handing it to Mo for inspection.
Satisfied, Mo cleared his voice and said loudly, “Call it in the air…”
As he flicked the quarter skyward the masked guitarist called tails into the microphone. Time seemed to stop as the coin flipped through the air and finally landed in Mo’s outstretched palm.
“Tails it is,” Mo said just below a shout so that the crowd could hear him. “It’s your move,” he said as the guitarist handed him back his microphone.
Even as they strode towards their respective stages, Bloody Demon’s drummer began a beat that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Moses, Lee, and everybody in attendance recognized the steady thumping of “Down With The Sickness”.
“Can you feel that?” Anne asked from the front of the stage, enticing a cheer from the crowd.
“Oh shit,” said the lead vocalist after another cycle of beats had been thumped.
It was the masked guitarist who broke into the song with the famed screech “awa-a-a-a” and sent the crowd skyward. The song had a nice introduction and a good beat to it but in comparison to Bloody Demon’s songs during the first battle, it lacked somewhat of a direction. Once the crowd hit their initial energy level, there wasn’t much in the song to break past it. Bloody Demon carried on with their relentless precision, though, and by the time they reached the point three minutes in where the song took an unsettling twist the crowd was ready to explode again.
The lead vocalist took the center of the stage and began screaming and ranting while the song broke down. Both the words and the way he was seething them were unsettling and seemed either to energize or deaden everybody in the crowd. Some people moshed around crazily while others stopped and stood awkwardly.
Finally they rounded into one last chorus and after the song ended with an abrupt bang, there was a moment of silence before the crowd applauded. In a matter of fifteen seconds all the attention was on NoCal and there was a dead silence in the air, broken only by the sound of distant seagulls screeching.
“Yikes,” Mo smiled under his breath, but loud enough for the mic to pick it up. “Came across a little strong…” The song that they had chosen to open the fight with was a taste of Bloody Demon’s own medicine. They had selected “Dignity” and Mo held his fist straight up in the air. Lee watched his hand and the second it dropped to his guitar they began the rapid intro. They usually shied away from Bullet’s faster songs because of their complex and layered guitar riffs, but tonight they had opted to push their envelope.
• • •
“Oh wow, they’re really gonna try to out-metal Bloody Demon,” said a girl as she and her friend put their hands up in salute as Mo and Lee smashed rapidly through the introductory riffs.
“I don’t know… they sound pretty good!” her friend answered, an amused smile crossing her face.
As NoCal entered into the first verse, the crowd responded in a subdued cheer, as if congratulating them on making it through the intro.
“Wow, listen to the lyrics… No wonder they picked this song to open with. I just hope they can keep up…” the girl said, a twinge of doubt in her voice.
“Which band?” her friend shot back, grinning as NoCal picked up once again. Mo was roaring as his hands moved like smoke across his fret board.
• • •
As they ended their second chorus the song dropped and gave a quick lull in the guitar. Without much warning, Mo’s fingers began flying around his guitar as he began to shred the solo. He was backed up by Lee on the drums and as he delved further into the solo, he stared over at the masked guitarist, silently challenging him with a dark smile. The solo was impressive and executed perfectly, but what nobody seemed to realize was that Mo’s eyes weren’t even on the fret board. Nobody except for the masked guitarist, who had stiffened up
As Mo’s fingers flew over the neck of his guitar it was obvious that he was struggling to keep up. He was, nevertheless, keeping up though and as he stared at the other stage, the masked guitarist looked uncomfortable. Where he was usually relaxed looking and collected, he seemed rigid and clenched. He was being called out and he knew it.
Finally, when his solo had ended he let Lee drop a beat by himself for a couple seconds to thrust a pointing finger straight over at the masked guitarist before diving back into the chords of the song. They played one final chorus, stirring up the crowd and ending the song with an enormous crash featuring all of Lee’s limbs smashing down on a drum at the same time. The deep thunder echoed out over the ocean on all three sides of the Pier.
The crowd was elated at the step up that the contest had just taken. Their attention was then turned to the bridge between the stages, where Mo and the masked guitarist were once again standing toe to toe.
