Des Moines’ Vaudeville Mews will host an all-ages metal show featuring Traffic Death, Malas and the Lurking Corpses on Thursday. Tickets are $6 and doors open at 5 p.m.

Des Moines’ own metal group, Traffic Death, is one of the opening bands for Thursday night’s metal show. They are also filming a live music video during the show that will feature the early crowd.

Vocalist Nate Phillips, bassist Andrew Smeltzer, drummer Brian Greenfield and guitarist Garan Drozd make up the newly hatched two-year-old band. Though Traffic Death is a fairly new project, its members have been in several other bands over the years. The violent-thrash, high-speed metal band released a self-titled LP last year that is only available for digital download.

“No one does CDs anymore,” said Smeltzer. “Our LP is available online and we probably won’t make any actual CDs.”

Avoiding band pictures and physical CD copies, this band is very unique and strives to be different than the average band. The band’s name is even a creative idea, Traffic Death, which is a reference to the freeway signs displaying yearly numbers of traffic deaths, as well as the band’s annoyance with ignorant drivers.

The Chicago based metal band known as Malas will play its first Iowa show Thursday night. Members of the group include Erik Pertl on bass guitar and lead vocals, Alex McIntire on lead guitar and Jim Kerley on drums.

The group kicks off its first Midwest tour with the Thursday night show. After touring the Midwest, Malas plans on taking to the studio to record their third record, a six-song project that should be released by early next year. Though they have added a few new songs to the Vaudeville Mews setlist, Malas plans to rock the house with older material for their first Des Moines appearance.

The name Malas, McIntire’s idea, is a Latin based word for “bad time” or just “having overcast around you.” The simple five-letter band name was decided upon because of its uniqueness.

McIntire also records and produces all recordings and releases of Malas. Pertl, an artist of many trades, also designed most of the band’s merchandise and album artwork along with the band’s friend Rueben Gonzalas from Barcelona, Spain.

“We’re a metal power trio,” said McIntire when asked to describe the band. “It’s like a boys’ club with some fierce [music].”

The group of self-proclaimed brothers with full-time jobs and families use the band as a creative outlet and collaboration project. Putting family and personal lives first, Malas goes through a lot of planning for shows. The group gets together once or twice a week at McIntire’s home in Chicago to practice and record.