No one ever said being in a band was easy, and Des Moines area hard rock band Index Case knows it all too well.

Having been around for six years, the band knows how to rely on its own determination, says frontman Joe Ansley, and perseverance to make it through the times that might cause other bands to throw in the towel.

“Index Case has always had to do everything by ourselves; nothing has ever been easy for us,” Ansley says.

The band, which recorded an album for Elektra last year, had to sit back and watch as its album was shelved by the label with no release date planned for the near future. But where one band might stumble, Ansley says, it kept pushing on with or without their label.

“It doesn’t make us too happy, but we’re not going to sit around and wait for them,” Ansley says. “We’re over it now.”

The band planned to spend the next two months writing and recording new material. This time, Ansley says, the band’s sound will be influenced by its anger and the addition of a new bass player, Nick Borror.

“He’s brought a different style for sure,” Ansley says. “I think he’s brought a lot of metal back to the band.”

As for the group’s label woes, the members don’t plan to fool around with major label politics again. Instead, Index Case is opting to release the album on an independent label where it feels its sound will fit in better.

“Every time I turn on the radio, it just sounds like something that sounds like something else, that sounded like something else,” Ansley says. “There’s a high demand for uniqueness right now.”

Ansley feels like the band’s hard-rock, n-metal style defines itself in the way it write its music, which he describes as epic, and the band’s small-town, Iowa surroundings.

“Some of the most unique people I know are from Iowa. We don’t have a dance club every three streets, it’s wide-open. We’re forced to use our heads,” Ansley says. “I’ve had people ask us what we sound like; I tell them to imagine a winter in Iowa — that’s what we sound like.”

Lyrically, Ansley says Index Case has always been about being yourself and doing your own thing. While Ansley draws lyrical inspiration from straight forward topics ranging from getting into confrontations at bars to the treatment of the environment, he likes to present them in ways that are harder to digest.

“The lyrics can get a little abstract,” Ansley says.

“They make people think instead of just putting it on the table.”

After completing work on the new album, Index Case plans on taking its brand of hard rock on the road around the country, something it is no stranger to, having already completed nationwide tours with n-metal heavyweights such as Mushroomhead and Soil, and opening for popular mainstream acts Papa Roach, Rob Zombie and Disturbed.

Converting fans on tour has been one of the high points for Ansley, who says he loves everything about being on the road and bringing Iowa to the forefront of the hard rock scene — not unlike a certain nine-piece-band did a few years ago.

“I remember doing a show and half the kids were wearing Slipknot shirts,” Ansley says.

Who: Index Case

Where: M-shop

When: 9 p.m. Saturday

Cost: $7 student, $9 public