Whitechapel at State Theatre

As the death metal genre continues to explode, Knoxville's Whitechapel stand bloody head and bruised shoulders above the pack. With a ruthlessly brutal aural assault built upon merciless blastbeats and spine-destroying breakdowns, their three guitarists deliver immense riffs and monstrous leads while vocalist Phil Bozeman vomits out lyrics that avoid clichés and give fans something to think about as they scream them back. Basically stated, this is as exhilarating as modern metal gets.

Formed in 2006, it did not take local metal fans long to realize that they had something very special going on in their midst. "We went from fifty of our friends coming to our shows to two hundred people coming out inside of six months," guitarist Alex Wade states. "We've always held ourselves to a certain level of professionalism, we worked our asses off, and I think we definitely offered something that a lot of bands in the scene did not."