The Winter Band Slam Finals were held at The Rock in Maplewood, MN.  which was brought together by BBM&E productions. A two night event with the Metal night finals being on Feb 23 and the Rock night finals on Feb 24. It may be more so descriptive to say that the Metal night battle was made up of bands on the hardcore metal end of the spectrum while the Rock night battle was more so moderate progressive. The winner and runner ups for each battle final was determined by crowd voting. My general prediction was that the band that brought out 200 votes would win.  As it turns out, a few of the bands did get around 150 votes while the others were around 100. The order of finish on the 23rd was ' Rivkit ', ' Ovrdose ' , 'After the Burial ' and ' R-evolution '. In this Metal battle, it was generally expected to be a fairly close battle between 'Rivkit' and 'R-evolution' from the stand point of Metal Strength which would lean towards 'R-evolution' as the more true all out Metal band. Most thought 'Ovrdose' perhaps should of been in the Rock battle while everyone expected that 'Ovrdose' would bring out the largest crowd. The band After the Burial is the younger upcoming band that put forth a great effort. Rivkit may very well be the most improved band bringing forth a hard hitting set. Ovrdose with Nick on vocals has a particular performance edge and younger following which could very well lead them to bigger shows. The order of finish of the 24th was ' 3 Pill Morning ', ' Likwid Blu ', ' Sunset Black ', ' Thought Cloud ', ' Diary Concept '  followed by 3 write in votes for ' Arsenal of Venice ' who were not in the finals. It was expected to be a close battle between 3 Pill Morning and Sunset Black. These two bands are known to be crisp and tight with very solid vocal energy. The band Likwid Blu are younger and progressive as they delivered the goods for a second place finish. Thought Cloud is the more so hard hitting rock band with Leah on vocals. All the bands had an active crowd at stage for their set.  The event brought out 93X radio personalities for each final with Nick of Metal Shop on the 23rd and Patrick of Loud + Local on the 24th. Those that made it out to either of these shows got to see a good sample of the hard working bands in the Twin Cities area.