The lines were around the corner at the Clearwater Theater tonight, full of kids waiting to see their hardcore heroes: The Acacia Strain, The Red Chord, Dead To Fall and Between The Buried and Me. As usual, the venue was filled to the brim with the not old enough to drink crowd, however they were intoxicated with their windmill, kung-fu mosh moves. They were ready to create some serious pit action, much to the chagrin of security staff, in which they had the look of dread on their faces. Surely is the same reaction they give when hxc shows come their way.

The crowd poised themselves for this Bostonian hardcore quartet, The Red Chord who just released their CD Clients thru vocalist's Kozowyk's label Black Market Activities which is distributed through Metal Blade Records. The band just lost their guitarist Kevin Rampelberg, according to the website, Rampelberg played along side lead singer, Guy Kozowyk for almost ten years. Filling in for him was Psyopus' guitarist Chris Arp, stepping in to fulfill backup duties.  

The band did not seem to miss a beat performing in shorts and sandals since the heat in the theatre was near unbearable. The audience was in high gear, moshing, and singing with Kozowyk whenever he would put the microphone in front of them. The deep, baritone growls that Guy emanates are reminiscent of the vocal skills of Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth. His speaking voice is that of a normal tone however when he starts to snarl, his voices goes so low, it seems like he is releasing demons from his soul.  

Fans fully appreciated their thirty-minute set, however the band's set was cut much earlier than what it was supposed to. The sound guy motioned to band that they had one song left in what they thought would be longer setlist. The band faced some hard decisions trying to think quickly on what to end the set with; they decided on "Dreaming In Dog Years". The fact they left "Lay The Tarp" off pissed some of the fans off, we were pretty disappointed as well however the band will be heading out on the road, yet again in the fall with Every Time I Die on the Good Music For Bad People tour. This gives Chicago a chance to see the song performed by the road warriors. Once the band's premature shortened set was over, Kozowyk shook hands with the kids in the front for about minutes, while Dead To Fall was setting up.  

Setlist: Nihilist, Black Santa, Antman, Clients, Catalepsy, Fixation on Plastics, Blue Line Cretin, Dreaming in Dog Years

Read interview with The Red Chord's Guy Kozowyk

here for photos of TRC on Good Music For Bad People Tour

The band has been through many lineup changes and lead singer Jon Hunt is all that remains of the original lineup. Probably most bands would be ready to break up after such turmoil, but Dead To Fall has soldiered on, has garnered some rave reviews, and has toured with bands like The Haunted, Remembering Never, Most Precious Blood, and Darkest Hour. Speaking of tours, the band will be head out Nile and Hypocrisy in the winter of 2006. Going back to lineup changes, this evening's performance signaled an end to an era for DTF, Hunt announced guitarist's Matt Matera would no longer be with the band as of tonight. The crowd showed a lot a love for Matera and clapped wildly. The fans seemed to be as shocked as we were.

As if Matera's leaving wasn't enough, to further add to the excitement, DTF's tourmates bum rushed Hunt whilst in mid-performance. It was hysterical, the offenders sung along with Hunt and gave him nougies on the way out. It was pure frat action all the way.

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME  Lineup: Tommy Rogers - Vocals / Keys; Paul Waggoner - Guitar; Dan Briggs - Bass; Dusty Waring - Guitar; Blake Richardson - Drums

Upon making the trip here to Clearwater, we thought that tonight’s headliner was The Red Chord and to much of our surprise lo and behold to find that BTBAM was the main attraction. It's just too bad that we could not see the entire set, we had a long drive ahead of us folks. The east coast quintet has been heralded by many as the best-kept secret in metal and after what we witnessed tonight, we are of the firm belief that everybody cannot be wrong. Their music is moody, surreal even. Experimental and atmospheric metal is what some metal critics have called their music. The vocals of lead singer Tommy Rogers' reminds you a lot like Mastodon but Rogers' voice is way more soothing. This band has truly arrived!

The band performed a couple of songs from their upcoming release, which will be entitled, Alaska, and will hit the shelves on September 6^th, however The Silent Circus is still generating a lot of buzz for them. BTBAM is another one of those bands that you can't necessarily mosh to but you want to just watch them do their thing, and enjoy their set, in which we did immensely! Make sure to catch this band next time they come to your city and pick up a copy of Alaska, for if you haven’t seen this band yet, once you do you will want to kick yourself for not finding out about this band sooner. Between The Buried And Me is definitely a band to watch in 2006.

Read interview with Between The Buried And Me's Tommy Rogers

More photos of the band during the Truth Winter 2006 Tour

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