Metal Gig Alert: Between the Buried and Me, Cynic, Devin Townsend and Scale the Summit Tonight at The Prophet Bar.

Quite the progressive metal conglomeration tonight down in Deep Ellum at the Prophet Bar.

Headlining the deal? North Carolina's Between the Buried and Me. And even though any metal band that takes its name from a Counting Crows song is deducted satanic style points, this appealing quintet has been doing its metalcore thing for almost a decade now, releasing six albums that have shown growth with each effort. Between the Buried and Me's latest, The Great Misdirect, may be the band's most fascinating record to date, blending influences as diverse as King Crimson, Pantera and Pink Floyd.

Adding quite a bit of brains to this bill is Cynic, the technical death metal outfit fronted by Paul Masvidal. Although the Miami-based band has released only two proper albums in almost fifteen years, Cynic is considered to be a trailblazing act in most death metal circles; the band's highly complex material can be both awe-inspiring and headache inducing.

Another respected metalhead on this bill is Devin Townsend. Perhaps best known for providing lead vocals for guitar wanker Steve Vai's album Sex & Religion, Townsend has actually had nearly two decades of quality music to his credit. As a member of Strapping Young Lad, Townsend wrote and recorded City, an effort that is considered one of the best metal albums of the '90s. More recently, though, Townsend has lent his voice to the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse while somehow finding time to record four new albums, two of which were released this in 2009. Oh, and he has two more coming this year. No big deal.

Lastly, opening things up tonight is Houston's Scale the Summit, an all-instrumental outfit with a couple of decent albums under its belt.

All in all, this is a hell of a metal bill featuring some bona fide legends of the genre.