Remains of Jade polish sound, ready to shine

July 26, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

You can’t judge a book by its cover but apparently you can judge a band by its name. Or at least that’s what veteran Youngstown-area group Oral found out over the past few years as one door of opportunity after another closed.

The simple solution for the rock trio of Mike Chomos (bass), Stephen Paul (vocals/guitar) and Bill Werner (drummer) was a name change, which came last year.

Meet Remains of Jade.

“We changed the name for marketing purposes, just to have a new fresh start on things,” said Chomos, a 1992 Brookfield High School graduate. “Plus the fact that if you put Oral in Google, well, you can just do the math there.”

The threesome feels as though it’s on the right path, with the act releasing its third studio effort and first under the moniker Remains of Jade. The album is called “Life in Denial” and it includes the Kid Rock-sounding “Sweet Whiskey” and pop-metal “All I Wanted.”

“It’s a very high-driven guitar sound,” Chomos said. “It’s groove-oriented, yet very marketable and very mainstream but yet stays true to the metal rock genre and is a lot more intricate. We’ve upped the ante on the sound. We stay within our realm of what Oral’s direction was but it’s just a lot better quality, better writing.”

Chomos said that the album title mirrors the fact the band was in denial for a long time about how having a group name like Oral was detrimental to its career. Now, the tides have apparently turned for the band, which cites influences such as Kid Rock, Tool and Buckcherry.

There’s even buzz surrounding the group. Not only is the aforementioned “Sweet Whiskey” in the running for a new Dodge Dart commercial, but rumor has it major label players will be in attendance at the band’s CD release show Saturday at Sammy’s Great American Bar in Austintown.

“We’re poised to do something,” Chomos said. “I say we’re looking to go on a major tour. We do have a national manager that’s behind us that’s worked with some big acts throughout the years. He’s putting us in with a major pool of people right now.”

In the past Oral opened for the likes of Filter, Puddle of Mudd and Saving Abel, but Chomos feels this is different.

“This is a good thing,” Chomos said. “Sometimes you have to make a change for things to move forward.”