"Bluntly, 'neath doesn't belong in Australia, and neither does any other serious band, regardless of genre. As a nation we're more interested in the pointless meanderings of drug abusing sports failures and America's spoilt brats."

Having to go overseas to get your music easily available in Australia is an all-too-familiar story for a lot of people. Vanishing Point and Black Majesty both had to shop their music in Europe before they were able to convince anyone to take them seriously, but Potts says that he may have to go one step further.

"We have our short and long-term goals established. Relocating overseas is not out of the question."

'neath have been plying their progressive death metal trade within Brisbane for a number of years, and are now considered among the primary examples of the new school of progressive metal to come out of the Sunshine state.

And despite his frustration with Australia, he still believes that some bands have flourished in the midst of these tough circumstances, especially in his home town.

"The Brisbane metal scene is in a healthy space at the moment I believe. We have a handful of really good bands here that are fresh to the scene and have helped bring it back from what was, in my opinion, a very barren period in Brisbane metal creatively.

"Australia? Who knows? You really have to go digging for good stuff, but it's definitely there. Australia's underground is making ripples internationally - Alchemist, Portal, Gospel of the Horns, The Berzerker - setting a good precedent for the rest of us to follow."

'neath's contribution to the canon of Australian music so far is the self-released The Spiders Sleep, a five-track journey of progressive death metal which sounds like it was recorded in a world class studio by one of the biggest, richest metal bands in the world, not a bunch of guys from Brisbane with precious little studio time.

Getting it to that standard was obviously a hard slog, as Potts explains.

"Everything at our level is almost entirely self-financed. That means three takes of everything at best in the studio. Most of the embellishments were done at home which gave us more time. Vocally, I think I got two or four takes. I don't fully remember. It was quite strenuous, late at night, screaming for three hours straight and having to keep it disciplined to make sure I was putting down quality material. No different for drums, except that for vocals I could still do some stuff at home later. For drums it's basically one day to get the whole album down.

"Half of the guitars were done in the studio time as well, with the resulting product being technically sub-standard for the price and name of the engineer we paid for, to put it very politely. Luckily our producer Kosta [Lagis] is nothing short of a wizard and managed to hide it well, but long hours were dedicated."

The result is an album had such a profound effect on me that I almost tripped over my own hyperbole in reviewing it for OzProg, but there was one major problem with it from the band's perspective:

"We found that initially when we played the original recording backwards, due to a synchronicity problem, it was paying homage to Stan instead of Satan. We had to fix that up naturally."

When asked to describe his band's sound to those who haven't heard it, Potts' response is devoid of the usual bravado encountered in metal musicians:

"Early material … had the heavy grunge sort of sound but gradually more influence was taken from European death metal. Opeth is the obvious influence and we're also likened to Katatonia, My Dying Bride and Devin Townsend at times.

"I hate hearing about bands who are calling themselves unique when they're obviously not. I think that is an honest account of what influences our sound. Ultimately we'll sound different to each individual. We want to sound metal above all else. We don't really want people accusing us of jazz influences or any such rubbish."

As the band's singer and lyricist in addition to playing keyboards, Potts has a central role in both sides of 'neath's material, musically and lyrically. But he explains that he normally doesn't get involved until later in the process.

"It's quite ironic but what I add to the music [as a keyboardist] is often the very last thing but can also be the most prevalent. Possibly because we're not a keyboard-driven band, so when we do use it, it has a noticeable presence.

"Sometimes I have preconceived ideas [for lyrics], or just random ideas that I'd like to incorporate into a new song, but generally at the time of writing I start anew. The core of the band - guitars, bass and drums - usually has most of the song down before I have my input."

That lyrical input is some ornate, poetic and challenging word-smithery. "Winter" becomes "post-Autumn bleak", "her antiquated sovereignty is long departed" is one of the less ornate lines in "The Silk-Laden Whore", and extra syllables abound. But surprisingly, Potts does not have a background in writing or poetry, and indeed struggled with the English language for a long time.

"I was actually lousy in high-school English. I could never meet the word length of the assignments and never came up with anything of much substance. I had a couple of really good English teachers in my senior years though and whatever they were saying must have stuck in my head because it all clicked eventually.

"I am fascinated by language and its origin. I remember being told once that writers for the Courier Mail are told to write at the level of an 11 year old. It shits me to hear poor expressions of our language and I feel saddened that some very beautiful words fall by the wayside, so I try to learn new words and work them into the lyrics, context and rhythm permitting.

"I think in metal lyrics generally too there are too many clichés. Some better executed than others, but I try to come up with something better than 'I hate this, I hate that, kill, fucking kill, die mummy die!' Even if that's what I want to say, I look for a better way to say it."

With the debut album finally born and kicked out of the nest, Potts is happy to see the back of songs that had been gestating for a long time.

"Most had been refined on stage over the course of dozens of gigs. By the time they were recorded, they hadn't changed in months and whilst that's not necessarily a bad thing it makes promoting the album harder because we're tired of the songs."

Album number two will be different, he explains.

"Next time we want to get underway with recording while the material is fresh and still impressionable. Hearing it finished will be a new listening experience even to us."

The Spiders Sleep is available from the Obsidian Records website or at 'neath gigs.