American Fangs

Houston's American Fangs are trying their hardest to drag rap-metal kicking and screaming into the 21th Century. The band, known for its sweat-drenched live shows, delivers gravely rhymes over beds of nu-metal riffing split up by bits of slick, pogo-worthy, third wave pop-punk. The band manages to overcome the much maligned genre's bad reputation with catchy hooks and a front man considerably less annoying than the cap-wearing buffoons who drove the once promising musical style directly into a ditch in the late 1990s.