Belt Buckle Death Sentence

With a cryptic, vaguely menacing moniker like Belt Buckle Death Sentence, it's almost inevitable that this Loxahatchee-bred hardcore crew's origin story would involve illegal liquor and near-fratricide. Here's the way ax man Todd Batchelder tells it: "One night, our drummer, Bryan Marshall, and his brother Matt were both drunk on moonshine, passed out. Matt tried to wake Bryan up, but Bryan just freaked out, grabbing the nearest weapon, which happened to be a belt with a huge buckle attached to it." And thus, the band and its name were born. Together since 2005, BBDS spent the better part of its first year fine-tuning a personal hash of punk, thrash, and metal while also trying to solve never-ending personnel problems. "We have gone through five or six bass players, just like the Melvins," jokes Batchelder. Eventually, though, the band started gigging its way through the South Florida scene, hitting mainstay venues such as Propaganda, Churchill's, Solid Sound Studios, and now Respectable Street. This Friday, check out the current incarnation of BBDS — Batchelder, Marshall, bassist Chris Bell, and screecher Danny Rodriguez — as the band again gets cryptic and vaguely menacing, hard-charging through material from both last year's self-titled debut and the upcoming ButtChugg EP.