Sounds of War

Derek Forde | Guitar

Josh Nemec | Drums

Les Ohlhauser | Guitar, Vocals

Mark Ruley | Bass

Sounds of War has been bringing its intense sounds to the Cedar Rapids area for two years. Coming from bands such as Filth Grinder, Departed, Detachment and Furious Jebediah, its music is full of exciting dynamics, played with razor sharp execution.

During a break in the ferocious metal storm, Hoopla caught up with Sounds of War to learn a little more.

When we started thinking about band names, we needed something aggressive sounding. This led us down the road of all things militant. I mean, what’s more aggressive than military might? Not many things. Combine that with something about a band and there you have it: Sounds Of War.

How did you guys get together?

Les, Josh, and Mark have known each other for a long time. Les and Derek have known each other for a long time. Now we will make metal for a long time. We will not, however, love you long time.

You write your own music, don’t you?

While we sneak in the occasional cover, we do in fact mainly perform original material.

Describe the energy that the audience will see on stage?

I don’t really know what kind of energy the crowd will see, but I do know they’ll see four dudes putting everything they’ve got into playing music they love.

What places are you playing these days?

Been mostly playing in bars around Cedar Rapids. Anywhere that lets us be the metal goons that we are. There aren’t really many places in town for original music, but for metal you gotta give it to Tornado’s. Every show we play there goes down exactly as planned, and the owner and staff are dang swell to work with. This year will see us hopefully getting out to Iowa City, Waterloo, etc.

Are you doing any recording?

We’re mainly in the writing process right now. The new material is crazier and more out there than the first batch of songs. The next step is getting enough new songs to record again and to branch out to new cities.