Metal bands unite at Bank Street Cafe

There are some things you just can't turn away from - and one of them would be the music video for the hit Ronnie James Dio song "Rainbow in the Dark." The video, shot in 1983, when the late great singer was still only 89 years old, is a reminder that Metal People rarely evolve and are perfectly happy in that context.

Oh, there are occasional innovations - as with the occasional drop-D tuning or Drano-Voice howls - but some would suggest metal is really, REALLY going through a period of stagnation. (Ask Opeth - or just listen to their last album.)

Perhaps the great hope for metal lies with the Young People. Look to the future, then, Saturday at New London's Bank Street Café when four of eastern Connecticut's most promising new metal/hard rock acts gather for an evening of Volume and Energy. On the bill are Forsake the Sun and A Life Without, both from Norwich; Seymour's Kali Ma; and, from several villages in the Quiet Corner, Nothing Left to Give.

- RICK KOSTER

Nothing Left to Give, Forsake the Sun, Kali Ma and A Life Without, 10 p.m. Saturday, Bank Street Café, 639 Bank St., New London; $5 gets free drink (21 and over); (860) 444-1444.