The story is supposed to go like this: Local band makes cheaply produced, shabby-looking debut album, then gets picked up by a major label that gives it a big-time producer and professional packaging.

But for In All Its Glory, a five-man rock group based in the Illinois Quad-Cities, the whole scenario is flipped around.

Its self-titled CD, which will officially be released with a concert Saturday night at the Rock Island Brewing Co., was produced by Grammy nominee Tom Tatman at his Catamount Recording studio in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The cover is a lush painting, heavy on the purples, of a ship hitting rough water.

“It gives us a good starting point. It’s high-quality product, major-label quality, with professional production. It’s a good way to show people what you sound like,” guitarist and band co-founder Anthony Rosata said. “It’s like anything in this world. If you want to take it seriously, you’ll believe in your product and do the best you can.”

Tatman got connected to the band thanks to a friend of Rosata’s, who was in another group. Rosata mentioned he also had a band, and Tatman heard some sample cuts and offered to engineer the CD at his studio.

“It’s a beautiful place. The studio is world-class and the guy knows so much about recording and engineering,” Rosata said. “It made our job easy.”

Tatman is a music veteran of 30 years and more than 300 recordings, and he gave advice to the band on everything from setting up its guitars to how to handle music contracts.

More importantly, band members said, he gave them a sound that rivals national acts.

“That was our intention, to make it the best quality possible. It portrays that you’re professional by the packaging and the quality of the audio,” Rosata said.

Should a national label sign the band, “It’s something as simple as them stamping their name on our album at this point,” he added.

The band is also taking an active role behind the scenes, doing its own legal work and booking.

“Pretty much we’re the whole package. It causes a great workload, but it goes back to the old phrase of ‘if you want something done right, do it yourself,’ ” Rosata said. “This is a competitive business, and you have to do everything you can to be in front of it and set the pace.”

The band itself is pleased with the results and the album’s possibilities.

“All of us have paid our dues with the not-so-professional bands and growing up,” bass player Bryan Hall said. “I’ve been with a lot of bands and this is my best shot.”

“It was just done so well. The professionalism of it was exciting,” said lead singer Cody Ristau, who joined the band a month before the album was recorded in August.

Band members compare their sound to that of Chevelle, My Chemical Romance, Tool and Killswitch Engage, with what they call an “80/20 split” of melodic verses and loud, screaming choruses.

“I don’t think we’re locked into any particular sound,” Hall said. “We experiment with different sounds, particularly in the new stuff we’re writing together. I don’t think we’re stuck inside one box or one genre.”

“We’re not overbearingly heavy compared to what we listen to. It’s been good, tasteful stuff we’ve been writing,” Rosata said. “We try not to scream all the time because it’s not very appealing if you go see a band and they’re screaming in your face all night.”

Rosata usually will write the rhythms in the songs, and then lead guitar player James Davis will add music on top of it, but all of the members make contributions.

“We really don’t try to limit ourselves in what we’re writing,” Davis said. “We try to work with it, build it into something.”

The band has been together for two years, and members say that everything they’ve been working for so far is leading up to the CD debut Saturday night at RIBCO. The Post-Mortems and Three Years Hollow also are on the bill, and Tatman is scheduled to attend.

“All the hard work, blood, sweat and finally being able to celebrate with our producer. We’re excited,” Rosata said. “It’s the cherry on our sundae.

“It’ll be good to have that night for us to say, ‘Hey, we did it.’ ”

 

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