Hewhocorrupts

Even in their Black Album-era commercial prime, Metallica's members resembled tractor-pull enthusiasts, an aesthetic choice that allowed them to keep regular rocker-dude credibility as they made millions. Hewhocorrupts, which skewered Metallica with its Master of Profits album (tracks include "Ride the Limo" and "Sell 'Em All"), parodies the music industry's most money-hungry artists by wearing business-formal attire on stage and thus erases the illusory distinction between scuzzy musicians and savvy mercenaries. The band poses its record label as a corporation (Hewhocorrupts, Inc.), supplementing its sets with financial-jargon-filled stage banter and its CDs with similarly faux-austere video interviews replete with stock tickers. The contrast between the group's practiced professionalism and its unhinged grindcore-punk noisebombs — none of which last more than two minutes — makes for an ingeniously incongruous concert experience.