There is little question that Canadian band 3 Inches of Blood aren't exactly reinventing the wheel with an unrepentantly retro metal sound, but the Vancouver, B.C. group has earned a ferociously loyal following of young fans and greybeard head bangers thanks to the guitar-heavy onslaught they unleash onstage.

Originally featuring co-lead singers Cam Pipes (whose unhinged screaming bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Judas Priest's legendary vocalist Rob Halford) and the more guttural and growling Jamie Hooper, 3 Inches of Blood indulge in a level of galloping riff artistry rarely heard since Iron Maiden recorded their classic Killers album in 1981.

The band expanded its fan base with such skull-crushing anthems as "The Hydra's Teeth" and "The Goatriders Horde" from their 2007 effort Fire Up the Blades, but the album would prove to be Hooper’s last with the band after his intense vocal delivery brought on throat problems that forced him to quit. The group soldiered on as a quartet with guitarist Justin Hagberg taking over Hooper's screaming style on the acclaimed follow-up effort Here Waits Thy Doom in 2009.

3 Inches of Blood returns to the Bay Area for this show at Thee Parkside to play songs from its latest opus, Long Live Heavy Metal. Featuring songs that tread familar territory echoing Painkiller-era Judas Priest, the album also branches out with the acoustic guitar and flute instrumental "Chief and the Blade" and a cover of "Daytona" by Seattle hardcore legends Zeke. The group brings its current tour featuring

One of the most ferocious punk/metal bands to emerge from the underground during the '90s, Kentucky-based metal maniacs Hookers took their cues from the slash-and-burn, high-octane style of The Dwarves while putting their unique stamp on heavy music that earned them a dedicated following. Though they got their start as a more traditional punk band, it didn't take long for singer Adam Neal (aka the Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw, a veteran of such bands as Nine Pound Hammer and Nashville P---y) and guitarist Noel Reucroft (aka Stoney Tombs) to move in more metallic, horror-film influenced direction.

They blended trashy sleaze-punk subject matter with a Sabbath/Misfits fixation on their 1998 debut Satan's Highway, but when full-blown metal with the follow-up effort Black Visions of Crimson Wisdom the next year (right down the gatefold album sleeve depicting the band on a fog-enshrouded knoll). The group put out another EP prior to dissolving early in the 2000s, but Neal and Reucroft would continue to work together on Neal's Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw solo project.

Last year, The Hookers visited the West Coast for the first time in 10 years, reminding old fans and younger followers who had never had the chance to see them before why they remain a force to be reckoned with. The group joins 3 Inches of Blood on the road to promote its latest album Horror Rises From the Tombs. LA-based metal band Huntress, fronted by operatic vocalist Jill Janus, and San Jose group Angerhead also appear.

3 Inches of Blood with Hookers and Huntress
Wednesday, Dec. 12, 8 p.m. $12-$14
The Catalyst