Deathmaster

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I like Tenacious D's new song "Rize of the Fenix," with its funny, stream-of-consciousness tangent about fans who had their D tattoos removed after The Pick of Destiny and will have to get new ones now that they've heard the song. But that's out and out comedy; I miss the way Spinal Tap made fun of metal so subtly that some people thought they were a serious band. (Oh, how the little people of Stonehenge must have been devastated to find out it was a joke.) Deathmaster pulls off the same tongue-in-cheel trick. They're four South Bay guys who claim to be from "the depths of hell" and influenced by the Partridge Family; really they've been playing since the '80s in bands like War Cry, Antarus and Mad Anthony. Unsurprisingly, their throwback metal sound is perfectly authentic, and songs like "Facekicker," "Bark Like a Dog" and "Human Sacrifice" are just ridiculously over-the-top enough to be hilarious without spoiling the deadpan delivery. They play this Battle of the Bands semi-final against Pounders and Scarlet Spoke before doing a show solo on Saturday at the Quarter Note in Sunnyvale. - Steve Palopoli sanjose.com

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408.337.1799