State of the Art: Oklahoma’s LOST EMPIRES [Tracks Streaming]

Since 2011, Lost Empires have been fusing together a new breed of metalcore straight out of Oklahoma City, OK. One could say, fantasy metalcore? A healthy blend of sharp and tight traditional riffs with a power metal element, the melody along with the synthesizers. This is really something cool.

The five piece consists of Kilby and Brad on guitars, drummer Jeremy, Luke on bass and Lawrence on vocals. “Death, the Unveiling of Eternity” EP was released in 2016. It’s like God Forbid and Blind Guardian are dating. It’s a fabulously unique metalcore EP. The standout track is undoubtedly “Standing at Death’s Door.” Song structure is interesting, catchy and elaborate. The power metal elements really stand out on this particular track. Some cleans throw in the background really compliment the growls. Another favorite, “Hameln” has the eerie synth magic happening with a really evil and driving riff over top. It’s just a solid track. Fans of mid-2000’s metalcore will certainly be interested in Lost Empires, and power metal fans that don’t mind more aggressive vocals.

The band is pretty quiet on their socials, but after a bit of poking around it seems as they are taking a break at the moment but have future plans to write new material. Their 2016 EP is available for streaming on Spotify. 

State Of The Art: COSMIC WOOL [Official Videos]

*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is Oklahoma.*

Cosmic Wool is straight from the Heartland Of America, Oklahoma City to be exact. The band formed in 2013 by brothers Nevada (Guitars/Backing Vocals) and Larado “Rado” Romo (Lead Vocals/Bass) who both are formerly of the band Anti Mortem and Nevada has been the guitarist for Texas Hippie Coalition since 2016. In 2018 Texas Hippie Coalition bassist and co-founder John Exall parted ways with the band, it was at that time Rado Romo joined his brother in the band and replaced Exall. I believe the Romo brothers being in 2 bands together allows them to constantly keep their chemistry alive and well both on stage and in writing new music. The remaining members of Cosmic Wool are John “Drew” Williams (Guitar/Keyboards) who met the brothers through a mutual friend, and Tom Frizzell (Drums) who responded to an ad by the band seeking a drummer. The band initially like most bands do started out as a jam band. Cosmic Wool was something for the Romo brothers to do with their breaks between tours. With the dissipation of Anti Mortem in 2014 it freed up more time and Cosmic Wool was moved up as a priority. The band first released a 3 track EP ‘Over Your Eyes’. The band tested their sound with local Oklahoma crowds and they seemed to love the direction the band was going in. The next step was to step further out of their region and see if the country was ready for the comforting sounds of Cosmic Wool. In 2016 the band released another EP titled ‘White.’ The band further developed their “cosmic” psychedelic sound and intertwined amazing melodic choruses within their newer songs creating the sound they have today. Cosmic Wool spent the spring of 2015 until the summer of 2017 writing and reworking the songs that would make up their debut full length, working with Chainsaw Kittens guitarist Trent Bell perfecting the sound they were looking for. The band has stated “We met Trent through another producer we’re friends with named Dustin “Provo” Provenzano who did the first Cosmic Wool demos as well as the Anti Mortem demos. Bell Sound is a huge facility,” points out Rado Romo, “so we took full advantage of that and recorded most of the guitar, bass and drum tracks together in the same room. We also experimented with state of the art synths and keyboards to round things out.” The bands sound has been described as various things, space rock, desert rock, psychedelic rock, groove metal, but one thing is for certain; the band has moved out of the hard rock genre and created a sound that is uniquely theirs. The bands debut self titled full length was released on December 19, 2017 and is available at most online music merchandisers. Pick up a copy on Amazon here, or check it out on spotify. Continue reading

Review: COSMIC WOOL – S/T [Official Videos]

 

Cosmic Wool is straight from the Heartland Of America, Oklahoma City to be exact. The band formed in 2013 by brothers Nevada (Guitars/Backing Vocals) and Rado Romo (Lead Vocals/Bass) who both are formerly of the band Anti Mortem and Nevada is currently the guitarist for Texas Hippie Coalition as well. The remaining members of the band are John “Drew” Williams (Guitar/Keyboards) who met the brothers through a mutual friend, and Tom Frizzell (Drums) who responded to an ad by the band seeking a drummer. The band initially like most bands do started out as a jam band. Cosmic Wool was something for the Romo brothers to do with their breaks between tours. With the dissipation of Anti Mortem in 2014 it freed up more time and Cosmic Wool was moved up as a priority. The band first released a 3 track EP ‘Over Your Eyes’. The band tested their sound with local Okalahoma crowds and they seemed to love the direction the band was going in. The next step was to step further out of their region and see if the country was ready for the comforting sounds of Cosmic Wool. In 2016 the band released another EP titled ‘White’. The band further developed their “cosmic” psychedelic sounds and intertwined amazing melodic choruses within their newer songs creating the sound they have today. Cosmic Wool spent the spring of 2015 to the summer of 2017 writing and reworking the songs that would make up their debut full length, working with Chainsaw Kittens guitarist Trent Bell perfecting the sound they were looking for. The band has stated “We met Trent through another producer we’re friends with named Dustin “Provo” Provenzano who did the first Cosmic Wool demos as well as the Anti Mortem demos. Bell Sound is a huge facility,” points out Rado Romo, “so we took full advantage of that and recorded most of the guitar, bass and drum tracks together in the same room. We also experimented with state of the art synths and keyboards to round things out.” The bands sound has been described as various things, space rock, desert rock, psychedelic rock, groove metal, but one thing is for certain; the band has moved out of the hard rock genre and created a sound that is uniquely theirs. The bands debut self titled full length was released on December 19, 2017 and is available at most online music merchandisers. Pick up a copy on Amazon here, or check it out on spotify.

Continue reading