They have careers outside music. And the apparent darkness found in their songs, and the band’s name, is not as it seems. “So much of the rock scene is filled with anger,” Clouse said. “The overall feel of this band is positive. That whole rock star mystique — get wasted, do drugs, get trashed — we’re deeper guys than that.” Still, they sound like rock stars and cite Metallica, Tool and Breaking Benjamin as influences.

These bands are hard rock bands, not all screams and growls, the members said. Jacobsen was sitting at work one day — he and Guy are graphic designers, friends since their days at Judson University — when he dreamed up the name for the band. He and Guy have been going through band members the past few years and this group of four has just come together. “My passion is music, to make it in the music industry,” Jacobsen said from a bar stool at downtown Elgin’s Prairie Rock.

“If all else fails, we as a group, the four of us, we have a love for music. When all else fails, we have each other.” Their love for music is evident when a discussion of the merits of guitarist Tom Morello’s technique nearly turns into a real argument. But it blows over, and the band members say they’re ready to make good on their six months of getting to know one another.

They’ve recorded a demo at Elgin’s LnL Recording and are set to perform their second live show Saturday at Clearwater Theater in West Dundee. A gig at the Elbo Room on Dec. 26 will be their first foray into the Chicago music scene. No one is quitting their day jobs just yet, but they’re willing. O’Donnell is in video production, and Clouse is a project estimator who “pushes dirt around,” he said.