Four albums into their career, White Reaper is really etching a place for itself in the contemporary rock scene.
The Louisville-based band can be best described as garage glam/punk, if that makes sense. There’s a specific energy to the band’s songs, one that calls to mind Irish glam/rock greats Thin Lizzy as much as it does the thrashy sentiments of early Metallica.
White Reaper unleashed the band’s latest album, “Asking For a Ride”, its second major-label release, on Elektra Records. It begins with the ripping title track:
Recorded and largely self-produced in Nashville with the help of close friend and engineer Jeremy Ferguson, “Asking for a Ride” finds the Louisville band taking a more direct and in-your-face approach, prioritizing the collection’s raw energy and its ability to translate live through ripping and nervy compositions. It’s White Reaper at their most exciting – dialing up the chrome-plated riffs and monster hooks – a welcome reminder of just how much fun rock music can be.
“We ask ourselves: ‘Does it sound good when we play it in the room together?’ And if it does, those are the songs we want to pursue,” Esposito noted.
Guitarist Hunter Thompson concurred: “We started to recognize how we operate best as a band.”
“Fog Machine” was a pre-release track shared ahead of the album, and it’s a crystallized version of White Reaper’s whole aesthetic (and some of those Thin Lizzy-esque riffs): prioritizing the collection’s raw energy and its ability to translate live through ripping and nervy compositions. It’s White Reaper at their most exciting – dialling up the chrome-plated riffs and monster hooks – a welcome reminder of just how much fun rock music can be.
“Pages,” the first song shared from “Asking for a Ride”, reached the Top 20 at Alternative radio upon its release, and exemplifies the band’s ability to slow down and embrace some killer melodies:
The Fat Angel Sings 