Everywhere we turned this year, we heard Cave In’s influence. The Rush-ing, celestial prog-metal reveries of their 2001 opus Jupiter came bouncing back in discs by the Mars Volta and Coheed and Cambria. Legions of major-label screamo boys from Thrice to Poison the Well imitated the shrapnel-spewing, stutter-step firestorms of their 1999 post-metal masterpiece Until Your Heart Stops. This was the first and maybe the last year that "Crossbearer" — the highlight of their singles-comp/debut album, Beyond Hypothermia (all Hydrahead) — could have been a hit. But all year long, Cave In found themselves strangers in a familiar land: their RCA debut, Antenna, withered on the vine despite harboring two or three of the best songs they’ve written, from the unholy, Zepplinesque "Inspire" to the bitterly anthemic, U2-worthy closer, "Woodwork." Returning from a year’s touring behind the disc, they team up with their wise-acre indie-pop pals Piebald for their third-annual Christmas bash at Old Town Hall (978-623-8241) in Andover, this year expanded into a two-night stand on Saturday and Sunday.

New Bedford thrash revivalists Beyond the Embrace may have made the most overlooked metal album in New England last year: their Metal Blade debut, Against the Elements, didn’t enjoy the MTV push that Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage got this year, but the band’s Metallicized onslaught is on the same level. Beyond the Embrace are back in the studio recording the follow-up — tentatively titled Insect Song — with producer Ken Susi, whose band Unearth joined Shadows and Killswitch on the recent Headbangers Ball tour and have just signed to Metal Blade. So expect BTE to have some new tunage in store when they play the New Wave Café (508-984-0080) in New Bedford on Friday and All About Records (www.allaboutrecords.com) in Taunton on Saturday.

Prosthetic Records is best known to underground-metal fans as the home of yet another act on the Headbangers Ball tour, Lamb of God, who jumped to Epic this year after the Prosthetic release of their As the Palaces Burn. The rest of the best of the label’s roster — All That Remains, Byzantine, and the excellent Boston-based outfit Cannae — join forces with Boston hardcore heroes Diecast and Bane of Existence for a "Black Christmas" at the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Saturday to benefit the Mass Veterans’ Shelter.

For a break from the fast and the furious: softcore disciples the Autumn Rhythm are moving from Boston back to Jersey, but they’ll provide a little pre-Christmas tranquility from their recent Secret Songs (Midriff Records) alongside Portland’s Seekonk, who after losing singer Shana Barry are still trying to find a woman who can pull off the lush pop of their new For Barbara Lee (Kimchee). Both bands play Zeitgeist Gallery (617-876-6060) in Cambridge tonight (December 18) and the Space Gallery (207-828-5600) in Portland on Saturday.