The culture of heavy metal is one I may never fully understand. Metalheads are tough guys, but also nerds; they worship Satan, but also desperately long to ride a dragon. Heavy metal has been dissected and scattered into a million subgenres. My brother gives me a dirty look if I mix up black metal, death metal and doom metal.

This is why it’s strange I was picked to write about the Best Metal Band, as voted by the people of Tacoma in the Weekly Volcano’s 2010 Best of Tacoma Readers’ Poll. But Mahnhammer’s victory is less a statement about their metal prowess (though they certainly have that) than it is a statement about Tacoma’s good will toward the band and their history.

Mahnhammer was born out of the Dirty Knockers, the band led by the late, much-beloved Brian Redman.

“Me and Dave Takata were in the Dirty Knockers with Brian,” says Chris Roxx, drummer. “After he passed away in November, we took some time off, and decided that we still wanted to keep playing together. So we started jamming and working out some riffs and gathered friends and other musicians.”

Some of the other people in the band include members of the also fuckin’ rockin’ Gold Teeth. But despite all of this pedigree, Mahnhammer is still a very young band, having only really formed about six months ago. At the time of this writing, there is no Mahnhammer music to be found online.

“It’s the first band that I’ve been in that I couldn’t really describe very well,” says Roxx. “The Dirty Knockers were definitely more of Brian (Redman)’s expression of dirty lyrics and love of Satan, in a comical way, and more straight-forward, fast, kind of punk rock. Meanwhile, Mahnhammer is a little more meticulous, I think, or more mathematical a little bit … It’s definitely heavy, and it’s definitely loud.

“What I’ve always tried to do in any of my bands is always be part of something I wouldn’t walk away from,” Roxx continues. “So, (if I were an audience member) I would want to get my beer beforehand and I’m not going to leave until they’re done.”

Roxx says that Mahnhammer has plans to start recording their material sometime in September.

“It’s fun to melt faces in person, but if you can melt the faces at home, that’s even better,” says Roxx. “That’s actually how we write our songs: we bring in a test panel, and if their faces are still on when they leave, then we need to rewrite it.”

Until that time, it’ll be up to us to catch them at one of their intermittent shows, of which they’ve played only five so far. Personally, I don’t mind my face being melted off every now and again. It draws attention away from how awkward I look when I throw up the devil horns.

Eh, that’s metal for you.