Apropos of nothing, The Simpsons is overrated cat sick. FIGHT ME. But I digress because Ned Flanders is cool. He redeems the show with his presence. He is the bomb. The bollocks.

Don’t believe me? Note that he is the only character in the show that’s shown any growth or depth since the Clinton years. Yep, he’s a twee, annoying bible basher, but he’s also got pathos, courage and proper Metal credentials. I kid you not. He’s left-handed. He’s the devil. He’s a flesh-eating zombie. He’s ripped like Manowar. He’s the leader of a terrifying dystopia. He’s voiced by Harry Shearer, aka Derek Smalls (Spinal Tap). He has a proper German Thrash ‘Tache (™). What more could you ask for?

Naturally, then, he is also the only Simpsons stalwart who has his own Metal band. Okilly Dokilly first donned the green jumpers, pink shirts and stick-on soup strainers with their debut Howdilly Doodilly. Somewhat inevitably, they come from Phoenix, Arizona. Almost as inevitably, there’s a second album, the aptly named Howdilly Twodilly (both self-released).

The twist, of course, is that it’s not crap. Like the band’s first album, this is a decent mix of whimsy, Ned worship, heaviness and a sound grasp of making Metal that’s quirky enough to stand out, and accessible enough to guarantee a broader audience. Leaving aside the El Nedarooni schtick, it doesn’t sound out of place in any middle-brow Metal collection.

Howdilly Twodilly, of course, starts strong with ‘Reneducation’, which comes with its own (funny) promo vid, a galloping pace, and a truly vicious chorus. The rest of the album carries on this formula, somewhere between Acid Bath’s minor-key melancholy and full-on shrieking, Primus’ lunacy, Tool’s wry Progressive flourishes, and the sort of Speed Metal that makes you want to jump about a bit and punch someone. Underpinning it is founder Head Ned‘s clean/demonic vocals and a new line up, via some rather unearthly keyboards. It sounds crazy, but it works.

Sadly, it never bodes well when the best song is the first track. True, songs like ‘Murder House’ and ‘Claw My Eyes Out’ are funny and heavy at the same time, with strong hooks and stronger beats underpinning them. But the formula of verse-chorus-bridge-reprise carries on with little variation, give or take annoyingly quirky tracks like ‘I Can’t, It’s A Geo’.

There is a late rally of sorts with the groovy and compelling ‘Murdiddlyurdeler’ and ‘Wrong God’ before the album ends with a surprisingly creepy lurch into bluegrass via ‘Fokilly Dokilly’. But the album never quite delivers the promise of its first song, even though it comes close at times. Still, if the record does achieve anything, it’s to further cement Okilly Dokilly’s credentials as a curiously serious band, albeit one with a raw, sweating lust for the Nedster himself. The songs succeed in another way, giving us a harsh reminder of how, well… ‘sinister’, this clean-cut nerk really is. I told you he was Metal.

7 / 10

ALEXANDER HAY