We've said it before, and we'll say it again: The heavy-metal genre may be churning out the most innovative music these days. Witness Los Angeles band Spades & Blades, whose music centers on the metal sound with machinegun-fast grinds and face-melting guitar solos. But they hold the vocals to this side of the death-metal growling, instead injecting them with hardcore articulation. As a bonus, they forgo the flat-ironed hair and skinny jeans so common to these metal hybrids in favor of grizzled mugs and menacing scowls. It's a rock thing, not a fashion show.
Fri., March 18, 9 p.m., 2011
