Color Of 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 it's 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. As time progressed, along with their meticulous dedication to their craft, this prog-metal 5-piece began to take their performances to the next level, opening for acts such as Nevermore, Fear Factory, Weedeater, Fallujah, and more. With their live set taking them to new audiences, it became obvious that their sound had to be captured to physical format. In the late spring of 2011 Color of Aum entered Red Star studios to begin tracking their debut album. As with all things worth doing, the process was rife with challenges. Not to be daunted by their opposition, the band pushed through the adversity and completed the recording, mixing, and mastering in early 2012.