated identities.

• What were the reported attendance figures or gross receipts for the 2012 Dethklok headline tour, if any source discloses them?
• Which real musicians performed the instrumental and vocal parts behind Dethklok's animated members during this tour?
• How did Adult Swim's own promotional role differ from Metal Blade's, in terms of ticketing versus music-label functions?

The record supports a specific claim: a record label's own announcement and a network's own show page together document a real, ticketed North American tour under the Dethklok name in fall 2012, run by identifiable companies and individuals, not by the animated characters.