Between metal and hardcore, between beauty and chaos, there is Between the Buried and Me.

Formed in 2000, North Carolina’s Between the Buried and Me has been hard at work for the past three years doing the essential dirty work needed to propel a new band from virtual unknowns to underground favorites. So far, the band members say they appear to be succeeding.

“We’re not scared to move up and be a full-time band and start making money from it,” says frontman Tommy Rogers.

Between the Buried and Me’s use of low, death metal-styled growls and a penchant for writing songs more than five minutes long have drawn in heavy metal fans, while the use of breakdowns and hardcore-flavored screaming attracts audiences drawn to hardcore. The band has a frantic approach to guitar and its use of melody awes fans of both metal and hardcore.

The band released its self-titled debut in 2001 on Germany’s Lifeforce Records and soon began to generate a strong underground following.

“We got signed pretty quick. We had a three-song demo, we sent it out, and we signed with [Lifeforce] six months after we started,” Rogers says.

After witnessing the band’s ability to gain a following simply through touring and word-of-mouth, members were able to choose from a few interested labels to record their sophomore effort.

“We were talking to a bunch of labels,” Rogers says. “[Victory Records] had a really good program; all the people seemed really nice.”

Band members went into the studio to record their second full-length, “The Silent Circus,” after signing with Victory. In explaining the album name, Rogers says,”Society represents the circus. The average person sits down and does nothing, the circus is just kind of all the shit we do.”

Signing with Victory also gave Between the Buried and Me opportunities it had previously not had, like the ability to record in a professional studio, experiment with their sound and to go off on a national tour to support the album.

“We had more time in the studio,” Rogers says. “For the first CD, we had six days. This time, we had a month.”

In addition to having more time in a professional studio, Between the Buried and Me was also given the chance to work with producer Matthew Ellard, who was responsible for Converge’s album, “Jane Doe.” Ellard gave the band the freedom to experiment with its sound and bring new elements to the already diverse music.

“We added keyboards and wrote some more stuff to keep the listeners on their toes,” Rogers says. “We write stuff that’s hard to listen to.”

Even though the band was able to expand on its music with “The Silent Circus,” the members haven’t lost sight of what made them successful in the first place.

“In the new stuff, we steer away from [melody] and focus more on straightforward death metal stuff,” Rogers says.

With “The Silent Circus” completed and in stores, the band has embarked on a national U.S. tour with friends A Life Once Lost to support the album. Rogers says the band is eager to see not only how fans like the new material on the album but also how they will respond to it live.

“We have kids going crazy. This kid in Ohio got kicked in the face and had a seizure. The ambulance came and took him away,” Rogers says. “It was during our first song.”

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Who: Between the Buried and Me, A Life Once Lost, The End, Coma Eternal

Where: Botanical Center, 909 E. River Dr., Des Moines

When: 7 p.m., Tuesday

Cost: $8