Tweet Share Nashville’s Yautja is a world-class metal band in our own backyard. For the past decade, the trio — named for the trophy-hunting alien species from the Predator films — has captivated audiences locally and abroad with its atypical triple-threat of hardcore-punk grit and speed, death-metal growls and blast beats, and molasses-thick, Melvins-esque sludge. Where most metal bands’ sounds lie on one end of the visceral-or-cerebral spectrum, the racket conjured by bassist Kayhan Vaziri, guitarist Shibby Poole and drummer Tyler Coburn occupies the middle. A carefully crafted mixture of paint-peeling noise-rock riffs, metallic pinch harmonics, gut-rumbling low-end churn, and off-the-wall but in-the-pocket percussion, it’s simultaneously complex, forceful and clear.