Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Löded Diper - Löded Diper (2019)

So... A Loded Diper album exists. If you're familiar with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and films, you know what Loded Diper is. If you're not, let me fill you in without spoiling too much. Loded Diper is a heavy metal band in which the main character Greg Heffley's brother Rodrick plays drums. All members of the band are in high school, except the lead vocalist Bill Walter who is in his 30s and still living with his grandma. The books involving Rodrick and his band, like Rodrick Rules and Diper Overlode, are a couple of my favorite Wimpy Kid books because of how much I like metal band-themed kinds of stories. Of course, I don't tolerate Rodrick's bullying behavior towards Greg.

I got my hopes a little too high when I discovered this album. The thing is, it's not an official Loded Diper album, more like a fan-made compilation. It starts with the two official songs from the live-action Wimpy Kid movies, and then the rest is just fan-made tracks, whether attempts at actual songs or just dialogue-sampled rock/metal instrumentals, similarly to Spongecore where they make metalcore/deathcore songs over Spongebob Squarepants dialogue.

The two official songs are actually quite fun, starting with "Exploded Diper" from the Rodrick Rules movie. This mid-tempo heavy metal/hard rock tune is both comedic and anthemic, and worth headbanging to. The chorus almost reminds me of the pre-chorus of Metallica's "Master of Puppets". The other official song is from the Dog Days film, and is a fun yet goofy-a** cover of Justin Bieber's biggest (s)hit "Baby". It starts off similarly to the original then gets cranked up into punky hard rock. Rodrick performs the song in an attempt to impress Heather Hills (older sister of Greg's crush Holly) at her birthday party, but it ends up going spectacularly wrong.

Then the fan-made tracks begin, starting with "Diper Overlode". It's just a sh*tty slacker rock attempt to make a song out of the official lyrics written in the Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book. I'm pretty sure I can make something a lot better and more metallic using those lyrics. The dialogue-sampled instrumentals cover the rest, and they're all only either OK or poor quality. The only one I really enjoy is "Rodrick Rules", with its kick-A thrashy metalcore instrumentation.

Now I've seen the new animated Wimpy Kid films on Disney+, and the new Rodrick Rules film has an official song called "Can You Smell Us Now?" The song also appears in the Diper Overlode book. Some may be turned off by the odd vocals by Bill Walter (at least compared to Bill in the live-action film) and the ridiculous lyrics (what the h*ll is a "chocolate cow"?!), but it's truly a hard rock/glam/heavy metal tune to get even the most serious metalhead grooving. And while it doesn't appear in the Loded Diper album because it was released a few years before the release of the song and the film it appears in, I wish it was there.

If I were to show you how to make a Loded Diper playlist, take the first 4 songs and replace "Diper Overlode" with "Can You Smell Us Now?". Everything else, throw it into the fire. Now I'm hoping for an album consisting of songs by Enslave the Mollusk, Nate Wright (from Big Nate)'s rock band, whether official or fan-made....

Favorites (only ones I like in the official album): "Exploded Diper", "Baby", "Rodrick Rules"