PODCAST: Dethklok foe Malcolm McDowell speaks [MP3]

^{Malcolm McDowell at Rock & Shock 2009}

Starting tomorrow, metal worshipers will be descending on the House of Blues for two nights of "mind-throttling chasm-fording riff salad" (as Daniel Brockman so elegantly put it in last week's show preview) with High on Fire, Mastodon, and hometown-pride-instilling acts Converge, legendary hardcore heavies from Salem, MA, and Dethklok (the essentially fictional but wholly brutal cartoon band fronted by Berklee/Comedy Studio alum and Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small).

The fact that a group of 2-D images can go on tour is pretty incredible. But presumably not every Metalocalpyse character will be piling into the tour van (or, more likely, winged death chariot). And one of these is Vater Orlaag, the Rasputin-y figure who sits among Dethklok's enemies on the ever-scheming Council. Fret not, though -- here's a way you can spend some quality time with Vater before the show. Or rather, with Vater voice actor Malcolm McDowell, the same man who played the ultraviolent Alex in A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Sam Loomis in Rob Zombie's Halloween remake. Oh, and let's not forget that Penthouse-funded smut tsunami Caligula.

We got a chance to see McDowell doing what he does best -- telling wickedly funny, larger-than-life stories -- at this year's Rock & Shock horror convention. We mentioned it in our con wrap-up, but here's the whole thing, unabridged.

PODCAST: Malcolm McDowell, at Rock & Shock 2009 [MP3]

Highlights include tales of:
-How he got roped into taking on "the most despicable character an actor could ever be asked to play": the Russian pedophile serial killer Evilenko.

-The surprisingly hands-off directorial style of Stanley Kubrick, and the genesis of the "Singin' in the Rain" rape scene in A Clockwork Orange.

-His combative relationship with curmudgeon director Lindsay Anderson.

-His terrifying duel with notoriously reckless co-star Oliver Reed (who "died with his boots on, in a bar"). Keep an ear out for John Landis, another great raconteur, who piles on for this story. Or, if you'd rather have a visual, here's the video: