Biography
Rifles at Recess chose Whisper in Tongues as the title for their debut album, an ironic selection given that the Tennessee group’s output delivers crushing volume rather than restraint. Their sound merges death metal and black metal with hardcore, metalcore, and thrash metal influences, resulting in unrelenting, sledgehammer-driven intensity. Robb Johnson handles lead vocals by alternating between metalcore screams and the visceral, satanic growls common to death metal, black metal, and grindcore, rejecting any hint of subtlety in either mode. The band further distinguishes itself through constant tempo shifts, moving fluidly among fast, slow, and medium paces inside a single song instead of maintaining the nonstop ultra-fast attack favored by some death metal acts. Members have explained that the name Rifles at Recess is not intended to glorify violence or ridicule incidents such as the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, but instead comments on the broader dysfunction of American society in the early 2000s. Robb Johnson and guitarist Chad Hughes formed the band in August 2001 in Dayton, Tennessee—not Dayton, Ohio—after playing together in the Tennessee group Shimron Meron from 1999 to 2001. Early lineup instability followed, with the band cycling through one bassist and four drummers during the initial years of the decade. The 2003 five-member roster consisted of Johnson and Hughes plus guitarist Chris Dotson, bassist Michael “Gordo” Gordon, and drummer Andrew Hall. Their earliest recording, the four-song demo The Art of Flying Without Sky, appeared in 2002. Tribunal Records, the Greensboro, South Carolina metal-oriented label, signed them the next year, and the resulting full-length Whisper in Tongues was produced by Jamie King, whose credits include Electric Wizard, Prayer for Cleansing, Aria, Bloodjinn, Between the Buried and Me, and numerous other metal and hardcore acts.
Albums