Many of the world’s top heavy-metal bands are from foreign countries, so Boise doesn’t always get the elite shows. But this will be twice in less than one year that Swedish headbanging royalty In Flames has visited us. The group — which performed at last summer’s Rockstar Mayhem Festival in Nampa — helped pioneer a genre known as melodeath, aka melodic death metal. (Imagine a totally brutal version of Iron Maiden.) With more than2 million albums sold worldwide, In Flames truly is a unique headbanging phenomenon.

Michael Deeds