Defenders Of The Faith

"We don't like mucking around with subgenres, or trying to label our music this style or that style – we're just a metal band – and that's it.”

Recoil VOR's Wade McKay's attitude to the metal scene's need to categorise and safely store every band in its ranks is admirable. He's even polite enough to gently palm off The Music's suggestion that Sleep For The Masses, their solid second release, sounds like “In Flames meets Pantera with a touch of Killswitch Engage thrown in”.

“All those bands you mention are great bands, and we grew up listening to them. But again we don't want to limit ourselves and we just prefer the simple term metal because it encompasses a wider range of styles and doesn't box the band in creatively.”

Although not big on labels McKay is rightly very proud of Sleep For The Masses, an unrelenting jackhammer to the cranium: riff-heavy, groovy and technical without being histrionic or pretentious.

“We kept our heavy roots while at the same time progressing as a band and as musicians. We've always had a range of influences and when we were writing this material we wanted to expand what we were doing and not repeat what we did on our demo and the first record. We were a little worried people might not grasp what we were trying to do but the response so far to the new songs has been overwhelming and we're really happy with how the album came out.”

That Recoil VOR have made it this far is testament to their determination. They had to modify their name after finding out Recoil was in use elsewhere. And of course, being based in Australia means they face a range of obstacles their metallic brethren in Europe and North America don't. “It can be frustrating trying to survive as a metal band in Australia. For example, when an international band tours they often sell out large venues. But when you have a bill full of local bands sometimes you look around and wonder where everyone has gone! But we love what we do and we're not going to whinge about it. I really believe that the Australian metal scene is strong and has a lot to offer – and we're prepared to stick with it. Yeah there have been shows we thought would be awesome and people don't turn up – but then again we've done shows that we thought would be quiet and they've turned out to be huge. It's always worth it for us.”

So Recoil VOR have never thought of following the likes of Destroyer 666 or even Airbourne overseas? “Look we have thought about it. Australia is a small place and probably can't absorb the range of styles and bands out there in the same way as say Europe. But when it comes down to it we're rooted here in Australia – I wouldn't rule it out completely, and we have shopped our music around the world – but right now we're concentrating on here.”