“You call it this time,” the guitarist said from behind his mask. He then flipped the quarter and Mo called out “heads!” The coin landed in the guitarist’s gloved hand and showed the shimmering head of our founding father.
“Looks like we’re up!” said Mo gleefully. The first song had gone exactly as expected and now it was time to loosen it up. As he turned away from Bloody Demon’s stage he whispered softly so that the masked guitarist was the only one within earshot. “That all you guys got?” Out of the corner of his eye he could see the guitarist clench his fist as they walked back to their respective stages.
As Mo took his place back behind his microphone stand, he began strumming the crisp and edgy chords introducing “Follow”. The crowd seemed to recognize the song and cheered as Lee joined in with a crash. The song was a welcome change for the crowd, being much easier on the ears when compared to the structure of their opener.
• • •
“Okay you have to admit that solo was pretty sick, he wasn’t even looking at his fret board…” the girl’s friend replied as they watched Mo stride back toward NoCal’s stage.
“Yeah I’m not gonna lie, I hope NoCal pulls this out…” replied the girl. “We’ll see though, I feel like they’re playing with fire.”
“This is an interesting song choice… It’s not really metal,” the girl’s friend pointed out. “But I guess it fit’s NoCal better.”
“Yeah, I haven’t listened to the original in forever but this cover sounds really ‘NoCal’, if that makes any sense…” the girl replied. “Like listen to the chords, it reminds me of water gliding over a beach, but then there’s these little metal twangs everywhere.”
As NoCal started into the chorus, the crowd roared as Lee complexified the beat, adding double bass thumps, making the song simultaneously soar and plummet.
“Okay,” grinned the girl as she turned to her friend. “I’m sold.”
• • •
The second verse passed much like the first, as did the second chorus. The boys rocked out the song, giving credit to it’s original state but lacing it with personal touches at every turn. It was not until after the second chorus that they deviated from the song’s structure.
After the second chorus, rather than proceeding into the original climax of the song, Moses tore off on a twenty second guitar solo, the likes of which nobody recognized. The audience was taken totally by surprise, as was Bloody Demon. As Mo attacked his fret board ferociously, there was nothing that could stop him. His fingers were positively flying and his eyes were now glued to the neck of the guitar. As he played, Lee recycled a modified beat used throughout the song and watched grinning as Mo went to town. There wasn’t an inch of the guitar’s neck left untouched and after twenty seconds of wailing, he suddenly struck a strong chord and let it reverberate out over the ocean.
The crowd, energetic up until this point, erupted into the loudest and most uproarious frenzy that the Pier had ever seen. Just as the chord was starting to fade, they picked back up for the final chorus.
They wound down the song’s original fifteen second breakdown and were met with deafening cheers and whistles. There wasn’t a body in the crowd that wasn’t maddened by the musical duel unfolding.
When the crowd finally died down, it shifted its attention once more to Bloody Demon’s stage, who seemed unprepared. After spreading out and putting up a united front, they began into the threatening sounding intro of “Psychosocial”. They proceeded in their fashion, layering and screaming in different keys, shredding their guitars and the drummer thundering double basses in the back.
As they played, Mo walked to the back of NoCal’s stage where Lee sat watching. As he walked up, Mo shot him an enormous grin and whispered, “They’re right where we want them!”
“That was the sickest solo I’ve ever heard, dude! You were like leveling mountains!” Lee whispered back excitedly. “Shadow boy seems pretty determined…” he continued, nodding at the other stage where the masked guitarist was leading the other two guitarists in a synchronized head bang.
“No, this is perfect…” Mo explained. “This isn’t gonna be enough for him. He’s gonna need to have his own solo. With their next song they’re gonna try to go in for the kill, so it’s gonna be a straight up power song. I’d bet anything it’s ‘Freak On A Leash’.“
Lee’s face lit up as Mo’s plan dawned on him. “There’s no solo in ‘Freak On A Leash’… He’s gonna try to make one up! You’re a genius.”
Presently Bloody Demon ended it’s song to the uproarious applause of the crowd, who was by now having the time of their lives.