Rural Western Australian band, Refractory Road, release their timeless rock album, Days That Define, bursting with old school Aussie hymns.
There is nothing more Australian than the smell of beer on the sticky wooden floor and a sweaty guitar riff grumbling the bones of a pub. Refractory Road amplify this tune with their new album Days That Define.
The grungy, highly anticipated second album was recorded at RADA studios with Matt Gio and Dan Carroll and is dedicated by the five-piece group to the extended community of Wheatbelt, WA.
Days That Define simply saturates listeners with the nostalgia of a rural rock age that was thought to have been buried under dust. Refractory Road, rattle the soul with their all-consuming harmonies and moving rock rhythms. The groups sharp sound slices through the timeline of the genre they’re exploding, dripping with influences from the greats such as Cold Chisel, Chuck Berry and Billy Joel.
The album kicks off with Not On Demand, a tune that ruptures the speakers and paints the clash of a mosh pit with colour-bursting ease. The hard-hitting vocals and crisp tune bellow in the tapping of the feet as the lyrics ring; “I’m gonna sit down wind and get a bit of clear sight”. The harmonies spark the nerves like cold beer dripping down the spine.
Reject the Trigger follows the groundbreaking introduction, hard-hitting on the tragedies of unexpected suicide. Refractory Road simple rumble you to the core as the words echo; “God give us one more chance/To help shake those chains that bind”. It becomes unavoidably clear that the group have harnessed a transcendent sound, coasting their audience into an infatuating, hypnotic trance.
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The swirls Days That Define spins is utterly fantastic. Each track telling an intimate and confronting story through lyrics like “The first time that he ever raised his hand/she wouldn’t look at him for days” in To Her Knees. The stories are told through harmonic echoes of Bonnie Vale Flyer, and Kergeulen – a track about the first person born in Antarctica who ironically died of thirst in Western Australia. The group is simply spectacular in their timeless rock n’ roll sound, their vibrating guitar riff and rupturing drums – Refractory Road explodes in colour, surpassing any genre or time.
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Twenty Six Hundred (a track about turning 50), reinforces Refractory Roads’ capturing of a rural Aussie sound, putting on one hell of a show. Without even watching the band live, you can already feel the bellow of the punching vocals and the hustle of the harmonica.
On The Rocks Tonight tunefully sets the sun on the rural Aussie album, drawing you to the likings of Piano Man by Billy Joel. Whatever way you spin it, Day That Define is an album that Aussies can proudly magnify, transcendent of time and genre, moving even in the darkest corners of the country.
You can catch Refractory Road perform their incredible album at Northams’s Riverside Hotel on Saturday, May 1 and check out their album below, but not without a cold beer in your hand:
