Color of Aum

Brace yourself, for it has arrived, the “hugely enjoyable eleven track album from Texas-based metallers, Color of Aum”, a monument marking the beginning of a new era in heavy music. Brought to you entirely by independent musicians striving solely to create a fully-immersive musical experience, their debut self-titled album does nothing short of enveloping the listener in a plethora of cutting-edge
sound waves. Leaving no stone unturned, Color of Aum embarks on a sound quest of exploration, grabbing you by the wrist and venturing into the deep recesses of the mind and the furthest reaches of inspiration.

With the album finally incarnated in its physical form, the 5-piece takes its music to the masses. Having shared the stage with such acts as Fear Factory, Nevermore, the famed Summer Slaughter Fest, and many others, Color of Aum continually hone their live set into a massive soundscape of rich textures and immensely powerful grooves. Poised to expand ever outward and inward to the common consciousness, get ready to experience the Aum.

Fate seems to be the culprit for the creation of Color of Aum. Then co-workers David Mead (Guitar) and Joseph McGolden (Bass) began jamming together during an indefinite hiatus from their respective previous musical projects in 2008.

At a glance, it seemed a pardoxical combination of backgrounds. Mead's style, marked by a deep love of Indian and progressive music combined with heavy, Meshuggah-esque polyrhythmic grooves is in stark contrast to McGolden's funky, Wooten-inspired, multi-fingered, tap-oriented Bass-playing, heavily laden with electronic, trance, and dubstep flavors. Despite these differences the two immediately found interest, and a challenge in combining their influences.

Now enter monster shredder, David Cerezo (Guitar). A friend of Mead's through some truly crazy coincidences, Cerezo was recruited as Mead and McGolden began taking the musical endeavor a step further. Many of Mead's song ideas were written with two guitars in mind and Cerezo, also heavily inspired by the metal genre, noting such influences as Opeth, Cannibal Corpse, Epica, Morbid Angel, seemed the perfect fit. Not surprisingly, this incredibly proficient guitar player's musical tastes ranged beyond his strong black/folk/death/prog metal roots, with tendrils extending into classical and jazz guitar.

After several months of jamming, practicing, and doing some gigging in 2009, Kevin Mead, David's younger brother and drummer for "Solanum" at the time, left the group. In his absence, and through much persuasion and deliberation, James Willis joined the fold on drums. Willis, an incredibly versatile drummer, drawing influence from prog rock, jazz, and funk with the technicality and proficiency reminiscient of Mike Portnoy, and a previous band-mate of McGolden in a funk-fusion rock project, brought a completely different set of drumming style to bear in this unique, evolving "metal" band.

Near the end of 2009 the "Solanum" vocalist, Sean, left the band to pursue a different musical project closer to his black metal roots (and his hometown of Ft. Worth). Just in the nick of time for the Skillman Street Battle of the Bands, Matt Adkins joined after correspondence with Cerezo and helped solidify their live performance with his relentless and equally versatile vocals and strong stage presence to win first place after the three round tournament.

With rising acclaim and some kick ass tunes the 5-piece decided to take this to its furthest potential. After careful consideration, the band chose to change the name to find something truly reflective of the band's unique sound, thus resulting in Color of Aum.