Cartoon band shows real metal

Fortunately, these intercontinental monsters of metal are fictitious and all of the mayhem they create happens strictly on the Cartoon Network show “Metalocalypse’’ during the Adult Swim portion of the evening.

But fans of the comic series, documenting the global power and utter idiocy of the world’s greatest metal band and cultural force, will get to see Dethklok live in concert this week when the band “plays’’ the House of Blues on Tuesday and Wednesday alongside flesh-and-blood metal maestros Mastodon, Converge, and High on Fire. Sort of.

“We don’t consider ourselves Dethklok,’’ says “Metalocalypse’’ co-creator Brendon Small of the quartet - including himself on lead guitar - that blazes away onstage as cartoon images unspool onscreen overhead. “We’re like a pit band basically. But we get to have our cake and eat it too, where we’re not really the spotlight of the show but we get to play loud music and loud guitars.’’

Small - who voices Explosion, Skwigelf, and Pickles on the show, and writes, plays, and sings Dethklok’s music - understands that threatening people is probably not the best way to sell tickets, though, so he promises no face-melting antics. “It’s very much like what Judas Priest said,’’ he says on the phone from a St. Louis tour stop. “If I were to say anything on the backwards masking, it would be, ‘Buy more records.’ ’’

Record sales have not been a problem. The band’s sophomore release, “Dethklok: The Dethalbum II,’’ entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 15 last month. The first Dethklok album has sold more than 300,000 copies. Not too shabby for a group that exists in two dimensions and sings songs with titles like “Hatredy’’ and “Bloodrocuted.’’

“I never subscribed to the fact that they’re a ‘fake’ band,’’ says Mastodon drummer-songwriter Brann Dailor. “Their songs are good, the music is awesome, and the people who are performing that music are extremely talented and deliver the goods onstage.’’

Though humor is at the core, more than a few of Dethklok’s songs could pass for the real metal McCoy. That’s no accident. Small, who created the series with partner Tommy Blacha, is a Berklee grad whose original ambition was to be a musician.

“I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years, and I practiced really hard and I know all my theory, but right when I started getting good at guitar was right when it became very uncool to play your guitar,’’ he says of the ’90s punk and grunge explosion. So he started doing stand-up. That led to Small’s first animated show, “Home Movies’’ on UPN and, later, Cartoon Network, which opened the door for “Metalocalypse,’’ which kicks off its third season Nov. 8.

Small recruited top-notch players to re-create his symphonies of thrash, including guitarist Mike Keneally. Even though the music he makes for Dethklok might not be exactly what he would do as a solo artist, Small is proud of it.

And Keneally thinks he should be. While the revered axeman allows that songs like “Sewn Back Together Wrong’’ are funny, he’ll truck no talk of them being jokes. “This stuff is brutal, and it required a realignment of what I do as a guitar player to really dive in,’’ he says. “This stuff is no less demanding then what I did with [Frank] Zappa or [Steve] Vai.’’

“Dethalbum II’’ is less jokey than its predecessor. “It’s darker than the first one,’’ Small says, “but ultimately the song titles are ridiculous.’’ Exhibit A: “I Tamper With the Evidence of the Murder Site of Odin.’’ But honestly, that could be a real metal song. And that, he concludes, “is why metal is awesome.’’

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.