By Allison Lozada

NJCU’s Visions of the Vanished successfully made it into the second round in hopes of performing at this year’s Bamboozle. Unfortunately, they fell short due to lack of promotion.

The smell of sweat, shame, and french fries instantly hits you as you walk through the doors of Montclair’s Chill. In a crowd full of hard to impress teens, the band tore the house apart with their powerful shredding, quick speed drumming, and impressive vocal skills. The band gave a crowd pleasing performance that successfully drew the biggest crowd. Their music had a flowing melody that was easy to follow. With their vocalist playing with his tones, he mixed growling with singing and intertwined both pitches in a hypnotic form.

When vocalist Darren Torres, 22, from Jersey City was asked what he felt about the crowd that formed during their performance he said he felt humble. “I always get warm feelings. So many people come out to see us, every time I see a crowd it’s awesome,” said Torres.

Not everyone gets to witness all the fans that come out to support the band. “I never see the crowd, the lights are too bright,” said the recently married drummer Ryan Welsh, 25 from Lodi. When asked what his hopes are for the band he proudly admitted, “I’m very confident for the band. My hopes have already been achieved because our music is so amazing.”

The band was judged on performance and individual talent. Visions of the Vanished scored an 8/10 and 7/10 respectively, however, they only scored a 2/10 in the social media category. The requirements for the social media category were based on promoting yuuzoo.com and ticket sales.

Despite the lack of points in the social media division the crowd began moshing when they performed Built From Ashes. This song appeared to be a bigger hit with the crowd opposed to the first song they performed, Facts From Fiction. The crowd’s attention was focused more on Visions of the Vanished than the other two bands prior to them. They received the most positive reactions.

“The whole thing about performing [is] you got to be consistent. You gotta give the crowd what they want. The intensity has to be there,” said bassist Alejandro Mena, 24, from North Bergen. Making it to the second battle doesn’t change everyone’s attitude about performing live. “I had butterflies in my stomach,” added Mena, “[It was a] great privilege to play in the semi -finals. We had a fun time.”

The bigger mosh pit opened up when the band covered Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones. The last song they performed was called The Impaler and the shredding was amazing. While other bands focused more on drums, this band focused more attention towards the guitars. When they were finished with their set the crowd nearly disappeared as though nothing else could compare.

While the performance seemed flawless some band members admitted more could have been done. “[The performance] was alright,” said Torres, “There [are] always things we think about afterwards, [but] in the moment everything worked out.”