In February, California quartet OF MICE & MEN released the “Timeless” EP via SharpTone Records. “Timeless” is the first in a series of EPs that will eventually comprise the band’s next album.
Today, OF MICE & MEN has announced the next EP, titled “Bloom”. It will arrive on May 28 via SharpTone. To herald the announcement, the band has shared the title track.
“‘Bloom’ is a song about grieving the death of a family member,” says OF MICE & MEN singer and bassist Aaron Pauley. “It’s about understanding, through that loss, that grief is not only love in its most visceral and wildest form, but that it’s also the ultimate price we pay to experience such love. To know profound grief is to have known profound love. Nothing and no one lasts forever. Love isn’t a bouquet of plastic flowers; it’s watching the petals fall.”
As with the “Timeless” EP, the “Bloom” EP artwork was created by the iconic Derek Hess and can be viewed below.
OF MICE & MEN enjoyed a groundswell of activity around the well-received “Timeless” EP. The three-song collection was described as “crushing” by Revolver, and as “thought-provoking” and “cinematic” by Loudwire. As of press time, the track “Obsolete” has been played over 325 times on Octane since January. It remains a Top 15 most-played song on the channel this week, and it’s also the No. 3 most requested song, as reflected on their “Big Uns” countdown.
OF MICE & MEN‘s fan-favorite single “Second & Sebring” was recently certified gold by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) for accumulating 500,000 certified units. The song appears on the band’s self-titled debut, released by Rise Records in 2010, and is that which launched the band’s meteoric rise in the metalcore scene.
OF MICE & MEN went on to dominate the decade, releasing “The Flood” (2011) and “Restoring Force” (2014), the latter of which charted Top 5 in the U.S. Overall, the band has gone on to sell over a million albums worldwide across their expansive catalog and has amassed over half a billion streams across DSPs. They’ve tallied over 200 million YouTube streams and over five million social media followers.
OF MICE & MEN has toured internationally for over a decade, sharing stages with the likes of LINKIN PARK, SLIPKNOT, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH and BRING ME THE HORIZON, while appearing at major festivals globally.
Singer Austin Carlile left OF MICE & MEN in 2016 due to his ongoing battle with Marfan syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that afflicts the connective tissue holding the body’s cells, organs and tissue together.
Carlile originally exited OF MICE & MEN in 2010 after his doctor forbade him from touring to undergo heart surgery tied to complications with Marfan Syndrome. He returned in 2011, but his ailments didn’t cease, forcing him to depart the band for the second, and presumably final, time five years ago.
