Valient Thorr's Wednesday night (3/18) performance at Emo's Annex was one big blur of hair, denim, sweat and metal--which, in the wrong hands, could have been a disaster.

The quintet of long-haired, long-bearded, tight-jeans-and-denim-vest-wearing rockers look out of place in 2009, particularly frontman Valient Himself (all of the band members go by aliases). Shirtless, drenched in sweat, clad in black jeans; electric-blue, calf-high boxer's boots; and a white-leather belt with a stainless-steel, grim-reaper belt buckle (the pointed hood of which jutted up into a hairy, sweaty, flabby belly that drooped over the waist of his pants), he could easily be mistaken on the street for a hard-drinking lumberjack.

But while the group's hirsute appearance and old-school metal delivery--complete with lots and lots (and lots) of head-banging--might be its most noticeable attributes, they aren't its most noteworthy; that distinction goes to the perfect mix of tongue-in-cheek self-aggrandizement and honest-to-goodness metal chops.

Valient Himself has a charisma that belies his crusty appearance. Between songs, he kept the crowd jacked up with anti-establishment screeds and let's-all-party invocations. Several times, he struck a body-builder's pose, showing off skinny, flabby arms that appeared to be almost devoid of muscle tissue--which was exactly why he was doing it: for the laugh.

And that is Mr. Himself's strength: he knows there is fun to be poked at his group's throwback, Motorhead-meets-ZZ Top appearance and metal-god posturing, so he leverages it to his advantage. It's a ploy that would make the group little more than a novelty--if not for the fact that they really do rock. Definitely worth checking out live if they come to your town.