Feature: B.F. Raid Tell Boston’s Overlooked Stories on ‘Combat Zone’

Guitarist and co-founder Bruce Owens discusses the memories behind the album, Boston’s early metal scene, and four decades of making heavy music.

By Seth Metoyer, MetalCrawlspace.com

For Bruce Owens, guitarist and co-founder of B.F. Raid (Boston’s Final Raid), one of the defining moments behind Combat Zone happened while looking out a recording studio window. During an earlier session at The Record Co. in Boston, the activity along the Massachusetts Avenue corridor caught the band’s attention. Looking closer revealed people struggling with addiction, exploitation, and survival. That scene helped inspire “The Greatest Show In Town” and establish the perspective behind their latest album.

Released July 30, 2026, Combat Zone is the Massachusetts heavy metal band’s second full-length release, following 2024’s Raided Again. Across ten songs, it draws together memories of Malden, neighborhood bars, Boston’s former Combat Zone, and the present-day area around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. The band describes the record as an audio documentary, with the people who inhabit those places giving its stories their emotional weight.

B.F. Raid’s roots stretch back to the early 1980s, when massive amps, original songs, and a determination to become the loudest band in Boston carried them into the area’s clubs. Today, the lineup features Bill Kotowski on lead vocals, Owens on guitars, keyboards, and mandolin, Matt “Moose” Howard on bass, and Jamie Forbes on drums. Kotowski, Owens, and Forbes are originally from Malden; Howard hails from Dallas, Texas.

Recorded at The Record Co. with engineer Jamie Rowe, Combat Zone brings those four musicians together in a writing process where everyone helps shape the finished songs. Their approach combines traditional heavy metal with punk energy, progressive structures, and unconventional harmony. Owens’ dissonant guitar ideas, Howard’s grounding bass lines, Kotowski’s narrative focus, and Forbes’ rhythmic direction each play a part in translating the album’s stories into music.

For this interview, Owens discusses the experiences behind Combat Zone, the chaos of B.F. Raid’s earliest shows, and what more than forty years of perspective brings to heavy music.

Metal Crawlspace: You describe Combat Zone as an audio documentary about Boston. What’s one real-life moment that made it onto the record? Take us into that scene.

Bruce Owens: One of the clearest examples became “The Greatest Show In Town.” During an earlier recording session at The Record Co., we were looking through the studio’s large windows at the activity around the Massachusetts Avenue corridor. People were constantly appearing, disappearing, arguing, negotiating and trying to survive. When we paid closer attention, we could see the addiction, exploitation and suffering underneath everything taking place.

That stayed with me. It reminded me of Boston’s original Combat Zone and people like Robin Benedict, whose disappearance and murder became one of the most publicized tragedies associated with that area. The song asks listeners to look beyond what they see on the surface and recognize the human beings caught inside these circumstances. That moment at the window helped establish the perspective of the entire album: observe honestly, but never forget the humanity of the people you are observing.

Metal Crawlspace: What made Combat Zone the right title, and why did you want to tell these stories now?

Bruce Owens: Boston’s original Combat Zone was a real place, but the title also represents something larger to me. It describes the emotional territory covered by the record—the addiction, temptation, friendship, survival, loss and resilience that exist beneath the polished image of a city.

We did not want to make a postcard about Boston. We wanted to document the Boston we knew, including its dive bars, clubs, neighborhoods, street characters and people living on the margins. Some of these stories come from the old Combat Zone, while others come from growing up in Malden or from what we continue to see around Boston today.

This felt like the right time because we finally had the musical ability, perspective and chemistry to tell these stories properly. When you are young, you experience things without always understanding what is happening around you. More than 40 years later, we can look back with greater clarity, but not necessarily forgiveness. We were not trying to forgive the people who neglected the neighborhoods or the conditions that allowed so much chaos to continue. We wanted to show what the band brought into those rooms, how audiences responded and why people stayed to watch the madness unfold while drinking more beer.

Metal Crawlspace: What was it like being young and starting B.F. Raid in the early Boston metal scene? Is there a particular gig that captures those days for you?

Bruce Owens: It was loud, competitive, unpredictable and incredibly exciting. We were young, and our goal was to become the loudest band in Boston. We never said we wanted to be the best. We wanted to be the loudest. People were going to hear us whether they wanted to or not.

We loaded into tiny clubs with massive amps. We did not have a business plan or any real roadmap. We had original music, a commitment to developing our sound and the determination to get onto those stages.

The earliest version of B.F. Raid began with our original bassist, Len Ponn, Barry Silverman on drums and me. Bill and I had known each other since we were toddlers, and once he became the singer, the identity of the band really began taking shape. We were never interested in sounding exactly like the other metal bands. Punk, psychedelic music, progressive rock and everything we had absorbed growing up found its way into what we were doing.

One particular night at The Rat in the early 1980s captures that period for me. We were asked to leave twice before soundcheck and once more before we even hit the stage. We were just being childish and immature, and each time we apologized and were allowed back in. Somehow, after we finished our set, they were ready to book us again.

That night says a lot about how young and reckless we were, but it also captures the attitude of the scene. The audience liked the chaos we brought, and they approved of it by sticking around to watch the madness and drink more beer. We often got a pass because people wanted to see what would happen next.

The room was close, hot and loud, with almost no separation between the band and the audience. There was no hiding on a stage like that. You either connected with the room or you did not. That immediacy became part of B.F. Raid’s musical identity. It captured the energy we had onstage, and people wanted to see that chaos onstage again.

