Of Mice & Men (often abbreviated OM&M) is an American rock band formed in Costa Mesa, California, in 2009. The band's line-up currently consists of drummer Valentino Arteaga, guitarists Phil Manansala and Alan Ashby, and bassist and lead vocalist Aaron Pauley. The group was founded by former lead vocalist Austin Carlile and former bassist Jaxin Hall in mid-2009 after Carlile's departure from Attack Attack!. Carlile departed from the band in December 2016 citing that a long-term health condition prompted his exit. After Carlile's departure, the band continued to pursue creating music with Pauley as the band's bassist and lead vocalist.
Since 2009, the band has released eight studio albums: Of Mice & Men (2010), The Flood (2011), Restoring Force (2014), Cold World (2016), Defy (2018), Earthandsky (2019), Echo (2021), and Tether (2023). Of Mice & Men's earlier music has been described as metalcore and post-hardcore. Their later material, however, has been considered to be more melodic and shifted over to genres such as nu metal, alternative metal, and hard rock, while retaining their original sound.
The band has played international music festivals including the Vans Warped Tour in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 and Soundwave Music Festival in 2013 and 2015.
Their third album, Restoring Force, incorporated a lot more nu metal elements into their sound, with a Rock Sound review describing the album's style as a mixture of nu metal and metalcore.] Their fourth album, Cold World, saw them embracing the nu metal sound heard from Restoring Force with the album taking influence from early-2000s nu metal. Their fifth album, Defy, marked the first album without founding vocalist Austin Carlile with the band's bassist Aaron Pauley taking over both clean and unclean vocals.The album also marked the return to their heavy sound, however still keeping elements from their fourth album.
The band's style employs a contrast between harsh vocals and standard singing. Currently, frontman/bassist Aaron Pauley performs both techniques.
Of Mice & Men's influences include bands such as Alice in Chains, Deftones, Incubus, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Papa Roach, P.O.D., Rage Against the Machine, Slipknot, Staind and Tool.
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