‘D’ is for demonic?

• Album Title: Tenacious D
• Artist: Tenacious D
• Epic Records

As seen on MTV, Tenacious D are like most comedy/rock duos – except they’re overweight and dumpy and they both play acoustic guitars. They sing songs about demons, "big-ass steeds," and karate. In between numbers, they perform comic bits that will remind some of Cheech and Chong records from the ‘70s (except the emphasis here is on rock stardom rather than on drugs).

Vocalist Jack Black is, of course, the volcanic actor who stole the show from John Cusack in High Fidelity. He also played the good (if shallow) guy in Shallow Hal. Here, he plays the manic half of Tenacious D to Kyle Gass’s mellower, more musical side. (Cheech to the other guy’s Chong, if you will.)

If you like Black’s on-screen persona, you’ll enjoy his bits as the crazed singer who stumbles upon "inward singing" ("Think of it, man… most rockers are only rocking you half the time. With inward singing, I can rock all night long.") You’ll grin at the mock-metal shenanigans of Wonderboy and Nastyman "way up high in the Mucky Muck" (from Wonderboy). You’ll ask yourself, at some point, if this is all some big joke, and by the end of the CD, you’ll have to conclude that, yes, it is.

But as joke bands go, Tenacious D have a few aces up their sleeves. Gass is a skilled musician and arranger who can whip off Bach fugues in the middle of rock numbers. Songs like Tribute successfully work in bits of Led Zeppelin, a cappella breaks and humor. Wonderboy is as funny and as ultimately meaningless as its video. And Black is a fairly convincing rock vocalist whose heroes are obviously the high-yelping heavy metal singers of yore. The duo seem to truly enjoy heavy metal, though they also enjoy lampooning it (even the CD design recalls old metal bands whose album covers featured pentagrams, demons, dragons and gothic lettering). In one song, they advise former Black Sabbath yowler Ronnie James Dio to retire his scepter and cape already. ("You’re too old/No more rocking for you…") Are these guys really into Satan? Who knows. They’re probably too bumbling to work out a proper soul transaction anyway.

There’s a bit too much filler on this self-titled debut, a few too many punk-metal bursts that fail to raise a smile (Explosivo, Lee and Karate for starters). And rock comedy acts tend to blow their wad on their first outing, so it remains to be seen if Tenacious D are a joke with any kind of lifespan. But any band that can end their act with an epic song about world domination ("We’ll rule as Two Kings!" from City Hall) deserves at least laughter, if not applause. And these days, something that can make you laugh is like manna in this far-too-serious world in which we live.