Tampa's reputation as a hot bed for metal had definitely preceded itself when the semifinals of the Emergenza festival showed up at Boomerz Boiler Room, a venue also rather well known for its compunction for the hard stuff. I found that reputation to be only partly true, though, as their were some very talented bands that weren't exactly metal. We had some good blues, we had acoustic pop, some young kids playing rock in the classic style and a couple of excellent indie rock groups. Oh yeah, and we had lots of metal too. Speed metal, death metal, hair metal, rap metal, you name it, Tampa does it metal. When you are playing one style and competing against a lot of the same, then you really need to do it well which is what two groups did on Thursday night. SOBRIETY and SOCIETY''S END both put their own stamp on the night with SOBRIETY stealing most of the votes in the house. Playing fast, playing loud, and playing tight helped them beat out the some of the softer stuff like the talented Cuban Sandwich Crisis. Friday saw three of the best groups of the week all take the stage in succession which made for a fantastic 90 minutes of music. 5 STORY started the trifecta with its original style of rock, which is guitar driven but centers more around writing good songs than it does writing songs with great guitar riffs, if you know what I mean. BUILT BY DESIGN followed them up with a set that didn''t disappoint the masses which were crowding the stage and lovin'' every minute of it. Again a band that played hard but had really good songs that stick in your head. Both of the latter bands seemed to be just building the excitement until BUYUSUK took the stage. Talk about intense, that is what the next 25 minutes were. These guys put on one hell of a show for the packed house with tons of energy that even kept its intensity up through a slow and melodic ballad. Saturday was another great night of music starting out with the young indie rock band MAELINS DREAM. Again, a band with very good talent for writing songs that perform them very well on stage. The next band that captivated the crowd was INVIOLET which has a passion in their songs that keeps their loyal fans coming out to see them again and again. The big story of the night was the band FABLE. A metal band that puts some twists and some art in their music. The use of the electric sitar and some mid-eastern drumbeats in one song really gives you something to listen to that''s unique but very powerful. Sunday was the last chance for bands to get into the finals. The kids from DESOLATE seem to perform with the attitude of turn it up, play it hard, and let it all out and if you don''t like it that''s tough. Luckily for them the crowd loved it. The guys from MONEYSHOT strike me as a band of musicians that have been around the block and know what it takes to win over a crowd and that''s exactly what they did with a very tight well done set that earned them a trip on to The Masquerade. HMOONG got the final spot to the finals with a mixture of melodic vocals over hard ass guitar riffs and “Rage” like screaming, political rants over even harder guitar riffs. Great band with the power to win over the majority of crowd.