Metal Crawlspace: You recommended “Punchdrunk,” “The Greatest Show In Town” and “Divebar Allstars.” What inspired each song, and what should listeners listen for?

Bruce Owens: “Punchdrunk” is about growing up in Malden during the 1970s and 1980s. It was a working-class environment where you learned to take a hit, recover and keep moving. The title describes the feeling of being repeatedly knocked down by life without allowing it to defeat you. Musically, the song borrows from the rhythms of early Boston hardcore, giving it a direct, driving pulse rooted in that scene. Dave “Dizza” Allen’s guest rap is another important moment. Dave and I first worked together nearly 40 years ago, so his appearance connects two different periods of Boston music history.

“The Greatest Show In Town” came from what we witnessed through those studio windows and from thinking about the people associated with both the old Combat Zone and the struggles visible around Boston today. The title is intentionally ironic. Something may be observed from a distance without any real understanding of the suffering taking place. Listen to the way the music becomes increasingly unsettled. We wanted the arrangement to create discomfort because the subject should not resolve easily.

“Divebar Allstars” is about coming of age in Malden’s neighborhood bars and the people who occupied them. Many of these individuals became permanent parts of the neighborhood’s identity. They carried difficult histories, damaged relationships, unrealized ambitions and their own methods of survival. The song remembers them without judging or romanticizing their lives. Moose and Jamie give the track its heavy, deliberate movement, while Bill’s vocal provides the human perspective behind the characters.

Metal Crawlspace: How did the places and experiences you’re writing about influence the riffs, rhythms or performances on this album?

Bruce Owens: When we write and rehearse, we try to be true to ourselves. We are Boston guys through and through, and that will always come out in anything we play or write. We did not set out to force a Boston sound onto the album or turn every song into an obvious hometown anthem. It is simply part of who we are, so it naturally comes through in the music.

Boston can be aggressive and chaotic, but it also has intelligence, resilience and a particular kind of determination. That combination influenced the entire record. Some riffs are direct and almost punk in their attack. Others use unexpected intervals, atonal ideas or unresolved movement because the stories themselves are uncomfortable and unresolved. The rhythm changes can feel like moving through a neighborhood where the atmosphere shifts from one block to the next.

The performances also needed to retain some human roughness. We wanted a powerful recording, but we did not want to polish the music until all its personality disappeared. Recording at The Record Co. kept us physically connected to the city we were documenting. Boston was not merely the album’s subject; it was outside the studio windows while we were making it.

Metal Crawlspace: What do you miss most about the Boston you knew growing up? What has changed for the better?

Bruce Owens: I miss the old clubs most of all. There were so many places to hear live rock: Jack’s, T.T. the Bear’s and The Middle East were all within walking distance. In Cambridge, you could walk over the bridge into Boston and find The Rat, Axis, Narcissus and many more. A subway ride away, in Allston, there were Bunratty’s, the Great Scott and other clubs. You could spend an entire night moving from one venue to another and discover something different at every stop.

I also miss the affordability and the sense that artists, musicians and working-class people could still carve out a place for themselves. There was a spontaneity to the city. Neighborhoods had distinct personalities, and the people who lived in them gave each area its identity.

At the same time, I do not romanticize everything about that period. Some of those places were genuinely dangerous, and many people were exploited, ignored or treated as disposable. Boston is safer and more accessible in many ways today. There is also a greater willingness to acknowledge addiction, mental health problems and exploitation instead of simply hiding the people affected by them. Progress is complicated, but not every change has been a loss.

Metal Crawlspace: How has your approach to making heavy music changed since the band’s early days? What still feels exactly the same?

Bruce Owens: When we were young, much of the goal was to be louder, faster and more intense than the band playing before us. There was also tremendous pressure to become successful. today, I am more interested in serving the song. I think much more carefully about structure, dynamics, orchestration and how each musician’s part contributes to the larger composition.

My musical vocabulary has expanded considerably. Jazz, blues, classical music, global scales, Indian ragas and experimental harmony have all influenced how I write. I may begin with a traditional metal riff, but I will alter it, change the key, interrupt the pattern or combine it with something unexpected. The objective is to create something that sounds unmistakably like B.F. Raid.

What remains exactly the same is the excitement of hearing a heavy riff come alive in a room. When Jamie locks into an idea, Moose establishes the tonal center and Bill begins shaping a vocal around it, I still experience the same sense of possibility I felt as a teenager.

Metal Crawlspace: For someone discovering B.F. Raid through this feature, what do you hope stays with them after hearing Combat Zone?

Bruce Owens: First, I hope they remember it as a genuinely heavy and original record. We put a great deal of ourselves into the music, and I want the riffs, performances and melodies to remain with people.

Beyond that, I hope listeners come away with a sense of place and humanity. These songs are about Boston, but the people inside them exist everywhere. Every city has its forgotten characters, neighborhood figures, survivors, outsiders and people struggling beyond everyone else’s attention.

We are not trying to judge those people or provide simple answers. We are documenting what we witnessed, what we remember and what shaped us. If someone finishes Combat Zone and thinks about the people they normally pass without seeing, then the album has accomplished something important.

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B.F. Raid’s ambition has grown from filling small clubs with as much volume as possible to giving decades of experience a place in their songs. With Combat Zone, the band brings its memories of Boston into conversation with the city outside the studio window, asking listeners to pay attention to the people in both. Combat Zone is available now. Start with “Punchdrunk” on Spotify, and visit B.F. Raid’s official website for more music, videos, interviews, and album information. Also find Combat Zone on digital and streaming here.

Promotional photographs: Courtesy of B.F. Raid. Album cover photo by Spencer Grant.