Always and Forever [8]

San Francisco, California

Nick walked out of the recording room, and sat by the controls. Forrest, the bassist, came out and sat next to him. "That was a good run last time, wouldn't you say?" Forrest said. Nick shrugged, "It's missing something....I just can't figure out what it is...Fuck, it's driving me crazy." Forrest chuckled and spun in his chair. Ricky, their boss walked in, "Hey boys, how's the recording going?" he asked. Forrest shrugged, "Just trying some different riffs and harmonizations." Ricky nodded, "I got some good news for you guys. Get Alex, Brian, and Charles here and I'll show it to you." Nick pressed the intercom on the controls, "Hey guys, get out here," Nick called into the mike. Alex, Brian, and Charles walked out the door. "What's up?" Charles asked, moving his hair out of his eyes. Ricky smirked, "I got something to push you guys up the tier." Everyone smiled, "And....what is it?" Alex asked. Ricky pulled out a poster. "It's called Battle Beneath. It's essentially a battle of the bands, but it's metal, alternative, and punk bands only. There will be several bands there, too. I believe Arch Enemy will be there. Along with several from Slipknot, Randy Blythe and Chris Adler from Lamb of God. Tim Lambesis and Nick Hipa of As I Lay Dying will be there. It's a pretty big event. So, you boys interested?" Ricky asked. Nick thought for a minute, "I've never heard of it before....where's it held?" he asked. "It's in New Jersey. Around a town called....Millville, I believe it is," Ricky said, fixing his sunglasses. "How do we get there?" Brian asked. Ricky smiled, "The record company will supply you with a transport there. Since this is a promo event for the band, it will be free of charge." Nick smirked, "Nice....it sounds cool, guys. I think we should go." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Excellent," Ricky said, clapping his hands together, "Pack your things, we're leaving tomorrow night."

Millville, New Jersey

"Take it from the top again, guys," Will groaned, wiping the sweat from his brow. They had been rehearsing all day for the Battle Beneath competition. "This is huge for us. There's gonna be a ton of bands there and some record company managers might be there looking for new meat. We have to do good!" Paul groaned, "Come on, Will," he moaned, putting his sticks down to fix his hair, "We've been here all day. The competition is in two nights. There's no fucking way we'll be ready by then." Will groaned, checked his guitar's tuning and nodded to Paul. "Count it off," Will mumbled. Paul sighed, picked up his sticks and clicked the song off. During the song, Rob's phone rang. "Hold up guys, it's Phil getting back to me with the list." Rob answered the phone, and wrote down the names of the bands as Phil read them off. Rob went down the list, "Well, isn't this interesting?" he muttered. "There's a band coming in from California called 'The Departed'. They seem to be relatively big. They're employed by 'Fire' record company. They've released two debut albums and are working on their third. They've opened for Arch Enemy. Damn, man...these guys look like they're good." Will walked up to Rob and looked at the names of the band members, "Ahhh, so this is Nick's band..." he murmured. Paul looked up from his drums "Nick from California?" he asked. Will nodded, "Well, this is gonna be fun..." he mumbled with a smile.